THE PASSING OF 1917.

Otago Witness, Issue 3330, 9 January 1918, Page 48

THE PASSING OF 1917.

Hush! hush! What are those whispers on tlia evening breeze And through the trees? Hush! hush! It is the intermittent sighing

Of one a-dying. Dark storms are on the far horizon swelling;

Surges telling Of saddened hearts and soula in lonely places:

Vast spaces Of mother earth all ■ desolate, wounded, riven,

Holding to heaven "Dumb mouths" which speak of tortures mutely born, Martyr-like worn. Nations enveloped in chaotic night

And without sight, Blaspheming, fighting, grasping for power

For one brief hour. Still, still the chaos and the darkness are increasing,

While unceasing Is the sound of the death-struggle, rending, Unending, The heavens and earth and hearts and homes unnumbered, • Where once slumbered The joy and hopes of nations, and the pride Of all beside. Breathe—breathe upon chaos and'the darkness, Pow'r Divine, That love of Thine, Till self and lust and wrong be crucified, and resurrected Right K Shall reign in Might. —J. M. S. King. December 31, 1917.