VERSES OLD AND NEW.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 13

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

GREY DAYS. My soul is heavy with the sullen pain That consciousness but half awakened brings Of sorrow and the secret heart of things Throbbing throughout the world and in my brain. And, caught within the noose my fancy «flings, I follow, will-less, in that mighty train Of things and peoples that havo been in vain, Of vanished empires and forgotten kings. And those great multitudes of men who sought To buiid a wonder-tower which might abide Through all vicissitudes of time and tide, And, in a faith too all-believing, wrought Deeds of great - hardihood, aud blindly died For causes lost, and high hopes come to naught. —Rosalind Murray, in the "Nation." OPPORTUNITY. (From Machiavelli.) "But who art thou, with curious beauty graced, O woman, stamped with some bright heavenly seal! 1 Why go thy feet on wiigs, and in such haste ?" "I am that maid whose secret few imay 6teal, Called Opportunity. I hasten by .Because my feet are treading on a. wheel. Being more swift to run than birds to fly. And rightly on my feet my wings I wear. To blind the sight of those who track and spy;• Rightly in front I hold my scattered hair To .eil my face, and down my breast to fall', Lest men should know my name when I am there; And leave behind my back no wisp at all For eager folk to clutch, what time I glide So near, and turn, and pass beyond recall." "Tell me; who is that Figure at thy side?" "Penitence, Mark this well that by decree Who lets me go must keep her for his bride. And thou has spent much time in talk with me . Busied-with thoughts and fancies vainly grand, Nor hast remarked, O fool, neither dost see How lightly I have fled beneath thy hand." —J. E. Flecker. JOY. Joy in my heart, like a song-bird, sings And flits and carols the whole day long, For there's bloom on the bough, And there's wind In the trees, There's sun on the seas, And white foam at the prow; And the joy of tne world goes up in a song, A song of delight at the beauty of things. —Agnes Murray. EXSPECTO RESURRECTIONEM. Oh! King Who hast tho Key Of that dark room,' The last which, prisons us but held not Thee, ; Thou know'st its gloom. Dost Thou a little love this ono | Shut in to-night, Young nnd so piteously alone, . Cold—out of sight? Thou know'st how hard and bare The pillow of that new-made narrow .bed, ' Then leave not there So dear a. head I . —Charlotte M. Mew,- in the 1 "Westminster Gazette."

NIGHT SENTRIES. ' Ever as sinka the day on sea, or land, _ Called or uncalled, you take your kindred posts. At helui and lever, wheel and switch, you stand, On the world's wastes and melancholy Strength to the patient hand! To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light I Now roars the wrenching train along the dark: How many watchers guard the barren ' way In signal-towers, at stammering keys, to mark What word the whispering horizons say! To all that see and harkTo all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! On ruthless streets, on byways sad with sin— Half-hated by the blinded ones you guardGuard well, lest crime unheeded enter in! The dark is cruel and the vij?il hard, The hours of guilt begin. To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! Now the surf-rumble rides the midnight wind, And grave patrols are on the ocean edge. Now soars the rocket where the billows grind, Discerned too late, on sunken shoal or ledge. To all that seek and find, To all, alert and faithful in the night, i May thero be Light! On lonely headlands gleam the lamps that warn, Star-steady, or ablink like dragon-eyes. Govern your rays, or wake the giant horn Within the fog that welds the sea and skies! Far distant runs the morn: To all, alert and faithful In the night, May there be Light!

Now glow the lesser lamps in rooms of pain, Where nurse and doctor watch- the joyless breath, Drawn in a sigh, and sighing lost again. Who waits without the threshold, Life or Death? Reckon you loss or gain? To all, alert and faithful in the night, May there be Light! —George Stirling.