Selected Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 31

Selected Poetry.

HARVEST TIME.

Wo sing of fields when harvest yields Its bright and golden sheaves, And sun and rain have filled with grain

The barn from floor to eaves, And new mown hay, all night and day, Its scented fragrance leaves. Tho early dews, the drowsy ewes, Tho call of chanticleer, The sloopy ttock, the grain in sheck, The thiesher and its gear, The waving corn, all greet the morn ;

'Tis harvest of the year. Tho breikfast call, to one and all ;

The viands spread with care, Tbe uttered grace, each in his place, Pai takes the housewife's faro, And man and benst, at plenty's feast,

Its gathered bounties share. The bearded men to labour then,

With brawn and horny hands ; The cradle swings, the reaper sings, All through the well tilled lands, And keeping tune, till sultry noon They bind the grain with bands. Thoy seek the shade of friendly glado, And swift the moments fly ; Fiud sweet repose, as stream that flows, Or sailing clouds on bigh, And bear the breeze among the trees

Sweep softer than a sigh. Oh ! harvest day?, we sing thy praise, From hills to river' m shore ! For field and tree, for blcom and bee, And fdtne3s running o'er ! For tassfled com, for uight and morn, And God we bow before ! Joseph G. Waters.