Verse Old and New.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 2, 11 January 1911, Page 71

Verse Old and New.

If— IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs aud blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting, ■too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about don't deal in lies, Or being hated don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream —and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken ' ” Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things,you gaye your life * to, broken,-, ' • .. And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of : all your winnings And risk it on one turn of piteh-and-toss, And lose, start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they have gone, And so.hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says tb them: “Hold on! ” If vou can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,- ~ ’■

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, And —which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! —Rudyard Kipling. © © © Love a Microbe. “An American scientist claims to have discovered the microbe of love.” Bove, it is a microbe; oh, young men, beware’ It liveth in the laughing eyes, and in the floating hair; And in the pretty parted lips, that deadly thing is there. ’Twill come at noon; ’twill come at eve; ’twill come at dawn of day, In every inconceivable and . inconvenient way; The merry microbe moves the world, and dances blithe and gay. Ln all a maiden’s wraps and gowns, in every tuck and frill, Quite half-a-million strong he lurks; he bides his time until He knows the hour, he knows the man. he works his deadly will. A champion strong man, Samson was; greathearted, brave and tall; Delilah, she mades eyes at him, but, ah! that was not all, The microbes marched him to his death, he fell beneath the wall. Young David smote Goliath sore, the Bible tells us so; And David was a first-rate with any stand-up foe; Z ,1 •But- the-little’microbe took him, and made him mean and low. Just take the cajse'of Solomon—a man we all must praise;

But the microbes came in batches, seven hundred different ways; They ruined him entirely, and spoiled his latter days. Oh, Sunday Is the microbe’s day; tlie boldest boys will call; The girls get on their pretty things ay, ever since the Fall; How daintily they dress themselves the microbe knows it all. They walk to church; the microbe moves; they hear the organ play; Oh, prettily they sing the psalms the microbe feels his way; Ob, the little microbe takes us, yes, even when we pray. The mirthful. little microbe, lie moves in every dance, In every dainty Hying foot, in every tender glance; • , In lights, and dowers, and melody, the microbe sees -his chance. The girls are all good friends with him. See H'ttle_T6t-.aud_Sis, Their dreses'leugtlien every year, until no man may kiss Their pretty mouths; the microbe knows, lie rarely makes a miss. He loves the dawn, lie loves the day, he loves the bright moonshine; When the tenderness is in our hearts, and tile red blood warm as wine. In the soft sweet time of mystery, lie works his fell’ design. He knows our many weaknesses, he knows the time of flowers, In the early most delightful time, in the scented summer hours, He walks within tlie wilderness, the gardens, aud the bowers. Of all his pranks by land and sea, the half was never told; Ay, stronger far than Life and Death, or hate or greed of gold; He hops his hornpipe in the heat, he canters in tile cold. Love, it is a microbe; oil, young men, beware! It liveth in the laughing eyes, and in tlie floating hair, And in the pretty parted lips, that deadly thing is there. -SHAW NEILSON. Vie. © © © As they paddled along in a nook, She said faintly, “Why, Algernoon look. In that oak, 1 declare, — 1 see mistletoe there!*’ And the crew fished them out with a hook.

Submarines. Down from the sun that lightens, ’ Down from the winds that blow, Undfi’r+lie waves that riot, Under the tides that flow; vSun | in the utter stillness -.Where siglrt and sounding fait. Hasten our hid flotillas Nosing the blinded trail. Along the Harrow waters. By and rejsf. and shoal, Through ti'ivlHe-haunted channels We ply the dark patrol. In from the open fairways. Up to the harbour booms, We delve the silent We plumb the chosen tombs, . V No smoke shall tell our coming, No funnel-llame betray The range’’ of instant peril When we descend to slay. ■” And, when from half a cable.’ The shark of doom is sped,' The’lights of what avenger, rihall spy where we have lied? -. • ■ • • In from the darkened offing' The si-out ing-cruisers Around the gloomy headlands The 4 lean destroyers., creep!;* That grope the murky . shaltp-ws And hug the tidal he in; But these aTe-ijpt our qyarry,— The forts shall deal with them. , * Yonder the foes we wefieome, *♦ * ' Yonder the hulls of dread, — \ ? The girded battle squadron, •The measured line' ahead. The guns of high destruction, The triple-a rmoured The grim lorg-range hpinjWrding Beyond tin* inining : fieW?y , •So for \the i i ateliesM witfe.1 left, ' The surfaec-eiigine stHlerl r ;y So—for the full-charged Whitehead j Ami the diving-chambers filled. t Now, as the dvoning motor Thrills in tin* foundered shell— Now for the .seen 5 * k Thing! Now for the floors of Tjrll! \V. A. C’hapsnat