Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 993, 15 April 1871, Page 2

Select Poetry.

AT ROME DURING THE WAR. 'Tis only a woman left behind while the men go forth to fight! She hushed her cry as she let them go, and her eyes were strangely bright; Husband, and brother, and son went out, and she bade them each good-bye, And turned with a stifled cry to heaven, " Oh, God, if but one should die •! " Only a woman left behind ! and the ripened corn to reap. And the children's wants to be heard and met, so s!;e has scant time to weep. " The winter months will be coming on when they're home from the war again " ; And the woman's hands are deftly used, while her heart is sad with pain. Some must be lost, she gravely thinks; but hers ! not hers, indeed ! The terrible guns will surely spare her dear ones to her need. But her thoughts are prayers through the anxious days, and her eyes with tears are dim, And she lifts them up to the God of love, for her hope is fixed on Him. There is none to tell how in one fell fight, after brief and direful pain, Her bravest ones were trampled down, never to rise again. But soon, too soon, she will know the worst in her lonely widowed home, After waiting long and wearily for the feet that never come. Oh, God, have mercy ! we can but cry, as the dreary days go on, And scatter the men who delight in war, till the wicked strife be done ; And go to the homes made desolate, till the women, alone and sad, Have learnt how great is Thy mighty love, that can make e'en sorrow glad. Marianne Farningham.