TO MARY

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 10 April 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

TO MARY

Would I wore lying in a field of clover, Of clover tool and soft, and aoft and SWt'Ct, With dusky cloud* in deop skies hanging over, And scented silence at my head and feet. Jimt for one hour to «!i|> the lea-fh of worry, In eager haste, from thought's impatient nnck, And watch it coursing in ita heedless hurry, Disdaining wisdom's call and duty's bock. , Ah ! it were sweet where clover clumps are nutting And d.iisies hiding, so to hide tho reit ; No sound PKcept my own heart's Hteady beating, Rocking itself to sleep within my breast. ' Just to he there, filled with the deeper breathing That comes of listening to a wild bird'i sonc! Our souls require at time* thia full tinsheathing — ' All swords will ruHt if «cabb»rd-kept too long. And I Jim tired— *o tired of rigid duty, " So ttrod of all my trrcd hand* find to do ? I yearn, I faint for some of life's free • beauty, IU loose beads with no straight string i running thro' J t Aye laugh, if laugh you will, at my Crud« speech ; But women sometimes die of «uch £ gree4— .Die for the small joys hold beyond their reach, . And the assurance they have all they need !

When you are wrapped in happy sleep fi l walk about your house by night, i With many a wistful, stealthy peep ■■At what I've loved by morning light. Tour head is on the pillow laid, ' My f«et are where your footsteps were ; ! Yoar *iul to other lands h*« strayed, My heart can hear you breathe and stir. I seat me in your wonted chair, And opo your book a little space ; f I touched the flowers that knew your care, i The mirror that reflects your 1 face. I kiss the pen that spoke your thought, ' ' The spot whereon you knelt to pray ; • The message with your wisdom fraught, ■ Writ down on paper yesterday. ,The garment that you lately wore, ' The threshold that your stop goes by, The mu v ic that you fingered o'er, 1 The picture that contents your eye. Yet when you wake from happy sleep, And, bu«sy here and busy there, You take your wonted morning peep At what is good and what is fair. " She has been here," you will not say, My prying face you will not find ; "You'll think "She ia a mile away." My love hath left no mark behind.

So here we part, but ere I go 1 Bid me God speed on my way ; Your path leads through valleys green, Mine to the desert pray. Blithely the bird* shall carol for you ; And flowers shall spring on either hand, j For your path leads to tho Garden of Lote, < But mine to the barren sand. Cool waters Bhall flow beside your feet, Refreshing each flower and vine ; Yours shall be love and the warm fireside, While the cold wild world is mine. Then sometime, when you're all alone, Memory's scroll unfold, And give one kind thought to the old, dead love —Who is out in the night and the cold. And if you and I once more should meet, As are have met in the olden time, °And I in the same low votee iftpeat ' The tender tale of the old love rhyme. Would it bring b.ick the same old time ? * Or will the heart I loved havo colder grown ? <For hearts will change— l suppose they rauHt, And a rose to be lasting must blossom in , stone. 'A^i, well, a«hi>f» to ishe« and dn«t to duat. Is the rose dead, with the love and the tnut ? The roie given pleasure, the thorns give ■ pain, But a rose once dead cannot blouom HP* 0 *

TO Tlv wiidom speaks in me, nnri bid* me d»r<? tipACon the rocks on which high hearts are wrecked. Shrllfy. i "Ho who shall find the key, must he be * brave I Comely and strong of limb, with iron heart And intellect of fire, owning a pirt Of the Promethean energy, » slave !to nothing but the highest sense of right * Qt one of gentler mould, » being bred , j In, * diviner school, whose reverent head Bqws down in adoration of the> Light? ' May nonp in humbler spheres claim (he ? "Might one, whoso only paisporfc to thy grace Ii that he loves theo, hope to find the key ; , Endowed' With huifflii aoFrb'w^ yet how< - t^st ~TJT Irf-th.Tt he cowereth 'inder jis flls^race And feareth nothing, 'nkVt>~ disdain from thee? „ Wniknto. ».