VERSE, OLD AND NEW.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16213, 25 August 1923, Page 11

VERSE, OLD AND NEW.

TO DREAM.' Some love wide spaces and far-rolling plains ; To roam the woods and haunt deep sylvan shades; UV on a scented summer night, To; sleep sequestered in green forest glade'-.

And many love the pavements wet with rains; * Gross city scents that speak m crowded

life; v Theatres all throbbing with high-colored

art; Movements that shriek aloud of human .strife. ;

But I love mountains towering to the skies, Fair homes of space and majesty supreme, Where purple shadows fall athwart tho creeks, And I have strength and vision there to dreamt

There are too many deeds upon this earth; Hard, callous facts that crush and grind and rend; , Give us a little time wherein to dream Before we too into the dust descend. —Gwen Cash.

THE WANDERER

When the cares of'the day are laid

away -y. '■ And 1 rest in "my quiet home; While the curling smoke from my light ed pipe Floats up u» the ceiling dome; Then over the world I wend my way From the depths of an easy chair, And never a cent do I need to spend Though 1 wander everywhere.

I can sail away on a white-winged yacht Lee down in the scudding foam, And roam at. ease through southern

seas, -; A thousand leagues from home.: I can see tho land of tho frozen north With its wastes of ice and snow, Where tho northern lights gleam through the nights On the seal and tho Eskimo.

I can roam betimes in cei'tain climes, Where turbanned people pray, And hear the tinkling temple bells, And watch the punkah's sway. Through storied places,of the past Of centuries untold; With heathen shrines, and opal mines, And dancing girls and gold.

My curious eyes behold the skies, Where burning sun beats down .» On sandy plain and mountain range And ancient seaport town, Where the wharves are piled with curious things, ' . . That savage hands have wrought; With spice and drugs, and silken rugs That camel trains have brought.

O'er the world's wide -ways my eyes have gazed . A hundred times or more, Yet I never roamed away frolfi. home, O'r sailed a mile from shore; For these sights are seen by the wood fire's gleam, In a quiet inglenook; '" • . As I wander free o'er the land and sea On the page* of 'a Vprinted book. , • -8.1.L.L.