Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 650, 25 January 1869, Page 4

Select Poetry.

WISHING. ©F all amusements of the mind. From logic down to ilshing, There is not one that you can And So very cheap as -wishing; A very choice diversion, too, If we but rightly use it, And not, as we are apt to do, Pervert it and abuse it. I wish—a common wish indeed— My purse was somewhat fatter; That 1 might help the child of need, And not my pride to flatter; That I might make oppression reel, As gold can only make it, And break the tyrant's rod of steel, As gold can only break it.

1 wish —that sympathy and lovo, And every human passion That has its origin above, Would come and keep in fashion; That scorn and jealousy and hate, And every base emotion, "Were hurled clown fifty fathoms deep Below the waves of ocean.

I wish—that friends were always true, And motives always pure; I wish the good were not so few, I wish the bad were fewer; I wish that parsons ne'er forgot To heed their pious teaching; I wish that practising was not So different from preaching.

J wish—that modest worth might be Appraised by truth and candour; I wish that innocents were free From treachery and slander ; I wish that men their vows would mind, That women ne'er were rovers ; I wish that wives wore always kind, And husbands always lovers.

I wish—in fine—that joy and mirth, And every good ideal, May come erewhile throughout the earth To be a glorious real; Till Gon shall every creature bless With his snpremest blessing, And hope be lost in happiness, And wishing be possessing.