ORIGINAL VERSE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 263, 16 March 1911, Page 9

ORIGINAL VERSE

LOVELY PUKEKURA-A SOLILOQUY. Oh, lovely Pukekura Park, A week ago to-day I couched in leafy shadows dark And dreamed an hour away; The day was hot, with cloudless sky, So deep within the shade I heard the leaves' soft lullaby Which whispering music made Below, the lake in beauty lay, Where I, a careless boy, Have often through a summer's day Lived at the heart of joy. And in my youth I knew each walk, Each bush and seat and tree, And there is where we used to talk, Here hand in hand sat we; And lovers' leap and fern-tree dell, And sunny slopes we knew, How many charming places tell Of love, my dear, and you. And now the rush of hungry years Have trod poor Cupid down, And I am grey above the ears And you are Mrs. Brown, I fret not at passing time, The ardors of the boy, The years which bring the mellowing prime Have brought me deeper joy. And so T lie upon the slope, Look up into the blue And laugh at youthful love and hope And kiss a last adieu. 'Tis wiser to obliterate The past, mcthinks, and yet Time has no anodyne to date The heart will not forget. I gaze around on sky and hill, The scene is very fair, Til fall the heart that does not thrill To beauty's spirit there. So that around, above, below, Wherever eye can range, Fresh joys each jaded sense may know Calm in perpetual change. * i The lake, a sheet of purest glass Tn which reflected lie Each stately tree, each blade of grass And bank and hill and sky. And in its watery depths the eye May easily discern The darling of our southern sky, The graceful, filmy fern. And many a shape that trembles there As if in mute distress, Narcissus ravished to despair At his own loveliness. Where are the lads that once I knew, The soul instinct with truth, The trusted tender friends and true Companions of my youth? Ah, they are gone,'and I remain And yet do I but dream, T heard a merry song's refrain Come floating down 'the stream. And listen, finger on my lip, And up the valley then A ringing cry of comradeship, "no, Charley, Jack and Ben!" No answer, stillness in the air, Alas! the lads I knew Have slipped into the spaces fair Beyond tim.ejs utmost blue;

Yet, still the sense of beauty holds, Life yet has much to give, And in these scenes of loveliness One feels 'tis good to live. And so to Pukekura Park And this bravo greenery A long farewell! Our ship by dark Will be far out at sea, But wlicreso'er my path may lie, On land or on the blue A sailor's sweetest memories fly A long and last adieu! -EX-TARANAKI. Wellington, 6/3/11.