Select Poetry.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 18

Select Poetry.

THE SILENT CITY. There’s a city vast, yet voiceless, growing ever, street on street, Whither friends with friends e’er meeting, ever meeting, never greet j And where rivals, fierce and vengeful, calm and silent, mutely meet; Never greeting, ever meet. There are traders without traffic, merchants without books or gains ; Tender brides in new-made chambers, where the trickling water stains ; Where the guest forget to come, and strange, listening silence reigns; Listening silence ever reigns. Ships sail past this silent city, but their owners quiet lie, , . And no signals fly from top-tree gainst the glowing, crimson sky, Telling the neglectful owner that his wellbuilt Argosy For the Fleece is sailing by. Here the belle forgets the fashions, mindless of her snow-white dress j All unheeded now her toilet, free, ungathered, lock and tress; None here flatter face or figure, none come fondly to caress ; Tresses flow, and none caress. Hushed are all these many mansions, barred and bolted, door and gate ; Narrow all the walls and earthy, and the rooftrees steep and straight; Room for all! —the high and lowly. Rich and poor here equal mate: Equal dwell and equal mate. Flowers are blooming near these mansions, kissed by loving dews at night, Breathing softly round their porches, flowing through the cooling light, Pealing from their bells sweet music, pealing odors pure and white: Pealing only to the night. Here each keeps his well-ceiled dwelling, fearing naught of quarter-day ; Here no landlord duns the tenant, and no tenant moves away; Dwelling ever unevicted, dwelling on from May to May: Paying never quarter-day. Beckons ever this'mute city to its comrade living gay ; To its comrade laughing loudly, sitting on the pulsing bay; Drawing from its masqueraders, pale, white spectres, day by day ; Spectres now, men yesterday. Thus two cities grow forever, parted by a narrow tide, This the shadow, that the substance, growing by each other’s side ; Gliding one into the other, and forevermore shall glide : Growing ever side by side. LINES WRITTEN ON THE IMPRISONMENT BY THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OF MR. F. G. WORTH, A BRITISH SUBJECT. \_Civis Romanus Sami] “ No ono shall wrong an Englishman, “ * Sum civis Anglicanus’ “ Shall be as safe a talisman “ As ‘ Civis sum Romanus,’ “ In the palmiest days of Rome, when none “ Durst outrage ev’n her humblest son.” Such words by Palmerston were spoken, While the pleased Commons loudly cheered. But lo! The talisman is broken, And England’s name no more is feared. Who, then, has dared so bold a thing ? The Prussians old and pious King ! Immured in his prison dreary, Worth, a Briton, for weeks has lain; Who, victim of his tyranny, Invokes his country’s aid in vain. The charm “ Romanus civis sum” For hiD3) alas! proves all a hum, G.M.O.