Selected Verse

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20740, 25 February 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

Selected Verse

IN AN ENGLISH CATHEDRAL High shrine of beauty which men’s hands have reared To utter forth their dreams of truth and God Though your foundation is the lowly sod. From your fair aisles the multitudes have peered Into far heaven, finding there the prize Of soul-content their cities have not brought. By your sweet art their spirits been taught The lore of angels. Their earth-weary eyes Have looked at last upon a world secure. Your hallowed pillars stand while nations fall.. From faithless science your dim altars call To reverence, to life that shall endure. As Kingdoms rock and saintly souls repine We find hearts’ home in you, beloved shrine. —Thomas Curtis Clark. AUTUMN TWILIGHT Blue dusk is kind to an autumn farm, Frosting each leaf with moonlit charm. But midnight’s magic is dark and bold, Crisping the pond with sudden cold. Slow twilight drenching the orchard wall Softly with dew is best of all. Oh, be not startled if, in a trice, Wildly your heart turns over twice. When silver apples, with rustling sound, Drop from the tree to star the ground. As twilight pours, like a purple spell, Out of the Dipper over the well. MAY EVENING About the may-Pole now Cepheus, and Cassiopeia, The Swan and Dragon go, With Great and Little Bear. Hercules tunes his Lyre; The choir-boy Twins begin To lead the starry choir; Boothes’ bass joins in. The clustering stars are white As hedges thick with may; They’d like a may-queen, but Shy Virgo runs away. —R. N. Currey.

GIVE ME WORDS Give me words of simple length, Words of beauty, words of strength; Words to scatter error’s mist, Words of gold and amethyst. Give we words welL-fit for song, Words with which to banish wrong; "Words that smooth the rugged road, Words to lessen someone’s load. Give me words to suit the hour, Words of wisdom, words of power; Words that radiate new light, Words to lift men to the height. Give me words for daily need, Words a hungry soul to feed; Words that help someone to live, Words to bless and freely give. Give me words that glow with life, Words to vanquish human strife; Words endowed by God above. Words that whisper tender love, —Grenville Kleiser. LINES TO A YOUTH You’ll go to school and college, Spend years with book and pen, To acquire an education— Yes, I know, but what then? You’ll enter into business, Do things within your ken, Become, perchance, employer— Yes, I know, but what then ? You’ll pile up ready money, In millions, say plus ten, Call it quite successful— Yes, I know, but what then? You’ll travel the world over, Around and back again, Your ambition fully gratified— Yes, I know, but what then? You’ll amass a lot of things, Win encomiums from men, But some day you may ask yourself— Yes, I know, but what then? —Grenville Kieiser.