A GORDON POEM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5273, 1 June 1895, Page 2

A GORDON POEM.

The following poem by Adam Iriadaay Gordon is not included in any pf the published collections of the Australian poet's works, though it received newspaper publication some time ago. The poem is the property of Mr W. Trainor, an old associate of Gordon, aad appeared in a recent issue of the Australasian :— AEGEMONE. " The terrible night watch is over, I turn where I lie, To eastward iny dim eyes discover Faint streaks in the sky ; Paint streaks on a faint light, that dapples And dawns like the ripening of apples, • Day closes with darkness and grapples, And darkness must die. " And the dawn finds us where the dunk found us, The quick and the dead ; Thou dawn staying darkness around us, Oh, slay me instead. ■ ■ Thou pitiless earth, that would saver Twain soul3, reuniting them never, O, -.gape and engulph me for ever ! ' Oh, cover my head ! " The toils that men strive with stout-hearted, The fears that men fly, I have known them, but these have departed, And those have gone by. Men, toiling and straining and striving, Are glad, peradventnre, for living ; I render for life no thanksgiving, Glud only to die. ! " For alike now to me are all changes, Naught gladdens, naught grieves , Alike now pale snow on the ranges, Pale gold on the sheaves ; Alike now the hum of glad bees on Green boughs, and the sigh of sad trees on Sere uplands, the fall of the season, And the fall of the leaves. " Alike now each wind blows the breezes That kiss where they roam, The breath of the March wind that freezes In rime on the loam ; The storm blast that lashes and scourges, And rends the white crest of the surges. As it sweeps with a thunder of dirges Across the sea foam. " Alike now all rainfall and dewfall 'Foul seasons and fair ; Let the rose on my path or the rue fall, • I heed not nor care ; Nor for red light of dawn, nor for dun light Of dusk, nor for dazzle of sunlight At noon, shall I seek light or shun light, . ■ Seek warmth or shun glare. " Now for breaking of fast neither grateful, Nor for quenching of thirst In the dawn or the eventide hateful, In the noontide accurs't. In the watch of the night-, sleep forsaken Till the sleep cornea no watch shall rewaken, Be the best things of life*never taken, Never feared be the worst. •"Skies laugh, and buds bloom, and birds warble i At breaking of day ; j "Without and within on grey marble, The light glimmers grey. Ah, pale Bilent mouth, surely this is The spot where dcuth strikes aud lifo misses Warm lips pressing cold lips, waste kisses. Clay cold on cold clay. " Through sunset and twilight and nightfall And night watches bleak, We have lain thus, and brood rays of light fall And flicker and streak The death chamber, glancing and shining, I "Where death and dead life lay reclining, My hands with her hands intertwining, My cheek to her cheek. " I conjure thee by days spent together, . So sad and so few, By the seasons of fair and foul weather, By the rose and the rue : By the sorrows and joys of past hours, By the thorns of the earth and the flowers, By the suns of the skies and the showers By the mist and the dew : , * By the time that annihilates all things— Our woes and our crimes, By the gathering of great things and small things At end of nil times, Let thy soul answer mine through the portal Of the grave, if the soul be immortal, As the wise men of all climes have taught all The fools of all climes. " If these inen speak truth I come quickly, , My life doesthee wrong ; Dost thou languish in shades peopled thickly "With phantoms that throng ? Have thoy known thee, my love ? Hast thou known one To welcome the stranger, and lone one ?— Oh, loved one ! oh, lost one I mine own one I I tarry not long. " The flowers that no more shall enwreath us Turn sunward, tho dove Sails skyward, the flowers are beneath us, The birds are above. Those skies (an illegible letter) iSeom fairer and farther, searce better Thau earth, to men crushed by life's fetter "When lifeless is love. " And none can live twice, say the heathen, And none cau twice die, More hopeful than these were, aro we then With hopes past the sky 1 j Ton Judge, will he swerve from just sentence, , For tardy, fear-stricken repentance ? Ask those who came hither and went hence, But hope no reply. '-* And He who shall judge is mighty, How then shall I trust In Him, having sinned in His Bight ? He la jealous and just, So priests taught me once, if their learning Perplexed, slower still in discerning, Are ashes to ashes returning, ' And dust seeking dust. " But the dead, the3e are tranquil, or Beem bo, Nor laugh they nor weep, ■ And I who rest not, though I dream so, A si: only their sleep. I have sown tares nnd brambles on fickle, False gauds, and already my sickle Has reap'dthe rank weed and the prickle— What more shall I reap ? " Can life thrive when life's love expires ? Are life and love twain ? Men say bo — nay, all men are liars, • Or all lives are vain. Lot onr dead loves and lives be forgotten, With the ripening of fruits that are rotten So we, loving fools, dust-begotten, Go dustward again."