Original Poetry.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 49, 19 June 1858, Page 4

Original Poetry.

THE WAND OF LIGHT. One summer noon, a sad-eyed man — to whom Life's road from youth had lain through grief and gloom, And every milestone was a loved one's tomb — Wander'd a- field, if haply he might find, Sung in the brook, or breathed upon the wind, Some message from the souls for whom he pined ; But, when he found no music in the rill, Sun, dwindled to a thread, and each leaf still ; J " See," moaned he, " to tho sick all goeth ill !" And, hiding his wet face in the deep grass, He pray'd life's chalice from his lips might pass, And his last grain of sand fall through the glass. Then, as ho rose, through ferns that strove to hide, Hedged in by weeds, a wild flower he espied Bent earthward by a dew-drop : so he cried : " Frail bloom, that weepest in thy hidden upok Alone, like Sorrow by the world forsook, All the day long no sun on thee can look !" But, wliile he spake, a little wand of light Pass'd through the leaves, making all faery-bright, And what had seemed a tear to his dull sight Was now a tiny rainbow in a cup Of thinnest silver, whence the beam did sup, And by degrees the flower was lifted up •, And seem'd to follow with a wistful eye A little drift of mist into the sky, Rising to join tho clouds that floated by : Perchance, ere close of clay, to fall in rain And help some seaward stream, or thirsty plain : Perchance to trickle down some window-pane Whore a sick child doth watch, and so beguile Tho pain-drawn lips to curve into a smile, And brighten its dull eyes a little while. And seeing all that one small drop might do, He felt why cloister'd thus the blossom grew, And why so late it wore the morning dew ; And, with a lighter heart, he went his way, Trusting, at God's own time, some golden ray Would gleam on him, and turn his dark to day. — Dickens' Household Words.