A Century of Emblems Part 12

THE BOOMERANG.

On isles within a distant zone, Where bows are slighted or unknown, Of toughest wood they say is made A missile with a curving blade, Which at an angle cleaves the air, And smites its victim unaware.

But, should a hand unskilful throw, It works an unexpected woe, Swift on its owner whirling back Like levin on its deadly track.

So from malicious lips slung forth, False words of calumny or wrath Recoil upon the utterer's heart, Inflicting with remorseful dart The festering wound, so slow to heal In b.r.e.a.s.t.s that are not bra.s.s or steel.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE WRONG PLACE.

Friend Colin reared his country seat Close to a group of n.o.ble trees, He blessed their shadows in the heat, He blessed their music in the breeze.

Grown old and sere, he dreads their fall, 'Tis safety waging war with taste; He cries, "Down with them one and all, Were never wych elms so misplaced."

So they who neither thought nor planned Hold for secure some transient good, And having built upon the sand, Declaim against the wind and flood.

THE WRONG TIME.

Some indiscreet Abderite boys Within a limpet's hollow, Offer'd in laurel-juice blue flies As victims to Apollo.

The G.o.d appeased will bless, they thought, Our tasks of prose and rhyme; So they the flitting insects caught, But lost the flitting time.

When Pedagogue their progress tries, Nor finds the lesson done, In vain they plead the sacrifice, He whips them every one.

TRAVELLING FOR EXCITEMENT.

I heard the great gorilla roar, My icy blood did curdling creep, Astride the Erymanthian boar, The brute came cras.h.i.+ng through my sleep.

I woke, and there all fleecy white, My dainty dog in suns.h.i.+ne played, His feathery paw, which caused the fright, Upon my bosom gently laid.

"Thank heaven," I gasped, and quivering cried, For still the roaring shook my ear, "Why seek Gaboona's deadly tide, When I can thrill in safety here?"

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE HAWSER.

We saw a crew in bygone years Bear out a hawser long and good, Which to the tune of mighty cheers That stirred our hearts and stunned our ears, Drew forth a barque from shoal and mud.

Large-hearted love thus flies to save Some victim of life's treacherous sea, From the oppressor's deadly cave, From calumny's o'erwhelming wave, Or sordid sink of poverty.

TRAINED CORMORANTS.

These cormorants bear a metal ring, The channel of their greed to stay, So trained--they are not taught to sing-- They dive at will and catch and bring, But cannot gorge the prey.

When orators in their excess Blab forth what prudence would conceal, Say, could their partisans wish less Than for a ring their throats to press, And throttle half their zeal?

THE BAT.

O plumeless bird, O legless mouse; Between the night and day, Flitting around my summer-house In quest of insect prey.

In thee a type of man is seen, Half ape, half angel he, Hope chases the dim hours between Blank and eternity.

But when his twilight course is o'er, Freed from the b.e.s.t.i.a.l clay, Above the angels he shall soar In everlasting day.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

WATERFALL BY THE SEA.

This little fountain night and day So far from all the flowers, Chants to itself, and flings away A wealth of diamond showers.

Incessantly without demand, Here Nature's purest gift Moistens the unproductive sand, Or floats the base sea-drift.

So from the living Rock above, On stony hearts and ears The message falls of Gospel love, Where not a fruit appears.

Judge not, O stranger, thus, but know There many a thirsty fleet Has filled its casks to overflow, And found the water sweet.

Though hearts awhile may stony prove, And fruitless as the main, G.o.d's mingled stream of truth and love Has never flowed in vain.