THE OLO CLOCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 41

THE OLO CLOCK.

As in my old armchair I sit I mark the clock's loud beating, With heart that would forget — forget How swiftly time is fleeting. Of all who heard its busy tongue

I think, with inward shiver, How some s.re dead and some have fled —

Ah! God akne knows whither i Beat o:i, beat on, thou charmed clock,

And toll my childhood's story; The long-closed doers of Time unlock,

Life's happy mom reetore me. Give me to bear my mother's voice,

To feel her sweet caressin§, And bid my heart once more rejoice

Beneath a father's blessing. But po/tly, softly, gently clock,

For, sea, within my chamber A little fay has come to play,

Ar.d on my knee to clamber. Two tiny arms my bosom span,

Two lips for kisses b'.Ule; A voice — what tme of living man Caii 1 stir me like its prattle? Beat on, beat on, thou haunted clock,

Though sorrows IHcken o'er me, For lo! my Iranced eye to mock,

My brother stands before me. Ah, no! 'tis but his shade I see,

And minutes vainly flee on ; Poor sailor iad, his bones are laid

At burning Sierra Leone! Kemorrfzlws Time! how solemn wave

Thy gloomy wings rbove me! Couldst thou not spare her golden hair,

My gentle wife to lo^e me? Couldst then not leave me one (o bind

The streaming wounds of sorrow? Shall I no balm or comfort find

Today, nor jet to-morrow ? Beat on, beat on, thou charmed clock,

Thy time that's never ended! > While to my brain s-trange fancies flock,

But dimly comprehended ; While living, dead, and things unknown

I view in wild confusion, Thy voice of earnest, solemn tone

Gives life to my delusion. Juno, IS9S. H. J. B,