SELECT POETRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 111, 25 March 1862, Page 5

SELECT POETRY.

THE DEATH' OF ALtiEKT. (Front, tlie Lmidon Punch.) ••,■ Dcee'inbor 1-1, 1801. How should t hi' -'Prince <iie ? ■\Vitli veil spui-ileep in maddening ehanrrr's flank, Leatling the rush that .cleaves tli« fbr-m:m's rank, And shoutinc, sometimes, famous batile cry ? Eudiiifr a pleasure day, . Joy's painted gobiet fully drained and out, :: W'hilo weai-ied vassals coldly stand about, And con new homage, which they long to pay. So have the princes died, Nob:er and happisr far the fate that falls On him-who, 'mid yon aged castle walls,' Hears, as lie goes, the plash of Tiiames's tide. Gallant, high-natm-ed, brave, Oh ! had his lot been cast in warrior ('ays, No nobler knight had won the minstrel's praise, Than, he for whom the halt reared banners wave.' Or placed with gentle powers, : . The song, the pencil, and the lyre his own; ; Deigned he *t> live for pleasures thrall alone, None had more lightly sped the laughing hours. Better and nobler fate His, whom we claimed but yesterday, His, oure no more, his, round whose sacred clay, Tho death mute pages and the heralds wait.

It was too soon to die, Yet miirht we count his years by triumphs won, By'wise, and bold, and Christian duties done, It were no brief even less history.

This was his princely thought: .With all his varied.wisdom to repay Our trust and love, which on that Bridal Day The Daughter of the Isles for dowry brought.

For that he loved our Queen, «£• ■■-. And ibr lipt sake, the people of her love, ■■'■ Few and far distant names shall rank above ■■■ '■ His own, where England's cherished names are seen,

Could there be closer tie ■ , ~ '.-•'■ Twixt lis, who, sorrowing, own a nation's debt And her, our own dear Lady, who as yet Must meet her sudden woe with tearless eye.

When with a kind; relief Those eyes rain tears, O might this thought employ ! Him whom she loved, we loved. We shared her joy ..-■:■■. And will not be denied to share her grief.