Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/232

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The Sharing of the Earth.
All may not think their strains divinest rapture,But unto us their faintest echo seemsLike unto those that all our senses capture,Heard in the fairy realms of sweetest dreams;And the spell lies in touch of mem’ry’s fingersThat wakes within our hearts some answering note—A note whose blessed sweetness ever lingersLike the dear sounds from some rare song-bird’s throat;A lingering note that, from the past, doth borrowSomething of long-gone joy or half-sweet sorrow.

Clara Singer Poynter.

CXXXV.

The Sharing of the Earth.

(From Schiller.)

Take hence the world! cried Zeus from his heaven Unto mankind: take it, yours shall it be.To you the earth as heritage is given; But, sharing, dwell in amity.
In haste, whoso had hands, thereon fell slaving To win his share; so laboured young and old.The husbandman seized fields of gold corn waving, The young squire hunted deer in wood and wold.
The merchant rose, his warehouse goods securing, The abbot chose his share of last-year wine;The king stopped roads and bridges, with assuring Saying: “The tithes and tolls are mine.”
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