Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 375, 10 May 1866, Page 1

Select Poetry.

SOONER OE LATEE. SO ONE E or later the storm shall heat Over my slumber from head to feet; Sooner or later the -winds shall rave In the long grass above my grave. I shall not heed them where I lie, Nothing their sound shall signify. Nothing the headstone’s fret of rain. Nothing to me the dark day’s pain. Sooner or later the sun shall shine With tender warmth on. that mound of mine. Sooner or later in Summer air. Clover and violet blossom there. 1 shall not feel in that deep-laid rest The sheeted light fall over my breast. Nor ever note in those hidden hours, The wiud-blown breath of the tossing flowers. Sooner or later the stainless snows Shall' add their hush to my mute repose. • Sooner or later shall slant and shift. And heap my bed with their dazzling drift. Chill though the frozen pall shall seem, Its touch no colder can make the dream That recks not the sweet and sacred dread Shrouding the city of the dead.. Sooner or later the bee shall come And HU the noon with his golden hum; Sooner or later on half-poised wing The blue-bird’s warble about me ring,— Eing and chirrup, and whistle with glee. Nothing his music means to me, None of these beautiful things shall know How soundly their lover sleeps below. Sooner or later, far out in the night, The stars shall over me wing their flight; Sooner or later my darkling dews Catch the white spark in their silent ooze. Never a ray shall part the gloom That raps me round in the kindly tomb; Peace shall be perfect for Up and brow Sooner or later, —O, why not now ? Harriet E. Prescott.