SELECTED VERSES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7241, 23 August 1902, Page 4

SELECTED VERSES.

THE HOUR BEFOBE THE DAWN,

Tho purplo night-pall softly breathes, tho veldt stirs in its sleep ; Tho stars, with paling lircs, essay their ebbing watch to keep; O'or slumb'ring friend and watchful foe faint zophyrs croon their round; Tho ghostly hour beforo the dawn throbs dull with pulsing sound. Beforo tho sentry's aching oyos dim shapes begin to loom ; A thousand men seem gath'ring there, wrapt in that velvet gloom. Chill Fear is gnawing at his soul, but chillier still tho clasp On stcel-tipp'd rille grimly held within his guardian clasp. Hark 1 What is that ? Do mufiled oars upon tho river rido ? 'Tis but tho splash of rising fish that herald morning-fide. And whence that light 'I A lirelly's flaro that skims the gaining breeze. A mounted man. The " Cossack post " beneath yon clump of trees. How long, 0 Lord, how long, until tho sun, that set so red Last night upon tho battle-field, once moro shall lift his head '! How long beforo bis warming rays shall give the new day breath, Aud light the waiting world again—to Lite—perchance to Death 'I Far better, far tho Mauser's roar, tho pom-pom's yapping bark, The bellow of the Crcusot, than this waiting in tho dark ! Tho Hinging lead, tbe screaming shell, arc easier far to bear Than this eerie, weary watching for tho fooman in his lair. " Haiti Who comes there ? " Tho ready steel springs swiftly to tho guard— Come friend, conic foe, it is a Man who keeps the camp in ward. "Rolicf at last!" That golden sphere that climbs tho orient sky Has killed tho hour before tho dawn — tho dreadful vigil's by. —Blackwood's.