Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1191, 7 December 1871, Page 2

Select Poetry.

TEE SHADOW OH THE WALL,

My home a stately dwelling is. With lofty arching doors; There is carving pn the ceilings high, And velvet on the floors; A rich and costly building, Where noiseless servants wait, And 'neath the escutcheon's gilding None enter but the great. But a happier home is near it, a humble cottaga small, And I envy its sweet mistress the shadows on he? wall. My pictures are the pride of Art, And drawn by cunning hands ; But the painted figures never move. Nor change the painted lands ; Before the poorest window More gorgeous pageants glide, Within the lowliest household More lifelike groups abide ; And I turn from soulless symbols, that crowd my gloomy hall, To watch the shifting shadows upon the cottage wall. My stately husband never bends Tq kiss me on the lips; His heart is in his iron safe, His thoughts are with his ships; But when the twilight gathers Adown the dusky street, The little housewife listens For sounds of coming feet; And by the gleaming firelight I see a figure tall Bead down to kiss a shadow, a shadow on the walL My garden palings, broad and high, Shut in its costly spoils, And through the ordered paths all day The silent gardener toils.; My neighbor's is a grass-plat, With a hardy huttercup, Where children's dimpled fingers J'ujl dandelions up— Where on a baby's silken head all day the sunbeam*, fall, Till evening throws its shadows upon the cottage wali ? My petted lapdog, warm and soft, Nestles upon my knee ; My birds have shut their diamond eyes That love to look for me; Lonely I watch my neighbor, And watching can but weep, To see her rock her darlings Upon her breast asleep. Alas ! my doves are gentle, my dog comes at ray But there i% no childish shadow upon my chamber wall. My beauty is the talk of fools, And by the gaslight's glare Jn glittering dregs and gleaming gems, I know that I am fair; But there is something fairer, Whose charm in loving lies, And there is something dearer, The light of happy eyes. So 1 retnrn triumphant, queen of the brilliant ball. To envy the sweet shadow of the housewife on th% wall. My earthly lot is rich and higfy And hers js poor and low; Yet I would give my heritage Her deeper joys to know ; For husbands that are lovers Are rare in all the hiids, And hearts grow fit for heaven, Moulded hy childish hands. And while I go up lonely, before the Judge of all, A cherub troop will usher the shadow on the wall. —Australasian.