SOMETIMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1952, 23 July 1891, Page 37

SOMETIMES.

Sometimes when through the glass the pale dawn htsitatet— Whether to burst her calyx, or to hide Her maiden glow upon the brrnut of night.— Sometimes, nay, then, perhaps, do you not f«el The touch of blight upon the rose, The rust upon the steel ? Sometimes when, from the shadow of your enforced

hermitage, A seared and t a veiled world grows perfect in your

brain, Beyond the grey toned sameness of life's stretch of

wall; If hen you alone seem crushed, forgot by heaven, Life's spiritless faith in that same heaven a sacrli lege, Death waving life aside, to form a lighter pall,— Sometimes, just then, — death seems too far apart From life, frail cankered life, and that life's all. Sometimes, that time when the angels oloae the

shutters, Xet pause unfinished still to view our half -lit world, And mourn o'er us in unsophisticated tears, Fanning the harsher light with gold flushed wings, Dashing a shaft of onyx o'er >i breaoh of pearl, The soft air pregnant with the grief they feel, Tet darkening, as with wavering wings they bring A sigh of cbaitity, far wafted, from their world,— Even then, when death, and birth are robed in

unison, Doth not the taper wane ? has not death pressed Her mould-stained lips upon the flag still furled ? Sometimes, all times, when, the spirit torn with

fighting, Crushes with faver - strength against the pliant

shell, Shattering the glorious lining of fch« olay-bound soul, Again retouched, and paved with adamant, Like the pale steel a master hand might weld, But by a grosiertouoh, marred * n the tempering. When, then, ah I then, we scan the frail, seared

rolls Life seems not worth the glory of its entering. — Muti. '

Otautau, July 13.