14 AUGUST 1909, Page 18

POETRY.

You're eyes have penetrated to the naked end, Stared through the aching emptiness of space; In the inexorable years, was there no friend To bring some thought of gladness to your face P Did you find nothing in the bills and forests, fair, Nor flower nor fern, nor cedar-tree with shade, And beauty but a mirage, mocking your despair,

Long silence and shadows your answer when you prayed? I would that I could read what made you sad and wise, And, robed in silence, why you change continually, As changes come where even the great stillness lies, To those who watch, familiar with the sea.

I think, as every generation passes by, There are some souls that keep the cool of dawn, Whose eyes on cloudy days reflect the clear blue sky, Whose feet at noon still tread a frozen lawn.

The eagerness that once you surely had was spent As seed on sand, as toil upon the sea.

Did God, Whose thought was in the dawn He sent, Send only that grey light to comfort thee ?

Ascetic, splendid dreamer, was the end of dreams Faith lost, and hope that overshot the mark, Lost in the light of fickle mountain streams, While tides were marching dawnward through the dark ?

BEN KENDIM.