VERSES OLD AND NEW.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 758, 5 March 1910, Page 9

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

' EVE. . iiOng ago in ages gray t was fashioned out of clay: Builded with tho sun and'moon, Onesided to a holy tune: • And- there' came to mo 5 a breath ' From the' House of Life aijd . Death. Then, tfys sun roared into fire, And, the moon with swift desire Leaped upon- her journey long, Singirig in the starry throng: And I'-climbed up' from, the sod Holding, to the hand of. God. 1 In. a .Garden fair and, wide, ' • Looking down a mountain side, . Prono I lay and felt the press Of 'Immensity's caress: There'a space I lived , and knew .What, the Power meant to do. Till upon a day there came Down to me a voice of flame, "Thou, the corner-stone of man, Rise, and set about my plan; iNothing doubting,' for a guide 3 have quickened in thy side." From the garden wide and fair,' i'rom the pure and holy air, Down the mountain side I crept Stumbling often, ill-adept; ; (Feeling pangs of woeful. Hiss "Growing from, tho primal kiss. Then from out ray teeming side Camo tho son who; is' my guide: iHim tbrougli'.'faithfUl,, : .day3. • \jTill I faltered at his gaze, : r; ' '•Boldly staring, ./wlicn.vliesawO (. '3 was w6'man,; life,' and/law." ' __ELife and Law and' dear,delight:. ... • 71 the moon upon'the'night■ [All alluring: I tho tree "-' (Growing nuts of mystery : , I the tincture and the' dew That the apple reddens through. I sweet:" of fruiti'ulness complete: ' . . 1 the promise aiid- : the threat' 'Which the gods-may..'not forget:., 1. tho Weaver spinning, blind ' , iDestinies for human-kind. lifting,' lifting ever up Till I'reach the golden cup: Groping down and ever down,' - Till. I find the buried crown": I the Searcher sent to bring 'Plumes for the Almighty's Wing. ■ \. ' 'Weaving Life and Death I go: •Building what I' do ,'not know:' ■ Planting, tho' in sore distress, Gardens in tho wilderness: ; Palaces too big to scan . •By the little eye of man. Knowing surely this is. true • That the thing I have to do Has been ordered by .the breath From' the House of Life and. Death: It. no wind of chance or wide ■ Doubting-Cloud may set aside.. Stilt- the sun roars out in fire And the moon with pale desire ; Keeps. the path was pointed her la the starry theatre: Sun'and moon, and, I are true ;;i to the work'.wo hayp tojdo. V Stephens, in' tho "Nation." ; 1 : I sought the secret of the Universe. Shall Naturo not bo one? But all is

change, ' . Life? iu a thousand'-shapes, imperfect,strange. •Set/is thoro unity through forms diverse. .Behind the whirling mazd of'things, .the strain 'And. struggle' of existence, which around Us palpitates, an endless peaco I found. And; at the heart'of happiness a. pain. ■I- took to one in r 'trouble daily, bread, ( And pitied hint. "Thou has lost all, poor friend. ' '.. ; .. kindred, case; was living' worth such end?" ■ ' ''Nay, but my'loss is utmost gain," he -said. /'Failed, and a bankrupt!" .Straight I to"the man; Plucked inside out his life. From dark recess. Bhone forth a star■■ of purest white sucoess, , '. Half blinding me, as sudden lightning -can;'-..; . "This" Faith,"" I said,'"ye offer, I decline. Its'fetters cramp my soul. : Its tenets _ bind." "Not so," cara« answer; "rather thou shall find ' .' In seaming - bondage greater freedom thine." God's Sentence -on me, "Thou art less than nought, "An atom of least consequence, in fine." 'And then a Voice, half human, half Divine. ' *'Of uttermost importance, passing thought." ■ Perplexed I questioned, "Unity I need, Yet Paradox confronts me'everywhere." Sudden a flash of answer clove the air. ■"What of the Three in One? How dost thou read?".

''At last with 'light:.of., truth thou art aglow. : • .■ " 'r '/ ■ .- * Knowledge is thine;''"my "soul!!! i treinb-. . ling cried. ■< ;-/■ And, kneeling,--.worshipped,.when Truth's self replied j..--'. *Thou knowest, yea; - yet thou canst never know!"• v-Theda Fitzwilliam, in tho* "Westminster Gazette." ■FOE REMEMBRANCE. Do ye remember—ye who lie Fathoms deep'in your ocean bed— The old sea fights,of tho years gone bv, The creaking mast and the rounded sail, When the spindrift fiew in the rising gale, . The shot that crashed in the foeman's side, And the flames ■ which reddened, the restless , tide, The fever and ferment, the hope and thrill. The passionate pride which is Britain's still In the old flag fluttering overhead?

Do ye remember—ye who died On rolling veldt or in blazing sand, On hostile hills where the jackal cried— • Tho joy of .the battle for Britain's sako ,(Her hoitour to guard, and her power at stake),, The swing of the kilt and tho pipers' skirl, _ The deafening crash and tho criinson whirl, As ye strove to tbo death for your native land?

And ye who sleep in the low green graves, Safe in -the shade of the shelt'ring towers, ' Who gave your all to the hungry waves, Or the deadly steel and the 'bursting shell—. 'Do ye .remember, too sadly well The long suspense and/the aching strain, Tho hopes which turned to fear anil pain, And tho weary limp of the lagging hours?

Is Hope fulfilled 'and Memory o'er Beyond tliat sea whore your-Harks have sailed? We may not know: from the timeless shore % "Wo catch an <teho of voices fled— "Follow, oil, follow! where we have led, Seaman or soldier! Wife or maid! Play tho parts which your forebears played, On!, with the flag . to" the masthead nailed!" ' • in the "Glassow Herald."