TWO SONNETS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2295, 24 February 1898, Page 41

TWO SONNETS.

Whither? When to the quiet valleys of deep thought My soul, retiring, stiives to pierce the gloom Bevoni the cold giay portals of the tomb, And ponders o'er that awful problem fiaught With matter weightier than all lore hath taught — ' Whether mankind shall bhare th' apparent ,■ dot m Of all things animate, or from Death's dark worn b Spring to immortal being in God's Court: When I consider that a span of years May bring sure knowledge or seal up the fount — Bling life eterne or whelm me in the past, Then am I lost on v/aves of hopes and fears That Rea on vainly struggles to surmount— Lost on a sea of wonder dim and vast! Ambition. Ay, we may climb, but never, never near Our wishes' topmost height shall we attain ! O'er the rough stones of care, the thoins of pain, May urge cur lorely way, with many a tear Dewing the craggy steep, but ne'er tho clear, The whits and shining summit shall we g.iin, Though achiti!> limbs and eager heart and brain Strain every fibie ii the vain career. AW ! when aU i-- done and one hath trod A little higher than his fellow men, And, looki g upward, the betraying light Gleams on his face, that lured him from the glen. Then from'his eyrie Death, dark bird of God, Swoops down and hurls him from the fatal i height. | —H. J. B. '