Select Poetry.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 99, 23 November 1868, Page 281

Select Poetry.

-.'""o’j'ojY cirX-fSONGS;x’*»-v *;.. T : vr? • fftfiW'Songs df oU. tbey comotoua, ?-? K 'KWj l-Anditakepossessionofour heart; ,ait i-jTh® wprd%are4^cle,. the measure strange, i„,/» peyoidofc praamentbrari, j•, ..< \ Ahd-yefc;they toiich'adeeper depth— - ; >.<- i: y 'JBring ■wajmer teaia toilUl the eyes— y 'i; charm Than finer, songs in finer guise. ; " Tlieir,words weregatheredon Brown moors ■’Amidthe.heather helled andred; •• Or where green fems and mosses draped v> ' The mountain-torrent’s roclcyfced; .* „ Or. where'in woodlands grey the groups _ ' . Of yellow primrose loved to blow; Or in the fleld where white moonshine * 1 . . Ir Lay glistening on Iresh-fallen snow. Their tones were borrowed from the birds ’, That sang at eve upon the-trees; t j Or where the surges charged the cliff, '' Swift risiug from the foam-flecked seas; ■ i Or where the-winds made bitter wail, Above oldgraces in, churchyards lone :< Or where in foxgloves summer bees Were sounding their'deep monotone. • _ And these combined, .the songs were made ; ' By men who kne w the midpight foe, - s -'Who caught the arrow on the shield, Ahd swung the sharp sword’s fatal blow; Who held the helm of rolling ships, .' *: r And steered-,their course by ice cliffs bare : ,i ~ Who hunted wolves upon, the hills, Or fibnted lions intheir lair. And. some ngjjMfiifehy women whose ; with salt tears* rain, at home - ; - those again ; ; Who broke ttiehr heartsln dungeons deep , Of gloomy castles closely, pent,- ' Or withered slow in foreign lands, - Doomed to a life-long banishment. And these old songs bear in them now' ' The spirit of the writers’days: * Each word a well-of their old life • . . . Which rises as the tune we raise; And lo l there, flows fromJhiem to us *. “ ' The feeling, be it stern or pweet, And with its added volume makes Oar smaller, shallower lives complete; * ‘ —Chambers.