OLD SCENES.

Southland Times, Issue 592, 16 November 1866, Page 3

OLD SCENES.

Old scenes ! how they in memory r iso Since I hare bid this long adieu ;° Spanned o'er ■with bright and sunny skies, That never looked so clear and blue ; Nor yet thy spreading -floods, so fair, Though young spring decked each leafy bough, I saw them beautiful while there, But not as fancy paints them now. Ten thousand miles of ocean roll, That spot and where I stand, between, Yet river, dale, and wooded knoll, Are to the eye distinctly seen, As when I roved in by-gone days Old England's fertile fields among, And heard the skylark's warbled lay, Or listened to the thrush's song. And smiling faces croud them too, The loved, the far away, the lost, Who round my path a halo threw, Weaving the chain that bound the most. And gentle words, from voices dear, Come floating to me as I roam, To sootb. the wanderer even here, And whisper he is loved at home. V.M. • SUMMER'S EVE. 'Tis sunset, one of those fair eves That oft, in summer time, \ A softness all Italian sheda O'er our Australian clime. A roseate smile is tinting all : — Hill, valley, flower, and tree, Are sleeping in that pensive light We rather feel than see. I wander to the forest forth, And, musing on the scene, , Its beauty and its stillness watch. With spirit most serene. I feel as though the peace and calm Of some new world were found, And hushed for ever more the din Of that which lies around. Yet, brooding there in loneliness, Methinks I seem to learn The worth and beauty of that life From which I fain would turn. How beautiful ! if wrong would cease, And selfishness would flee, Oh! who would sigh for solitude If such a world could be? Hues, bright as those of this fair eye, Would then life's scenes pervade, And shades as calm and soft come on, Whene'er those hues should fade; Grlory would then be linked with peace, Power, with light and love, Till Paradise wonld rather seem Around us, than above ! B. A. W.