VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 19099, 17 November 1923, Page 4

VAGRANT VERSE

FRIENDS OF OTHER DAYS. O friends of days that are for ever fled, O friends afar o’er the tumultuous sea. Alone I sit while stars come overhead, And wonder if you have one thought of me. You live in scenes that once familiar were Unto my wandering feet—scenes I no more May traverse, scenes that doubtless are as fair As e’er they were in golden days of yore. I can but picture them; the mighty Bens Whose rugged foreheads pierce the sunny sky, The woodland glades, the bonnie winding glens, The streams, the lochs, where mirrored beauties lie. You, you, my friends, amid all these I see As erst in vanished but remembered days, When light of heart we laughed and sang with glee, Nor had one thought of widely sundered ways. Lo! one by one I see you in the flush Of health and strength, that may alas! have passed; And o’er my spirit creeps a solemn hush. For I perhaps have looked orf you my last. As pensively entranced I meditate, While round me shades of evening deeper fall, Sweet memories, come rushing as in spate— The past holds me a captive in its thrall. We may not write, as in the days of old. How tense the silence grows with years that flee! Yet would 1 dream that even as I hold You in my thoughts, you still have thoughts of me. Mine too the dream that should a day come round WTien once again we shall each other greet, The same congenial welcome would be found From you, as in the years that passed too fleet. O friends of days that ar* for ever O friends afar o’er the tumultuous aen, When those familiar rcenen you fondly tread Let there be still a thought beetowed on —Robert Francis November 12.