THE AWAKENING

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 63

THE AWAKENING

Life, life and love ; ye have not any worth ;

For life's best giveth love, and love's best, tears ; O life's lovr>, — keenest passion upon earth, Earth nothing is when thy light disappears. Lost love, hear thou naught but a loss to me ; A loss of peace, of hope, of all things fair — No end to love and longing I can see,

No end to love and longing and despair. Love, life's best love , O thou of little worth

O thou, a loss— nay, nay; an utpiost gain; Life's love, the keenest passion upon earth,

Thou gayest, and no weaker moods remain. Empty and mean till thou didst come with file Was this my hie, now tried in love and purged ; So.ne peace it had, but peace without desire ; No billowy passion in its darkness surged. Flashing of light and life, motion that burns, Desires that wing the soul in meteor-flight, — Of these is flesh out-wearied ; and it turns

Back to the indolence of restful night. O Love, thou serene &tar : O Life, thou void, Wherein one brightness hath enkindled mine, Not till love's deepest life 1 have enjoyed

Would I sink dying back to sorrow's brine. Life, life and love of most exceeding worth! Ere that I lose you, may I lifeless fall ; And drifting, sinking, flashing back to earth, Be fire of falling stars my only pall. — Johannes C. Andeksen. Ghristchiu-ch, March, 1905.