PROTIST AND REPLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 67

PROTIST AND REPLY.

© Lady, the empurpled hills are proud. Ah! 'tis a long, long year ago to-day, And yet how soon the seasons glide away. Slow from the range drifts off the darksome cloud ; The swollen torrents in the glens are loud. In the vast solitude I yearn and pray, And wait and hope. Oh, turn not quite away, Or sevenfold gloom my lonely path will shroud. liong as the silent stars burn on serene, Long as the moon doth beautify the night, My spirit Avill thrill to thine, my own, niy queen, And, oh, the past is blessed, pure and bright. Darkness descendeth on the wild, the stream . Lulleth the lonely valley of niy dream. "Ah! if you loved me truly you would hide Such sacred mystery within your spirit, And win by silence and the undoubted merit Of your own manhood. Others have loved and died, Silent, heroic. Theirs was noble pride. Before you hope to win the crown or wear it, _Take up the cross, in patient silence boar it. Ko blatant creature wins a real bride. Turn not for sympathy to other souls, But stand serene, complete within yourself. Age after age the lonely ocean rolls With solemn thunder on the rocky shelf — The moon, the sun, the stars burn on alone — Your human weakness maketh coward moan." Maybe, dear friend. Where the ferny hills Are dingy under leagues of driven cloud, And swollen torrents in the glens are loud, To thins with ecstacy my spirit thrills, And if thy woman sweetness dooms or wills My spirit to solitude, I am also proud And free to utter what I will aloud. True sorrow exalts, ennobles — never kills. I turn for sympathy to the Over Soul — I stand secure, complete, sublime in Him. Niehtly the ocean to the moon doth roll, Vast, sympathetic. No star so sunken, dim, But giveth sympathy, and borrowed light Makes beautiful the watches of the night. — Ch*kles Oscab Palmxb. March 2, 1905.