Selected Verse

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20230, 26 June 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

Selected Verse

THIS DAY. As though our world had never seen the bud Of patience burst in miracle of bloom, As though our race had never seen a flood Of sudden grace shed glory in the gloom; As though no self-same testimony ran From clan to empire and from clime to clime: “The inscrutable gods work o’er the heads of man, An unthought fabric pays the cost of time; ‘‘Some undreamed crystal marks the ancient throes, Some breathless temple stands above the tide, Some arch of peace atones a myriad woes, Some coral ridge stands when the seas subside.” As though the tumbling mountain masses Broke into altitudes of glistening snow, As though the endless, calcined desert bare Ceased not amazed upon the ocean flow. O wait upon the ancient miracle Ever renewed discount the eternal boon! Feel through! these years some tide of purpose swell, Otherwise great, now in the world’s midnoon. These infinite tasks are portents of a Work Afoot among us toward transcendent ends; Behind these ruins and these hungers lurk Strategic unsurmised and secret trends; And once again, our world shall see the bud Of patience burst in miracle of bloom. And once again our race shall see a flood Of sudden grace shed glory in the gloom.

—Amos N. Wilder, in the Christian Century.

THEIR MAJESTIES’ REIGN. O God, the Ruler over earth and sea, Grant us Thy guidance in the reign to be; Grant that our King may make this ancient land A realm of brothers, working mind and hand To make the life of man a fairer thing: God, grant this living glory to the King. Grant, to our Queen, the strength that lifts and shares The daily burden that a monarch bears: Grant, to them both, Thy holy help to give The hopeless, hope; the workless, means to live: The light to see, and skill to make us see, Where ways are bad, what better ways may be: And grace, to give to working minds the zest To reach excellent things beyond their best: Grant to them peace, and Thy diviner peace, The joy of making human wars to cease: Make wise the councils of the men who sway The Britain here, the Britains far away: And grant us all, that every rightness willed In this beginning reign may be fulfilled. —John Masefield, Poet Laureate. A PRAYER. O thou that from thy mansion, Through time and place to roam, Dost send abroad thy children, And then dost call them home, That men and tribes and nations And all thy hand hath made May shelter them from sunshine In thine eternal shade: We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more. —From “More Poems,” by A. E. Housman.