IN OFFERING

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1919, Page 11

IN OFFERING

From Achill came an offering, Sweet gale and asphodel Plucked from a copper pool, Wild aster like a quivering, Gold-hearted soldanel. My brown faun dancing on the shore, I took it all and asked for more. I am your lover and a Fool ! I took it all and asked for more, The hand that gathered them. The slant Puck-eyes that make Their laughing plea in my heart's core, The blossom on the stem : To cool my cheek in your wild hair Entangled round me like a snare And lie beside you till you wake ! I cannot send you myrrh or musk. As gage of love, take these • * .-■ ■- -■**.- Poor flowers. Beloved, see These daisies gathered in thedusk' .'' ; Beneath stripped apple-trees. These hawthorn berries, one bull-rush, This tattered ragwort, the wine-blush Of lovely hemp-agrimony ! They're like my heart, outworn and old And lonely for the sun. They once were glad and new, But wind has blown them and the cold Rain cruel havoc done. They're withered now and battered sore, They never will bear seed : their store Of life is spent, death overdue! S., in New Ireland.