A SONG OF FRESH AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11535, 21 November 1900, Page 3

A SONG OF FRESH AIR.

I CAN feel it rushing fast down both my! ears, I am choking with its kiss upon my face, I'm in love with life and lost to all my fears Closely folded in this glorious embrace. For I loved it with the passion children know When it swung me night and day across the deep How it tossed the toppling billows into snow. How it King the splendid tropic day to sleep. And I loved it where I stood upon the shore. Where it bowled the bellowing ocean up the sands, While my joyous laugh died mingled with its roar And its thunder' mocked the clapping of my hands. And I loved it where it drifted thro' my hair And dyed my cheek with girlhood's eager blood; I have longed for wings that I might sail the air And go swimming through the tree-topj where they stood. I have loved it where it sank into ray soul, Freighted with the sweets the flowers have won from heaven, By the grand high noons, or when the moonlight stole Down the mountain, with the dreams that are life's leaven. I have blessed it where it raised my drooping powers With the vision of a far-away delight; A lost zephyr straying townwards from its bowers To administer the memory of delight. I have waited for its gentle mother touch Stealing round me when tho long, hard day lay dead: It has reached me where Earth's pain seemed all too much, And has uttered what no other could have said. I have loved it, I know not how long ago: I shall love it when Heaven's harpers, harp« ing clear, Fill its rivers till they burst and overflow With the harmony divine that brings the tear. Oh! its " sound of gentle stillness" for Life's gloom And its thunder for our hours of conscious strength. Both, and all that lies between, till we are come To tho land of its supremacy at length. ANNIE BBOWN. Grafton Eoad, November, 1900.