THE APOSTATE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 74

THE APOSTATE.

I’ll go, said I, to the woods and hills, In a park of doves I’ll make my fires, And I’ll fare like the badger and fox, I said, And be done with mean desires. Never a lift of the hand I’ll give Again in the world of bidders and buyers; I’ll live with the snakes in the hedge, I said, And be done with mean desires. 111 leave—and I left—my own true love. O faithful heart that never tires! I will return, tho’ I’ll not return To perish of mean desires. Farewell, farewell to my kinsmen all, The worst were thieves and the best were liars, And the Devil must take what he gave, I said, For I'm done with mean desires. But the snake, the fox, the badger, and 1 Are one in blood, like sons and sires, And as far from home as kingdom’ come I follow my mean desires. A- E. Coppard, in the Spectator.