11 FEBRUARY 1911, Page 12

POETRY.

THE PIONEER GEORGIC GREY, FEBRUARY 3, 1911.

HE heard the call of the wider spaces, The voice of the lonely land,

And his work was done in untrodden places, Where he held his life in his hand. In savage regions of blood and slavery, In haunts of horror and fear, He carried the flag with a steadfast bravery, A resolute pioneer.

With the wild, and the peril that lies behind it, He closed in a lifelong feud,

To find it at last—as all men find it—

Beaten but unsubdued.

So died as he lived—when the desert vastness, That waited the destined day, Sent forth its vengeance out of the fastness, Vengeance to strike and slay.