KING EDWARD’S FUNERAL DAY,

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 70

KING EDWARD’S FUNERAL DAY,

DUNEDIX, MAY 20, 1910.

Southern troops want marching by. Arms reversed and heads bowed down; Muffled drum and wailing cry Of pipes were heard in the mourning toivn

Muffled minute bells were tolled Sad through the length of a sombre day Cannon music weirdly rolledOne with the loud grief far away.

Crowds marched by to the dirge of Saul, Weeping, some, but mostly brave. For peace waa the emblem on the pall Of him they bora to a soldier's grave.

Hushed the town with the holy calm That cometh to cities on Sabbath morn, When soft on the air the clanging psalm Of mingled bell and breeze is borne.

From the north of the town and the south they cams; They came from the hills; they came from the sea, To be one with thos-s who blessed his name, The name of a dead King, silently.

Where is the bier with its wreath of gold? Where is the chief of the niournerg, pray? Where was the mourning bell first tolled? List! A sad wide world away.

And what could monarchs more desire, Whom Death hath graced with other crown, Than ocean pall and starry pyre, And grief-tolled bells in a south-most town?

Proving. Love's vast power to bind King and citizen far away, Whose streets with funeral grief are lin3d Throughout the length of a sombre day!

Amen! Night clcseth well the prayer; The Standard drawn is raised again; The troops march heme, sad still, for there Is dust upon the King. . . . Amen. —J M'AcLeNSTAK'.