SELECT POETRY. AT HOME DURING THE WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 170, 11 May 1871, Page 7

SELECT POETRY. AT HOME DURING THE WAR.

Tis only a woman left behincl^while the men go forth to fight ! She hushed fcer cry as she let them go, and her eyes were strangely bright ; Husband, and brother, and son went out, ami she bade them each good-bye. And turned with a stifled cry to heaven, " Oh, God, if but one should die ! " Only a woman left behind ! and the ripened corn to reap, Aud the ch'ldren's wants to bo heard and met, so she has scant time to weep. " The winter months will be coining on when they're home from the war again '* ; And the woman's hands are daftly used, while her heart is sad with pain. Some must be lost, she gravely thinks ; but hers ! — not hers, indeed !— The terrible guns will surely spare here dear . ones to her need. But her thoughts are prayers through the anxious days, and her eyes with tears are dim, And she lifts them up to the God of love, for her hope is fixed on Him. There is none to tell how in one fell fight, after brief and direful pain, Her bravest ones weie trampled down, never to rise again. But soon, fcoo soon, she will know the worst in her lonely widowed home. After waiting long and wearily for the feet that never come. Oh, God, have mercy ! we can but cry, as the dreary days go on, And scatter the men who delight in war, till the wicked strife be done ; And go to the homes made desolate, till the women, alone and sad, Have learnt how great is thy mighty lovo, that can make c'en sorrow glad. Makianke Fabningham.