POETRY.
PAUL KRUGER.
DEEP mournful eyes that seek the ground
The devious path to trace ; The giant form of Lincoln, crowned By Cromwell's grosser face ; Coarse rustic garb, of uncouth cut, That masks each mighty limb; Its shapeless folds the ready butt Of Europe's jesters trim.
So much the crowd can see; the rest Asks critics clearer-eyed: So rough a scabbard leaves unguessed How keen the blade inside : The trenchant will, the subtle brain So strangely doomed to wage With Destiny's still climbing main The hopeless war of Age.
His kindred are a rugged brood That nurse a dying fire : TIV eons of Calvin's bitter mood, d sterner than their sire.
By !with through trackless deserts steered, Lost miles of lonely sand, Far from the intruding world they feared, They found their Promised Land.
By such grim guardians tutored well His Spartan childhood grew. The wind-trail of the fleet gazelle, The lion's path he knew; The camp surprised at dawn, the rush
Of feet, the crackling smoke, When on the sleeping laager's hush
The sudden Kaffir broke.
Nay, once, 'tis said, when Vaal in flood Had barred the hunters' way, And 'mid its swollen current stood A wounded buck at bay; While some before the brute drew back, And some before the wave ; Striding that torrent's foaming track The mercy-stroke he gave.
A stream more rapid and more wide His strength has stemmed since then! Called from the plodding team to guide The starker wills of men : Chance-prenticed to so new a trade, Unlettered and unschooled, The clod-bred clownish peasant made, No less, a realm, and ruled.
Yet though that realm he still sustains Against an Empire's might ; And with untiring skill maintains The so unequal fight; He buys his victories all too dear Whose foes have Time for friend : Each fatal triumph brings more near The inevitable end.
Haply the hoarse-voiced grins must close The long debate at last, Ere the young Future can compose Its quarrel with the Past : Natheless, our England unashamed May greet a foeman true Of her own stubborn metal framed: For She is iron too.
EDWARD SYDNEY TYLER.
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