THE MOURNER'S QUESTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 20, 22 September 1898, Page 24

THE MOURNER'S QUESTION.

O Guardian Angels of the sleeping sea, Say where were ye When, merciless, it oped its ponderous jaw And hecatombs of victims did indraw .' O were ye resting on the heavenly shore, Your night watch o cr ! Or did the harp-strains, sweetening all the skies, Drown with their bliss those pleading, earthly crios Where were ye, nor would stretch a hand to save From the proud wave — And cruel, from man's unrelenting hand — The love, the beauty, virtue of our land ? THE AXGEI/S ANSWER. O weeping mourners of a fading hour ! Nor heavenly bower, Nor golden instruments' ecstatic flow Could veil or drown that multitudinous woe. Nor were we resting from our watch of prayer ! Had ye been there Unbodied, ye had seen as Christmas night From sky to sea, spirits in ambient light. Our hands outstretched to boar your loved ones far O'er sky and star, Where virtue, beauty, lore, His victims stand, Crowned, happy, in their own bright Fatherland. — M. S. Pine, in the Pilot,