VIA SOLITARIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2107, 9 January 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

VIA SOLITARIA.

(Found imanc Longfellow's paper* after hit death ; not yet in any collection of his works. l Alonk I walk the peaceful city Where each seerai happy with hit own. Ob, f riendi ! I ask not for your pity ; I walk alone. No more for me your lake rejoices, Though moved by loving aiw of Juno ; Ah, birds ! your uweat and piping voices Are out of tune 1 In vain for me the elm-tree arches Its plumes in many a feathery spray ; In vain the evening's starry marchei And sunlit day. In vain your beauty, summer flowers ; You cannot greet thoie cordial eyes ; They gaze on other fields than ours— On other skied. The gold is rifled from the coffer, The blade is stolen from the sheath ; Life has but one more boon to offer, And that is— death. Yet well I know the voice of duty, And therefore life and health must crave, Though she who gave the world its beauty Is in her grave. I live, O lost one, for the living, Who drew their earliest life from thee, And wait until, with glad thanksgiving, I shall be free For life to me is as a station Wherein apart a traveller stands— Ono absent long from home and nation v In other lands. And I a«i he who stands and listens Amid the twilight's chill and gloom ; To hear approaching in the dißtanc* The train for home. For death shall bring anothernneeting Beyond the shadows of the tomb ; On yonder shore a bride is waiting Until I come In yonder field are children playing, ► And there, Oh vision of delight I I seethe child and mother straying In robes of white. Thou, then, the longing heartthat breaker, Stealing its treasures one by one, I'll call thee blessed, when thou uiakest The parted— one.