STRAY VERSE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3666, 30 October 1912, Page 3

STRAY VERSE.

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. • Mr Alfred'Noyes contributes to the “Daily Mail” these wonderful verses, evidently suggested by Prof. Schafer’s address; — I. In the beginning?—Slowly grope wo back Along the narrowing track, ' Back to the deserts of the world’s pale prime, The mire, the clay, the slime; And then . . . what then? Surely to something less; Back, back, to Nothingness! IT. You dare not- halt upon that dwindling way! There is no gulf to stay Your-footsteps to the last. Go back you must! Far. far below the dust. Descend, descend! Grade by dissolving grade. Wo follow, unafraid! Dissolve, dissolve this moving world of men Into thin air—and then? 111. 0 pioneers, O warriors of the Light, In that abysmal night, Will you have courage then to rise and tell Earth of this miracle? Will you have courage, then, to bow the head, And say, when all is said—- “ Out of this Nothingness arose our thought! This blank abysmal Nought Wowe, and brought forth that lighted City street, Those towers, that armored fleet” ? IV. When you. have seen those vanant primal skies Beyond the centuries, Watched*the pale mists across their darkness flow, As in a lantern-show, Weaving, by merest “chance,” out of thin air, Pageants of praise and prayer; Watched the great, hills like clouds arise and set, And one—named Olivet; When you have seen, as a shadow passing away, One child clasp hands and pray; When you have seen emerge from that dark mire One martyr, ringed with fire; Or, from that Nothingness, by special grace, One woman’s love-lit face, . . . V. Will you have courage, then to front that- law (From which your sophist draw Their only right to float one human creed) That nothing can proceed— Not even thought, not even love—from less Than its own nothingness? The law is yours! But dare you waive your pride, And kneel where you denied? The law is yours! Dare you rekindle, then, One faith for faithless men, And say you found, on that dark road you trod, In the beginning—God ?