Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/116
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80
A Leaf from a Fly-book.
For our horses in their long sleep where we sent them out to die,
To an exile past retrieval and return?
To an exile past retrieval and return?
The girls who tingled, waiting at the slip-rails, quick to hear
The ring of hoofs at moonrise through the trees—
Will they waken for a moment from their love-sleep, with a tear
For the silent hoofs at rest across the seas?
The ring of hoofs at moonrise through the trees—
Will they waken for a moment from their love-sleep, with a tear
For the silent hoofs at rest across the seas?
Their bones are glistening on the veldt, their shoes are rusted red,
They are gone where spur and rifle are at rest.
Good dreams to all that legion of the blind, obedient dead!
Good pasture in their islands of the blest!
They are gone where spur and rifle are at rest.
Good dreams to all that legion of the blind, obedient dead!
Good pasture in their islands of the blest!
M. C. Keane.
XLV.
A Leaf from a Fly-book.
The king’s road is a troublous summons calling day and day;
But my feet take the cocksfoot track—the easy, vagrant way:
Beside the restless acres and the gold of noisy gorse,
The ripple lures its lover down the dazzle of its course.
But my feet take the cocksfoot track—the easy, vagrant way:
Beside the restless acres and the gold of noisy gorse,
The ripple lures its lover down the dazzle of its course.