SELECTED VERSE.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16174, 27 December 1924, Page 11 (Supplement)

SELECTED VERSE.

LATE WISDOM. s We've trod the maze of error round, Long wandering in the winding glade; And now the torch of truth is found, It only shows us where we strayed: By long experience taught, we know— Can rightly judge of friends and foes; Can all the worth of these allow, And all the~faults discern in those.

Now, 'tis our boast that we can quell The wildest passions in their rage, Can their destructive force repel, And their impetuous wrath assuage. Ah, Virtue; dost thou arm when how ~ This bold rebellious race are fled? When all these tyrants rest, and thou Art warring with the mighty dead? ,—George Crabbe (1754-1832).

j TO HELEN. Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore That gently o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, way-worn wanderer bore To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam, Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brought me home To the glory that was Greece, And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche How statue-like I see thee stand, The agate lamp, within thy hand, Ah! Psyche, from the regions which Are holy land! —Edgar Allan Poe (1809-18.49).

FROM "ARCADES." O'er the smooth enamelled green, Where no print of step hath been, Follow me as 1 sing, And touch the warbled string. Under the shady roof Of branching Elm Star-proof, Follow me, I will bring you where she sits) , Clad in. splendor as befits , Her deity. , Such a rural Queen All Arcadia hath not seen. \ —John Milton. GIFTS. God gave me stars to play with — I've thrown them' all away, Except the two that shine, Sweetheart, In your dear eyes to-day. God placed the summer sunshine Within these hands of mine— But I have tossed it all aside For this dear love of thine. God smiled at my disdaining His stars and sunshine too, For I have chosen his best gift. 'Twas God who sent me you. —Marion Elizabeth Stark. YOUTH AND AGE. Crabbed age and youth > Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasaunce, Age is full of care: Touth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame: Y'outh is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold: Youth is wild, and age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee, . Youth, I do adore thee! 0 my love, my love is young! Age, I do defy thee; 0 sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay'st too long. —The Passionate Pilgrim.

A LfiGE MAKER OF NAZARETH.

"So Mary might have looked in later years, Living old dreams beside the dim bazaars. Her eyes' deep shadows are the tomb of tears, And in their light, are secrecies of stars. As Spring comes softly to this hilltop place, With coronals to crown the almond trees, So grief is touched with glory in her face, And wears an April's ardent fraggrances.

"' My boys knew all the hills of Galilee, And where the lilies of the field grow red, They gathered little offerings for me, And then —they went away to war,' she said. Day long she dreams of lilies and of death, And boys—that come no more to Nazareth." —Mary Bert Whitside. In the Independent. REQUIESCAT. " Say That She. Loved the Sun." " Oh, do not say high things of her— Say that she loved the sun, But danced, light-foot, into the dark When day .was done.

" Say that, the leader of the rout When revelry was wild, She dreamed the unguessed loveliness, Shining and undeflled.

" Say, careless and too proud for prayer, Alien on Calvary, No saint had. bleeding feet like hers, Pursuing ecstasy. " And now, worn out with carnival— Glad, wine-stained thing of clay— Say that she finds dark slumber sweet After loud day." —Weir Vernon. In Harper's Magazine. THE ATTAINMENT. You love? That's high as you shall go; For 'tis as true as Gospel text, Not noble then is never so, Either in tkis world or the next. • —Coventry Patmore.