2 OCTOBER 1915, Page 29

POETRY.

TO MY PUPILS, GONE BEFORE THEIR DAY.

You seemed so young, to know

So little, those few months or years ago, Who may by now have disentwined The inmost secrets of the Eternal Mind.

Yours seemed an easy part.

To construe, burn some trivial lines by heart:

Yet to your bands has God assigned The burden of the sorrows of mankind.

You passed the brief school year

In expectation of some long career,

Then yielded up all years to find That long career that none can leave behind.

If you had lived, some day

You would have passed my room, and chanced to say, "I wonder if it's worth the grind Of all theise blunders he has underlined."

Perhaps! if at the end You in your turn shall teach me how to mend The many errors whose effect Eternity awaits us to correct. GUY KENDA.I.L.