Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/143

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Saturday Night.
107
Childhood glad in its radiance brief,Happiest -hearted or bowed with grief,Meet alike, as the stars look downWeek by week on the crowded town.
  And in a kingdom of mystery  Rapt from this weariful world to see  Magic sights in the yellow glare,  Breathing delight in the gas-lit air,  Careless of sorrow, of grief or pain,  Two by two, again and again,  Strephon and Chloe together move  Walking in Arcady, land of love!
What are the meanings that burden allThese murmuring voices that rise and fall?Tragedies whispered of, secrets told,Over the baskets of bought and sold;Joyous speech of the lately wed;Broken lamentings that name the dead:Endless runes of the gossip’s rede;And, gathered home with the weekly need,Kindly greetings, as neighbours meetThere in the stir of the busy street.
Then is the glare of the gaslight rayGifted with potency strange to-day.Records of time-written historyFlash into sight as each face goes by.There as the hundreds slow moving go,Each with his burden of joy or woe,Souls, in the meeting of strangers’ eyesStartled this kinship to recognize,Meet and part, as the stars look downWeek by week on the crowded town.
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