THE COMING OF PEACE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3400, 14 May 1919, Page 53

THE COMING OF PEACE.

By GHA3. W. PUMfELL. Slow pants the bosom of the world, Like eome tempestuous sea. O'er whioh a hurricane has' swept In rage tumultuously; The wrath is past; no more the storm Assails the mighty main, But yet awhile the ocean's breast Heaves with an angry pain. Now hill and! dale are flushed with joy, And all the land is gay; The Earth puts on a finer robe ' To greet the festal day. War-worn and meagre with, long toil The soldier seeks his home; The battle seems a dream of dread, A mist of crimson foam. From out a thousand belfries leap The voices of the bells, Over the crowded cities' streets Their glorious clamour swells; And where the rustic hamlet sees The sun through foliage steal The bells that crown the village church Ring out a merry peal. They tell of danger and of toil, Of death on land and sea, The widow and) the orphan child, Love plunged in misery, Now past and gone; a while of woe, Full soon to be forgot, If e'er forgetfulnees can be The sufferers' kind lot. But time shall bring a healing balm To soothe the pangs of grief, For loss of gallant men who died . To give the world relief; The pangs shall cease, but memory still "Will unimpaired! remain, And on its ebon thione shall sit, The monarch of the slain. Roll on, 0 .noble world, roll on! Millions of hearts beat high, Their load is gone, the peril fled, That seemed for ever nigh; Roll on, O noble world, roll om! Your sufferings are o'er, For Peace Is come, and happiness Full laden with rich store. Ashburton, April, 1919.