RECOLLECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2134, 13 March 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

RECOLLECTION.

Store naught honey —Bowring.

When mem'ry looks back on the record of yeais, Ere reason and feeling decay, Ere the footsteps we leave in this valley of tears Arc awopt by oblivion away, 'Tis sweet, when delight has been sober'd by age, To glance on its mirrors again; To giide o'er the clouds of adversity's page— They seem not so desolate then. As the tempest brings calm; as the hoar frost the spring; As the dawning disperses in day ; So the sun and the shade of vicissitude fling A beautiful light on our way; And passion and rapture, when temper'd by thought, No trace but of happiness leave; E'en grief, when remember'd, is tranquilly taught How vain—how ungrateful—to grieve. Life's briers and roses —its gladness and gloom — Do they vanish together ?—oh no ! The flow rets wo pluck, and condense their perfume, The weeds to the desert we throw. Like the bee, our thoughts fly o'er the fields of the past, Finding sweets wheresoever they roam; They wander through sunshine and storm, and at last but their at home.