Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/230
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194
Immortality.
Fair blessings wait upon our earthly race
And passion of completeness lights her face
Who walks in benedictions royally.
But if just shaping-out of life below
Make it my fortune less than all to know,
What failure? When did Fate and I agree
That every earthly good should visit me?
And passion of completeness lights her face
Who walks in benedictions royally.
But if just shaping-out of life below
Make it my fortune less than all to know,
What failure? When did Fate and I agree
That every earthly good should visit me?
CXXXII.
Immortality.
At twenty-five I cast my horoscope,
And saw a future with all good things rife—
A firm assurance of eternal life
In worlds beyond, and in this world the hope
Of deathless fame. But now my sun doth slope
To setting, and the toil of sordid strife,
The care of food and raiment, child and wife,
Have dimmed and narrowed all my spirit’s scope.
And saw a future with all good things rife—
A firm assurance of eternal life
In worlds beyond, and in this world the hope
Of deathless fame. But now my sun doth slope
To setting, and the toil of sordid strife,
The care of food and raiment, child and wife,
Have dimmed and narrowed all my spirit’s scope.
Eternal life—a river gulfed in sands!
Undying fame—a rainbow lost in clouds!
What hope of immortality remains
But this: “Some soul that loves and understands
Shall save thee from the darkness that enshrouds;”
And this: “Thy blood shall course in others’ veins?”
Undying fame—a rainbow lost in clouds!
What hope of immortality remains
But this: “Some soul that loves and understands
Shall save thee from the darkness that enshrouds;”
And this: “Thy blood shall course in others’ veins?”