Poetry.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2525, 15 September 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

Poetry.

FOR AN AUTOGRAPH. Though did tlio thought and oft exprest, 'Tis his at last who says it best— I'll try my fortune with the rest, Life is a leaf of papnr white Whereon each one of us may writo His word or two, and then conies night. " Lo, time and space enough," we cry, "To write an epic !" so we try Our nibs upon the edge, and die. Muse not which way the pon to hold ; Luck hates the slow and loves the bold ; Soon come tho darkness and the cold. Greatly begin ! though thnu have time But for i\ line, be that sublime— Not failure, but low aim ia crime. Ah, with what lofty hope we came ! But we forgot it, dream of fame, And scrawl, as I do here, a name. Lowell. THE TERRORS OF CIVILISATION. The Injuns never teched him, Nor the b'nrs; An' the rattlers never bit him, An' the train robbers couldn't git him, On the cars. 'Twaa a frigid day an' drizzly When the Kocky Mountain grizzly Ever crep' within a rod of Jim, tho Scout; An' the catamount an' bison Never teched him more than pize.n, Which they allus more prefer to do without. But he moved into the city .fust for ftm, An' he sold his big shooter, An' he thought it would not do ter Keep Ms gun. But a muscular garroter, Who was not a legal voter, Robbed him of his watch and wallet like a child. Then a gas pipe overloaded Bust, and Jim he got exploded, An'came down considerably permiscuoun and riled. An' the bunco steerers fleeced him Left and right; An' the gamins uster hoot him, An' a slugger tried to shoot him T'other night. An' a hoodlum tried to skin him, An' an injine ran agin him, An'a herdic' an' a hoss-car, an' a dray ; An' agin, a little later, In a rotten elevator. He fell down thirteen stories in one day. An' his house, it caught afire T'other night, An , his gas meter exploded (Jim didn't know that it was loaded)— Awful sight ! An' his house was widely scattered, O'er the country it was spattered, In a shower of chunks and cindeis, so they said. Jim was so completely shivered, He ain't never been diskivered, But the coroner concluded he was dead. --Yankee Blade.