Verse – Old & New

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20068, 14 October 1939, Page 2

Verse - Old & New

; Cupidity “Greed olavcd an avaricious game: -And when the years had summed a score. He clutched the lusted fruit ot fame . . . • , A ruthless worm had pierced tne -core. --Katnarine Welles Wheeler, in . th e ..•Christian Century. “• Hibiscus Out in the.rain I saw the pink flowcis growing, , . Their big white eyes a-glancing on the lawn. Wondering no doubt why tropic suns weren’t showing, And how had they come in a land that looked- grey dawn. Fog wreathed the hills, and blotted sky and distance, And through hibiscus the borer drilled- his way, Oni? branch had gone after long resistance, . Now," a second was dropping in decay. , , Ah, like a life that holds much stress and .sadness, Whilst their heart is breaking out ot, sight, . Striving to show a face of glow and gladness Whilst they put up a silent desperate fight. prMary Ramsay Ellen Blair, Kaiti. Fifty Years Married From our homes both far and near We come to the old roof tree, All your branches -and their twigs For this day of jubilee. For' fifty years you’ve .travelled -together Through fair and stormy weather. You ibave known tears and fears, And stern endeavour, Also joy and happiness. And on this 20th of December We want you to know that we remember . . All’-your thoughts for us and giving,. All your work and selfless living, All your love and sacrifice. And from great grandson To eldest daughter Our hope for you is this, That you’ve anchored in calm water Of a bright and peaceful .bay. And that God’s love will fold you Till the glory of .his sunset ends your day. —Olive Stichbury, Wairoa. Nostalgia 1 wish the gates of Time had nevei opened To bid me be One with the broken buds and shallow*'"streams of Mortality. Rather my feet bad kept their own high faring Above despair— Loving alone the ones that love me caring For things that care. Never to feel the last down-trodder flutter Of hopes that die: Still to be lost in some great, glad eternal • ’ Expanse of sky. Never to lose with joy and grievt with winning, Nor yet to hold Against my breast the corpse of that beginning. Austere and cold. .Great God of life that reigns above the morrow Of star and sun, Friend of my soul in its unspoken sorrow, The only One . . Set me to find the Gates that oper outward Through sin and strife, To that great peace I knew before this knowledge Of love and life. —R. H. Grenville, in “Canadian Poetry Magazine.”

Dying' Summer “It seems but yesterday I saw her rise .. A radiant child beneath the April skies, Wearing her primrose gown ot purity; “It seems but yesterday I saw her stand, Bearing a gift of roses in her hand, n all the splendour of maturity; ‘lt seems but yesterday I looked to see Her laden arms beneath the apple-tree Amid the fragrance of the har-vest-breath: “But yesterday —and now, m sombre kold, ' With frosty hair and gown serenely old, She treads the quiet path to sleep and death.” -Reginald C. Eva in Chambers’s Journal. In An English Cathedral ‘High shrime of beauty which men’s hands have reared. To utter forth their dreams of truth and God, Though your foundation is the lowly sod, ‘'’rein your fair aisles the multitudes have peered into far heaven, finding there the prize Df soul-content their cities have not brought. By your sweet art their spirits have been taught The lore of angels. Their earthweary eyes Have looked at last upon a world secure. Your hallowed pillars stand while nations fall. From faithless science your, dim altars call To reverence, to life that shall endure. As kingdoms rock and saintly souls rep'ine We find hearts’ home in you, beloved shrine.” —Thomas Curtis Clark in the Churchman of New York.