VERSES OLD AND NEW.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1455, 1 June 1912, Page 9

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

A,CHARGE. ' ''If thou hast scjuauder'd years to grave a gem ■ by thrno absent lord; and while 'lis incomplete^ Others would bribe thy needy skill to them— Dismiss them to tho street! Shouldst thou at last discover Beauty's grove, ' At last bo panting on the fragrant verge, But in the track, Drunk with divino possession, thou meet Love— Turn, at her bidding, back. When round thy ship in tempest Holl appeal's, And every spectre mutters up more dire To snatch control . And loose to' madness thy deep-kennell'd Fears— . - ■ Then to tho helm, 0 Soul! Last: if upon the cold, green-mantling sea ' Thou cling, alone with Truth, to tho last sparBoth castaway . _ . And one must perish—let it not be ho Whom thou art sworn to obey!" —Herbert Trench. HISTORY. "Past is th 9 past." But no, it is not past; - In us, in us, it quickens, wants/aspires; And on our hearts tho unknown Dead have cast The hungers and the thirst of their desires. Unknown the pangs, the peace we too pre- . pare! > What shakes this bosom shall rever- ( berate Through ages unconceived; but in dark lair The jiiiguessed, unhoped,-undreaded issues wait. Our pregnant acts are all unprophesied. , Wo dream sublime conclusions; destine, i plan, Build 'and unbuild; yet turn no jot aside : The something infinite that moves in man. ' We write The End where fate has scarce . begun; And nn man knows the thing that he has done. • • —Lawrence Binyon. DISCONTENT. TLet me do something perfect, before death; Some least of; things, so. it be whole, and free From any faltering touch; that none may see One faintest flaw; that not one lightest breath May dim the grace my sure hand fasliioneth. T know there is not any strength in me To work this deed; oh, may Thy power be Fulfilled in weakness, as Thy Scripture saith! ,J[y soul is sick of half-accomplishment, 'Of deeds that are no deeds, of victories Uncrowned by triumph; stranger to content TJntil Thou work in me some excellence, That my heart may have rest ere I go hence, - .... ...• Blind voyager across the bitter seas. —EiUvard Bnrss.