ORIGINAL POETRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 256, 20 May 1880, Page 2

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE MAN IN THE .MOON Part I—By Omboa. Within that city, scarce a thing Yet told of man's awakening— The air was still, and over head The hov'ring mist was fleek'd with red — So faint, so frail, you scarce could say Where 'gan the rose, wl. ere fled the gray ; But quick the dawn, with feet of flame, Along the ilush'd horizon came, And as he leapt with beacon fire> Lighting the vane of many a spire, Each, as the lustre onward flew, Like Mcnmon's statute, vocal grew, From thousand mouths Time's iron tongue Forth on the startled silence rung, Telling that truth so soon forgot, That while man slumbers lie doth not;

As ceased the chime, the spirit heard A rustling sound of one who stirr'd From sleep : 'twas only where Some Lazarus, who slumber'd. late, Bensath the porch of Dives' gate, Had roused him from his lair! The clock's shrill voice, the morning beam, Had driven from his brain a dream As swe 't as e'er was shed O'er martyr's cottch, for in the sleep Which o'er him hun er born did creep, He dreamt that he was dead : He remembered the cold and biting air, And gaunt, di-ease and pain, Hunger and thirst, and long despair, And life itself—as things that were, But ne'er should be again, And up and up his spirit flies, Heavn's holy gate to win, E'en now its splendour fills his eyes ; Hark ! angels sing within, The gate is won I ———the vagrant woke, Beside the rich rnan's. door ; The morning had already broke, And tr e bell was chiming four.

The wond'ring spirit turned to scan The spot whence came the sound : A human shape— an aged man, With palsied limbs, and features wan, Rose ghostlike from tlie ground > The- spirit gazed 'upon his face With a long and anxious look : Each hidden thought he there could trace, lnd read as in a book ; But as he mark'd the blott'd page Where tears had branded deep That fleshly scroll—from youth to age r kle turned himself to weep, For back that chronicle of time .. Went through forgotten years : An age of want, a youth of crime,. An infancy of tears ; Back went that register of woe Through many a sorrow past: The word of scorn the wan to- blow, And infamy at last; It spoke of soul alike and limb Bowd'd down by prison chain, Of hope once felt —but who for him Must never wake again ; It told of a heart which might have been A thing for God to own, Ere yet the foul enchanter, Sin, Had turned it into stone, Ere yet it harden'd 'neath the frown That wealth can lend the weak j I said that tears were flowing down The pitying angel's cheek, And if perchance- yon ask of me The reason why they Fe'l, Wethinks the spirit wept to sec >Surh anguish out of hell! " And, oh! " he cried, "is this fhe earth For which I dared to pine, And deemed such pangs upon it, worth The peacefuhuss of mine ? One step below yon angel sphere, Ma" made by God, I weened, Nor guessed tlmtfiiiit- had left him here But one above the Fiend, And th u, unfrtunate," he sai", " Go, get thee to thy narrow bed, Where the world-weary sleep : Where'er thy waging lot be east r A worse, a wearier than the last, Thou scarce canst have to weep." That day at noon, twelve men were met By the corpse of a vagrant old— They talk'd of the weather : some prophesied wet, And some predicted cold ; A coroner came, and talked as erst Of life's uncertain span, And then desired the jury first To view the lifeless man. Th?y saw where the teeth of famine and frost Had pinched the wrinkled skin Till its shrunken fold could scarcely hold The skeleton frame within. They saw the mark upon his brow Where the hoof of the Fiend had trod, And they turned and said that the man was dead By tli6 visitation of Go 1 I Meanwhile the fath'ring sound of feet Kose frequent o'er the peopled street And like a summer hive When wak>s at once the busy swarm With thousand slimes of human form The 1 city seem'd alive. Fondly the spirit had dreamed above Of youth and beauty wed to love And thron'd in features fair He sought their seraph home to trace In every passing form and face, But life alone was there. Boyhood was there without its glee And youth without its prime, Atxl the strength of manhood seemingly Grown old before its time. And woman's pole and sickly cheek Beat like a blossom down, Which grows in pride- by the wild wood .-'do, But droops within the town. Oh, not by creatures like to this, The olden world was trod,. When man went proudly o'er the earth, The counterpart of God ! Nearer in your descent were yo From that immortal siro Who tlm.n-'dthe hrlls of Nineveh, Or dwelt in lordly Tyre ; Or, ye on whose" array I shimet A noon and summer nigl t,When by the vale of Ajalon Ye chas'd the Amorite ! So deemed the spirit as he passed Beneath an ample shade, Where rose on cither side the street A winding colonnade ; B.'vond a lofty column stood, Within an open space, The statute of some warrior bold Was at the top —a woman old Was weeping at tho base (To be Continued.)