Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 745, 20 December 1869, Page 4

Select Poetry.

THJE ffIJMPEMED NAVTILW.

This is the ship of pearj which, pce.ts feign, Sails the unshadow'd The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfe enchanted, where the syren sings And coral reefs lie bare, Inhere the cold seamaids rise to s»n their streaming hair..

Its webs of living gauxe no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing cell, Before thee lies revealed — Its iris'd pej}ing rent, its sunless crypt unsealed I

Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last found home, and knew the pld no more..

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, Child of the wandering sea, Cast from her lap, forlorn, From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought J hear a voice that sings:—?

(l Build thee more stately mansions, 0 ray soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave the low-vaulted Past ? Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from Heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine out-grown shell by Life's unresting sea!"

Oliver Wendell Holmes.