Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/230
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194
Immortality.
Fair blessings wait upon our earthly raceAnd passion of completeness lights her face Who walks in benedictions royally.But if just shaping-out of life belowMake it my fortune less than all to know,What failure? When did Fate and I agreeThat 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 lifeIn worlds beyond, and in this world the hopeOf 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 remainsBut this: “Some soul that loves and understands Shall save thee from the darkness that enshrouds;” And this: “Thy blood shall course in others’ veins?”