VERSE.

Timaru Herald, Volume C, Issue 15307, 28 March 1914, Page 3

VERSE.

RUSTvEN abbey. r A LEGEND OF NEW YEAR'S EVE. The pale moon shimmered in fitful gleams On the old monk's bridge o'er the burn, And silvery grey the old abbey lay, Sileijt. and grim, and stern, ■Outlined in white at the dead of the night, By the rippling Silycrburn. ■Swaying and tossing the night wind drives The wreathing mists from the stream, And hurraing past on the wintery blast, Faint vapoury forms flit and gleam; And white hands uplift, and pale faces drift • . : O'er tho old monk's bridge, like- adream. Minstrel and chieftain, vassal and lord, With dames of a long gone age, Charger and knight and palfrey white, Maiden and squire and page; Shades of tho dead, with an echoless tread. Come back to their heritage. Now opens each ancient portal wide, ■ At the touch of a spirit hand. ,While revel and rout within and without, Is held by a spectre band; And the boarliound'a bay," and the charger's neigh, Waft o'er the frozen land. And a, filmy, shadowy, surging throng, Drift under the star gemmed skies, Back to* the gloom, of the silent tomb, With wistful imploring eyes; As a. distant bell chimes the Old Year's knell., And tho glad New Year's Arise. —Annie St. Vincent-Jaxon. Timaru.