PALINGENESIS.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume III, 1 October 1900, Page 16

PALINGENESIS.

Forward nor backward now I dare not gaze, My life is bound by Present. For the Past Stretches behind me such a dreary haze Of broken purposes and buried hopes As makes my heart droop, cold and dead Within me — The Future dark ahead. No loving surety of wedded bliss, No vista of bright, happy years for me ! For me— no dreams of passion's burning kiss —

All, all, were once, but now, are not to be So day by day I move along the line Which duty marks— Joy is no longer mine. All-loving ! Grant me grace to trust thy skilll , To brightly leave the Future to Thine hand, To cut and chisel, as ordains Thy will. The past I" grudge not— if from it a grand And noble life can still be carved out, Free from the flaws of selfishness and doubt. N.E.A.