Miscellany.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 442, 15 October 1880, Page 3

Miscellany.

SELECT POETRY.

IS HE RICH?

T know that he has houses, lands, Warehouses, stocks—l know not what— And yet I do not know if he Is rich or not. If greed, and gold, and pomp, and pride, Can make one rich, then he is so ; I think there's need of other things, Yet do not know. To make one rich, it heems io me, It needs a homo where love can dwell. Perhaps that he has such a bonne— I cannot tell. ; But this I know, a sad-browed man Sits in a dingy upper room. While all below ia light and song And sweet perfume. The music floats np to his ear, He bowß his head upon his breast In very bitterness of heart And prays for rest. He .ees—akis ! now nil too late— Tho sad mistake of his past life, How small and narrow seem its aims, Its greed and strife. He might have gathered gems of truth To deck.an ever-living soul. Breathed thoughts to grave his name for aye On fame's bright scroll. He might have wrought out noble deeds, And deeds of love and tenderness, So that all tho_e that named his nama Should name to bless. But he has dono none of those things., His treasures are but heans of gold, He feels he has for shining drosß ' His birthright sold. Men name the sum that he is worth, The gems his wife and daughters wear, And how much their last party cost, And talk ends there. There are no deeds that they can name, In all the years that he has papsed, . Which in one thankful heart will live While life shall last. His wife nnd daughters have no thought Except for pleasure's giddy maze ; They have no thought to waste on him Of blame or praise. I sny again he may be rich, But to my mind it seems not so ; I'd sooner have a wealth of love' And let gold go.