OFFERINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2884, 30 June 1909, Page 87

OFFERINGS.

—By John Christie. ALICE. "W-hen Alice walks in the village street, She is sj fair That the very air Fondles- her beauty sad calls her sweet, From b&r eom-ely, head to her shapely icet — She is bo sweet. And when in the open fields we stray, Wherever we pass, Tj.e amorous grass - • Kisses her gown and begs her to stay iWith it in the sun ihe livelong day — And. sp v:c stay. And there — away from the noisy 'kroner — The grass and flowers , And "the gracious hours Share with us, the whole day long, A joy to y deep to hs told in gong — 'i'oo deep for song. Oh! sweet as a soul in Paradise Is Alice — she Who kespu for me The noliest - boon beneath ths skies, Tiie light ,of love _in her lovely eyes — Hesse, lovely eyes. , • PfotAND, IS6B. .Air, Jour de la Heine. _ -\ 3Jet -Pity weep 1 for Poland's sons, for cruel foes STirrJiiiid ,£bem; ' - liei -Pity weap, bee: u?o the strong can see .- tb-e- weak cjiprest; - i For, Jo! vni-h what a listless -ftir &c nations , gaze- aTcund them, , - ! While JUussi-a pkKits hei iron foot on pros- ; trate Poland's breast. : Oh! tfaou. dost pass away, loved land, much prtied, yet ui- friended; O'er -all ihy cities and thy plains thft soo-wl ol doom is cast; • ,: Thy star is set, thy pulse is still, thy mightycourse- is ended: • ' So falls ths noblest forest tree to the daik earth at last. ■ GLOAMING. " ; Two-and-tvrsnty Oroons. : TVhsn I eit benea«th the birches with their ' droopmjr, l&afy boughs. And tLe tender sun.iaei- starlight stealing through them, And I tv-hispar to my own love all the truest true-love vows, And with many and many a loving kiss renew them: Then aoiliiiig in fche wide Vorld is happier than I; Not vr-ou!d I care whate'er che fateful morro y Brought upon iia wiSgs lot me, though it told X must die, i "Were it not_ febat then my love might die of sorrow:' ; * " j For .1 know that she --would grieve and- be : . deaalately sad, ] And the foiid heart in her bosom would '■ li» breaking - j "With its lonely, lonely love, and the thought , that her own lad ' ■ " "Was. asleep where those who slumber know | no -waking. ' - ! So let me still live on end be h-appy wath ! my- love; ~- v ! And let me with my dearie still go roam- i ing ' ! !Wihen th« dew is on the I-eaf and the stars \ are out above, And the heart is filled with loving in the gloaming. idealTlipe. Henceforward, in season on season O beautiful life! Be rainbovred with love, yet with, reason Ko longer at strife : With the man ever wedding the woman At heaven's true tryst, And with everything mortal and human — Greek, leavened with Christ.* THE, SOUL. Thou art a part, of all the past. And 1 part of ell that yet will be, As. of the- present, yet the vast Forever is but part of thee.' IS. Thy beauty is th« flowerag* of thy soul; Thy joyousness, thy spirit's native glee Made manifest ;, thy love, O love! ihe goal .Of all I' am and all I wish to be. TWO HEAVENS. "Wiat a caitiff were I to- call fortune a jade While she-, gives rue two heavens. Dost doubt me? There is on© in thyself, thou magnificent ■ maid, And another in. thinking about thee. DUST I3Sr"THE SCALE.. I>sf men, in the spirit's high beauly, , - Walk forth '. in the ligat, Denying to. uestge the duty r • Due only to right; Yet knowing that this or the other W-ho willeth to fail In. the -love as of brother for brothei , Is dust in the scale. AN" EARTHY HEAVEN". The heaven for which the saintly sigh Would not be heaven to- me; .For, of the earth quite earthy, I Desire but earthly glee. Sly heaven would hold the frankly gay, Who frolic in the sun, Or sit at life .as at a. playTill all their days are done. Greek Aristophanes might lead Thalia,/in th* dance, Or boon it well by mount and mead Witli Holier© -of France. The piquant Pepys might prattle on, On Gossip's " ample knee ; And_ Voltaire's wit .could shine as shone His .wit. in gay P&ree. - ■ The burly Johnson still might loll" • At ease and say his say; And Goldsmith -with hi 3 flute could stroll Through -an eternal May. Lamb, too — a gltamy. glancing sprite, The Ariel of men — Could sport it likss * shaft of light Wftbin a leafy glen. Nay, FalstafFs self might bid hi- sack And troll lus merry • rounds,- , > And leave a. laugh on every track Within the happy bounds. Henco that fox which the saintly signWould cot be J»»ven.' to me; For, of the ea-rth huHe earthy, I D^ire but earthly glee! DEVIL-DRIVEN". Fair was ehe both of soul and face, Though doomed bo toil in sordid scenes; Yet even there the man of w-ealtß. Saw, wooed 1 , and wed her — for hei flesh. ' But when be gat. her in his power, I And found, her wh*t he bad sot dreamt — Divinely delicate in all i

Her attributes, and with no foree — Brute foree — to fores him to be just, He, as .a low-bred drunkard turns Disgusted from the rarest wine. Did turn disgustedly" away 3?rom her ohaste soul and flower-fair face, And took urmiimbereci nameless ways To rack her heaxt and wreck her life. And this to every eye was clear; , But none decried, and no on-© tried < To shame- the scoundrel from his course. 1 And so his nature, like a cbain That festers into captive limbs, . Corroded- fiercely day and night Into her being, till her hea-rt jirake 'into xuin, and her health Bent like a flower beneath the storm. Yea., devil-driven by his .ecul, And darkened with a dire despair, Her sweet soul writhed itself away Ia anguish from the ruthless world : May Go/1 bs with it, it wifh God, Forever and forever more. But may &/ dose corrosive curse Entwine around the human hound Who killed that /oung benignant life-, And may tfc.s scorn cf men unborn Cut. through and through the. canting cliques Who call themselves the priests of Christ, j Yst never suocour woes like thine; I Nor ever -with fieroic wrath ! Let -co=2 the h-ell of public sliarnei Upon su-cb. fiends in human guise } As ihy malignant raurderar • here, i Oh, sad, sweet sleeper! in the grava.