POETRY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 18 August 1904, Page 6

POETRY

A CIPL'S FACE. A girl's face where the budding rose '- Of youthful beauty blooms and grows, By nature's influence, sweet and good, To fuller grace of womanhood ; Is there on earth a sight so fair? Consider well the raveu hair

That clouds the forehead pure aud white; The lovely eyes, like stars of light, In whose clear, hazel glance is seen The soul untroubled and serene, The ripe, bewitching lips, that part With smiles like sunshine of the heart; And all the charms unnoted here, That blossom sweet from year to year. Time changes all. The fairest day Of short-lived summer fades away. Aid on the wintry garden bed The petals of the rose aro shed ; Time steals the splendour from the hair And mark's the brow with liues of care; But there are Tieauties of the soul That time and change may not control; The faith and love that still are blind To others' faults, and good and kind, And swift to help with blessed deeds A sister's or a brother's needs; These grow with years in brighter grace, And adds »ew beauty to the face.

NEApEP AJiD DEAPEPNearer and dearer are the blessed dead Than we are wont to thing, When with farewells and tears wo bow the head Beside that solemn brink. Tell me, thou cliild of grief—canst thou not see With clearer eyes than thee? Tell me if love—ithy love—can eve be A thing of earth again ?. Oh, -eyes that God hath cleans with , sacred tears! Oh, hears by sorrow tuned! Ye see and love as never all those years red While ye with flesh communed. And are they not, then, nearer whom we see j With eyes no longer blind ?_ And is not love the sweeter, if it be Of an immortal kind ? Oh comforting, sweet thought that, though wo stand On death-divided shores, Love still can stretch to us its angel hand, And lay its heart on ours 1