Poetry.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 579, 22 May 1858, Page 3

Poetry.

SANTA, : . ;BY:H.. W. LONOFELLQMV Whene'er a'noble deedis wrought, Whene'er is spoken a noble thought; Our hearts, in glad surprise, To higher levels'rise; The tidaL wave of deeper souls Into our inmost being rolls, And lifts us unawares Out of all meaner cares. ; Honour to thoso whose words or deeds Thus help us in pur daily heeds; And by their overflow Raise us from,what is' low! Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches" cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp. The wounded from the battle plain, In dreary hospitals of pain, j The cheerless! corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery i A lady.with si lainpTse'e: ; ] Pass through the glimmering gloom, j And flit from room to room; | And slow,; as-in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon-the darkening walls* As if a door from heaven should be j Opened, and then closed suddenly, j The vision came and went=-- ; The light shone and-was spent. j On England's annals, through the long Hereafter'of her speech and song, That light its rays shall cast From portals of the past. A lady with a lamp shall stand In the> great- history ofsthe land, A noble type of good Her6ic"womanhood. Nor even shall be wanting here The palm, the lily, and the spear— The symbols that of yore Saint Filomena bore.-— Atlantic Monthly.