THE GIFT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 74

THE GIFT.

Sitting in my wooden valley of the years I see the procession of all youth in a vision; I Bee it dappled with shifting sunlight and cloud shadows; The gloom of winter-rains shrouds it sometimes, The moonlight lends her bloom, the darkness, mystery— But ever 1 feel the throb of its intensity. Through ambition, through wearied waiting, through passion, A subtlety as of fragrance comes to me, And in this I live, in this I aspire, In this I am wholly content. For there is a gift of youth to age that passes all gifts. - . . In unconscious selfishness the great ■'gift is proffered. It warms the heart, it soothes the soul, it obliterates all regrets for life's failures. Grave vision of clear eyes and tremulous smiles, Of supple bodies and lithe limbs and foolish, .laughter, "Son are the gathered heaven of mortality, The reward promised to the ambitions of our youth. It is not what we supposed it was then. It lies outside our early efforts and early yearning, . But it is none the less fragrant and significant ; It is none the less satisfying. It is more. —Hervey White, in The Hue and Cry.