MISSING.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XVII, Issue 673, 27 August 1917, Page 1

MISSING.

A MEDITATION. They were not missing when the summons came To take their places in the lighting line, Nor when each soul .leaped forth a living flame, Arc-point to arc-point, human to divine. Now they arc missing and no man may find Where was the end, or vyhcn. or in what wise, Audible only to the wandering wind. Witnessed alone by the indifferent skies. To vanish from the sight and sound of those ' 1 Who loved him and who love him evermore, ■ ' ' ‘ ‘ For no man knows Upon what foreign shore ! Befell the hour and manner of his death, Or where through all its length and breadth ! His body lies; : ‘ That Is the secret of * the silent skies. Perchance alone his memory is dead And all his past forgot, llis most loved facets now remembered not, Nor all the loving things their lips have said; ' ' Not surely these, shall wake Some fortunate day, And mind and body find their home ward way To flood with happiness the hearts that ache • And; if this be not so and ho is one Of that heroic and immortal hand Whose task is done, 1 Whose blood was nobly shed For Freedom, Justice and their native land, hot us remember and he comforted. Though in some spot unknown his dust abide. His spirit’s shrine and ever-temied tomb, That rain-washed flowers hide, Is in their hearts for whom ■ . He lived and died. And did not live and' did not die in vain, Their love the flowers and their tears the rain. New, ever young, his' soul is theirs . again. H. S. BUNBURY. Mandevillo, Jamaica, 8.W.1. 1