Classic Poem

Glen-Lynden, South Africa

M Y Father ! I to thee inscribe this page!
And send it freighted, like a Courier-Dove,
With many a prayer of reverential love,
To greet thee in thy distant hermitage.
If such slight themes may for an hour engage
Thy thoughts, intent on better things above,
This tale of trials past perchance may prove
A recreation to thine honoured age.
Sprung from a stalwart line of Scottish sires,
Be thou the patriarch, on Afric's strand,
Of a young race, who with their fathers' fires
Shall warm the heart of their adopted land;
Who, firm yet gentle, generous, sincere,
Shall fear their Lord, and know no other fear.