Selected Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 1422, 22 February 1879, Page 21

Selected Poetry.

INTIMATION.

By Richard Kealf.

All around us lie the a-wful sacredness Of babes and cradles, graves and hoary hairs, Of youthful laughters and manly cares, Of moaning sighs and passiouate caresses, Of infinite ascension of the soul, And gnawing hungers of the heavy flesh, Of cot tage virtues and the solemn roll Of populous cities' thunder, and the fresh Warm faith of childhood, sweet as mignonette Among doubt's bitter herbage, and the dear Ec-glimpses of the earliest stars that set Down the blue skies of our lost wonder-sphere, And ull the conseciations and delights Woven in the texture of the days and nights. The daily miracle of life goes on Within our chambers, at our household hearths, In sober duties and in jocund mirths, In all the unquiet hopes and fears tint run Out of our hearts along the edges of The terrible abyssss ; in the calms Of friendship, in the ecstacies of love, In burial dirges and iv marriage psalms ; in all the far, weird voices that wo hear, In all the mystic visions we behold, In our soul's summers when the days are clear, And in our winters when the nights are cold, And in the subtle secrets of our breath, And that annunciation men call death. 0 earth, thou hast not any wind that blows Which is not music ; every weed, of thine, Pressed rightly, flows iv aromatic wine ; And every humble hedgerow flower that grows, And every little brown bird that doth sing, Hath something greater than itself, aud bears A living word to every living thing, Albeit it holds the message unawares. All shapes and sounds have something which, is not Of them j a spirit walks amid the grass, Vague outlines of the everlasting thought Melt in the mellow shadows as they pass, The touch of an eternal presence thrills The tranquil sunset and brooding hills. Forever, through the world's material forms God shoots His immaterial. Night and day Apocalyptic intimations stray Down the dark lanes of matter ; viewless arms Lean lovingly toward us,from the air, There is a breathing marvel in the sea.