POETRY OLD AND NEW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14220, 17 November 1909, Page 9

POETRY OLD AND NEW.

VANITAS VANITATUM.

This is the end of all my strife. • Sunshine and cloud, bitter and sweet, The goal- to which with patient feet I struggled blindly on.through life. For this I toiled, for this endured , The* burden and the stress of years; For this.l brushed aside with tears . All that the narrow path obscured. '•

Just to lie in this lowly spot, « A little moind but. showing where, . The earth has been disturbed, and. ere The grass is grown to be forgot. . ; < HAJAD, in the Daily Chronicle.

, - - t> SONNET. .. '" " ' " When age comes by and lays his frosty !■■•'.■..■'-"/hands ■''''< ■■■'.'• -^A '■■>: ; So lightly on mine eyes that, scarce aware ; Of what an" endless weight of gloom they bear, ■ '' ' ''• . - .• I pause, unstirred, and wait • for his * coin-' , mands. '''■.■'"';' .'•-■• ■When* time has bound these limbs of mine with bands ,- "' - And hushed mine ears, and silvered all my ■ hair, . ;"!:■'"■ :••■ . '■-■'- ;■■■-. Mav sorrow come not, nor a vain despair, Trouble my soul- that meekly girdled stands.

As silent rivers into silent lakes. *' "■ " 'inrough hush of reeds that not a murmur breaks, -.'■ • : ""'- <<i- ■.> v ..•""•>*>,■. W.ind, mindful of the ; poppies whence they " came, - ■ > •'•• : -''. ■ ."* . So may my life* and>cahnlv burn away. v ; As ceases in a" lamp at break ,of day '. , .-,' The flagrant remnant of memorial flame. '*; ■■•■ ' ;.; ,;.. ■■■'•■ '.'/; ; EDMUND GOSSE."

.' RETROSPECTS ,'. 7■> ■'.'•.•:'<■•;. ■: : ."' ■■'■•'' '' * ■'■"■ . 'v. ' ;: - There is a, pleasure in the backward drift , Of meditating .mind; To draw the veil, of years and through the -/■::■ rift ■ ■ ■>■'■■ •*--;*••'■ '■ i£ ' ' • • '-;. 'Behold the <scene behind. N' ' '

For oft I have unwound'the tangled skein : Of ravelled yesterdays. : ' 7' . , '• ;' Garnered old harvests, sailed old seas again, And travelled olden ways. \i,.v<\ yi, And ah, the things that' were; and are ho, ■ A - more \ „ '< -l *■'■"'•',„ ' ' . -' Are fairer.. looking hack: H ' . 7 ' . j And memory giveth to the days of yore. .. i What, then they seemed to lack. ." j Dear is the rose that on the garden's breast This morn hath, caused to wake, , - .■ ] But dearer is the withered rose wo pressed ■ And kept for old time's sake.' %;.....; ."•.'•: '•'..,;," ■ William F. mccormack. 7

~' THE BETTER WAY. ' ."\„. It is better to' work than to ..waste the full measure Of days that are fraught* with a chance to do ■ '.." good; ' •-"'; '';■' '"",i-' '' ~ -^ No matter what failure, 'tis better to treasure,. The life that we have, . though but half under- ■ > stood. ■ 7:7;-■ ' ' ■.-•■ ■■■':■", ( '•'... :.-'•. ' -■■'. ■ . ■-■: \ '■-''■;.■ ' - V<l"- ,j' •"' '.■'..#■ It is better to hope, though the answer come • - never, . v . • -. : ~"-T'"'■■.'■ • .Than to spend the glad time in a gloomy .; despair;- X-' ■'..'. ~.<'■■<■ ' '•"' '.*y "■'"' No matter what failure shall come to endeavour, Each life is made brighter as onward we fare. It is better to trust, though a firm, strong i conviction . . Can never allay all our doubts and our fears; No matter what "failure, what deep dereliction. The life without faith is the one that hath ; tears. 't; '*_. '.' ",; ';'-, : ■'"' ■'/"*', ' ■• •It is better to love, though it never returneth, . Than let the'warm heart grow impassive and ( .. '■■ cold; ''■ ': - ' No matter ...what failure, the soul that ttill '< '-'■-. burnetii ... "'..--' , ■ ,7 Shall watch with complacence life's losses grow ■■■'.'• old. k'L •■;.•■>.. ■ "'• •'• .''"-'v- •. ■.-;'„'; • '..,' Charles W. Stevenson. v . • • . ■ — THE DREAM OF THE ALABAMA. 7 (Written for -the Raphael Semmes'-: Cen- ,, 7'. : ; -'■':. ■ 7- ' : *7 ; *7,' tenary.) . :V ,'.. • i'~\ ; ; : ■• ""'•' '■'- "What spirit stirs 'neath her sunless keel, And wakes in her, silent shrouds— * ;■ .:'.'', Oh. Hearts of Oak with the grip' of steel? v .'. Oh. waß it the passing clouds? '~ , She has lain so long by a foreign shore, ; With never a watch on deck ; v ; With her sunken bells sounding o'er and o er To the dead men in her wreck. ~-V. - And the tides Jsweep over her mizzeA-mast. Through the sails that the channels laved; And the seaweed' clings to the thing-of the "past. - .. *" : ' • <■' * ■■"■". r Where the stars and the bars once waved. But. Hearts of Oak, with the grip- steel, Wherever ye are, what reck? 'For the spirit of chivalry stirs the keel, And truth treads the quartor-deck. Full twenty fathoms below, she lies; ' But she wakes to-night from the dead; Through her ghostly'rigging the. night wind . flies— ' '."':' ~,, .Or was'it a 1 cloud that sped? . ... Yea, come from your graves,, ye tars that ~ have shared ■ ' ' ; , 'Her glory, her anguish, her pain! ..- For the mystical moment of,time is bared, And she sweeps the ocean again! Nor port, nor harbour.'; nor home is hers, As she breaks from her silent lair; > But the mighty heart of the great South . l - -Stirs, • ' :;--■■ ;, ' . For the spirit of Semmes' is ; there. : Yea, corsair or viking, pirate or king? Let History, answering, speak! : ' . ; For out of the years shall her record ring, While honour stands at her peak! The day breaks soon, and the night winds — sleep. -..v.; -. ■- ;,'*;■'' And the moon' goes down, blood red; • The mists of the vears have veiled the deep, And shrouded the deathless dead. - For the night is done, and the mellowed age > Of the past breathes out its tone; But' the truth of History holds its page. _ Though the sea takes back its own! r . , 7 ; VIRGINIA FRAZER BOYLE. ;7 '-» ■