THE POET’S CORNER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9057, 23 January 1908, Page 2

THE POET’S CORNER.

THE MEN WHO TRY. O, I remember days of joy And nights of rolling fun. When all the world was gay and good »And we "were twenty-one. Onr feet were set on shining slopes That led to golden heights, The future shone before our eyes Alight with starry lights. We vowed to mould the world anew— All crooked things make straight; To sow the seed with tireless hauds, Aud toil, and till, and wait. And now and then, by night and day, We turned to. pluck a rose—: A blue-eyed girl, a glass of wine, An hour of sweet repose. Alas! alack! those years are sped. Those hero days are done ; We do not dream the dreams we dreamt When we were twenty-one. We tried, and tried with might and main To reach the shining crest. But failed, yet earned the fame of those — The men who do their best. For he who does his best does well He gives the world his all— A little force, a shaping thought, A clarion forward-call. It may be, while he mourns bis fate— His soul’s ungrasped desire— That from his dim and dying spark Another lights his fire. There is a crowp. for those who fail, Who sit cast-down and grieve ; For more than triumph often seems The effort to achieve. The old hopes have shed their gleam, The gold remains unwon; Thank God, though we be grey and pale. The world is twenty-one. —Roderick Quinn,