FREEDOM,

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 79

FREEDOM,

"What joyous things," he said, "ar.* those larks in the spring sun ! Do you' know* that pathetic story oi the ' lark and Oi the man freed from the Bastiil" during the Trench Revolution? As hecams from prison, someone took pity on him, and gave liim a lew sous. Passing down the street he saw a lark in a cage ; and the man, irKohad been in -prison many years, conld not- bear the sight of the int- • bird. With. Ms fevr poor sous liftbought it. and 'set it jfree. - The lark shift •up to lieaven, singing a= jubilant song of trinmph,but tfie =next moment had dropped dead -at the man's feet — dead, "with excess of -joy/ 2s T ote in Tennyson's "Memoir," -p. -407. ~- . - % . v ! fresh from "the cage ; ■ . Prisoner!. faint in the sun,. - Freedom .thy boon and thy wage, Only this ' moment begun : liook round th.ce — a. bixft in. a cag« Challenges atl tllat thoti art; Pity that prompted the -sage Move 3in thy desolate heartr Pass ,on. the joy— it is thine ! Out of thy fulness set iree; Brighter the sun shaJl outshine For the bird that is frying to the*. last to the song of Uie lark! Jubilant, sweet to excess, Xifldiug life's exquisite spark, Farewelling thisjwide- wL:S'erness. .Prir=eely, O beggar, thy part: - - ." Thine -was- a bounteous dote "Wrung from sorrow and To be spilled in a breaking bowl! liibation, unwanted and pure, Tfcough it sink on a hungry earth, - In dew-like essence shall still endure, As the " skies which gave it birth. libation, umvasfed and pure, Though' it sink on a hungry earth, In dew-like^essence shall still endure, .As the skies -which gaire it birth. JOTCE- JOCELTN. , Auckland, December 19, 1904.