P0ETRY. SONGS OF MEMORY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 314, 7 November 1888, Page 5

PO E T R Y. SONGS OF MEMORY.

I. Oh. memory ! wondrous memory. Thank God for the joy thou dost Rive, There is sunshine in tliee "when without in the woild It ib almost too cold to live. The scent of sweet spring flowers, In a quiet country lane. Where steals the sunlight through the trees, After a day oi! rain. Theio's a sound of dancing brooklets, And seas of yellow corn, Vf hich rise and iall with a heavy swell In the freshening breeze of morn. A mingling of song and laughter On the hayfields fragrant breath Where the bordering oaks with their spreading arms Invite to the shade beneath. There are swallows' nests, deserlod Clingine beneath the eaves, 'Midst the golden glo y of autumu And the splendour of falling leaves. And the frost coming down on the hedges] Doth silently lock up the ground ; And the highways ring to the horses' hoofs With a quick metallic sound. And a beautiful land lies shrouded, White and silent and dead ; Whilst tho sun through the misty distance Sinks down to his cloudy bed.4 ' There are thoughts of a year that is dying - Dying away in the night ; And the bolls ring him out in the darkness And ring in the new with delight.

n. Oh bygone times ! oh ringing chimes ! Come back to me again ; Oh happy dreams ! oh golden gleams ! Como back and soothe my pain

111. But am I right to wish for case and pleasure, Or respire froni the strife ? To pray for holidays, a child just learning The mysteries of life ? Still I can roam through Memory's fields and forests, And sail across its seas ; It brings me strength, the contemplation Of such sweet themes as these. -- OIIESIIIR CIIIMDS,

Writes "Augur": — L hear there is a chance of tho Melbourne Cup being increased to live thousand sovereigns, with a sweepstako of SOsovs added, nominators to see their weights for iivo sovereigns, and the second payment to be five sovereigns. What a stake this would make the gieat handicap of the year.