In Cornwall and Across the Sea With Poems Written in Devonshire. By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
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TO G. E. MORRISON, Esq.,
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 | In Cornwall and Across the Sea |  |
157
TO G. E. MORRISON, Esq.,
AN EXPLORER OF NEW GUINEA.
When first I read romances as a boy,
In playtime often used I to devour
Stories of savage warfare by the hour,
And wild adventures filled my soul with joy.
As I grew older they began to cloy,
Because I came to feel the sceptic's power,
And look on tales of scalp and arrow shower
As scarce less shadowy than the tale of Troy.
But, when to Austral shores I winged my flight,
Once more I stood upon enchanted ground,
Adventure in its heyday still I found,
One term at college missed a friend from sight,
And heard that he his life had wellnigh lost,
Exploring on the wild New Guinea coast.
In playtime often used I to devour
Stories of savage warfare by the hour,
And wild adventures filled my soul with joy.
As I grew older they began to cloy,
Because I came to feel the sceptic's power,
And look on tales of scalp and arrow shower
As scarce less shadowy than the tale of Troy.
But, when to Austral shores I winged my flight,
Once more I stood upon enchanted ground,
Adventure in its heyday still I found,
One term at college missed a friend from sight,
And heard that he his life had wellnigh lost,
Exploring on the wild New Guinea coast.
158
II.
You should not be a disappointed manAlthough you did not light upon success:
You had not failed, had you adventured less:
Wiser—as well as nobler—is the plan
To greatly dare, albeit you may scan
Too high a goal, than yield in idleness
To drudge on in the calling you profess,
Doing what men of smaller compass can
Better maybe than you. The while you deem
That you were born to do His higher work,
And to do petty labour were to shirk
The task allotted to you in His scheme.
For he who hath five talents doeth ill
If he doth what one talent could fulfil.
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We do not say that he has wholly failed,Who much has dared though little has he wrought,
If, odds against, he gallantly has fought,
And over adverse circumstance prevailed.
For veterans 'twere something to have sailed
Into a savage land so thickly fraught
With pest and peril, as the shore you sought
And penetrated, (until spear-impaled
By lurking foemen), when you scarce could call
Yourself of man's estate. More stir and strife
Have you imported into your brief life
Of two and twenty summers than befall
Most people in a life-time. So much won
Advance upon the bright path you've begun.
| In Cornwall and Across the Sea | |