THE SUICIDE OF JUDAS. Select Poetry. THE SUICIDE OF JUDAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 608, 25 July 1863, Page 7

THE SUICIDE OF JUDAS.

Select Poetry.

Forth from the city walks the desolate man, Leaving behind him all that vast commotion And popular chunou*-, gathered in the streets By his awn deed and scheming that same dawn. Oh ! were the morning back, the calm clear morn-

ing. The streets unfilled aud all again to do! Forth still he walks, and Rains the desert fields, And climbs their stony fences without aim, Sole moving figure under a hot sun. And, as he moves and walks, the hot sun. toa Forsakes the zenith ; an-J for tlnee whole fcoura A <!ar*neas as of doo-n. hung o'er the land. Within the city then the imnamel horror * field its huge course, the while without it moved, Groping across the fields, that desolate man. And as the darkness passei away, he issued Out on marshy ground where high reeds grew, Bending their heads amid ioine siimy pools. A ruined hub stood near; its door unhinged, Its thatoh half torn away, its rafters loose, And in its ragged wiudow two crossed bars,, Into this hut the haggar.l outcast reeled,. And, as lie passed, the bitigelesa door fell in. Then over all the place there crept a mist ; A sultry shudder seemed to shake the reeds ; Yet in all the srillness nothing breathed. Sudden from round the gable of the hut Slow stalked with hideous gait the water-bird Inng-legged and large, which, making for the pools, Stooped down its cvane-like neck amid the reeds. Then, at that iustaufc, from the hut there came A sound of something falling, and a shriek ; And ell beneath the rafters ani the thatch. Two human arms swung round aud round like flails. The uii'sfc crept on, Aud vapoury evening gathere 1 o'er the pools ; The obscene bird still stood among the reeds; And there within the hut the dead man lay. Macmillcvn*3 Magazine for August.