The Unseen Joys.

I know that the warmth of Heaven's bright sun gives fragrance to the rose,

That stately lilies bow their heads to the softest wind that blows;

I hear the notes of the songbird making music in the trees,

Keeping rhythm with the branches as they rustle in the breeze.

I have savoured the scent of the warm damp earth and touched the morning dew,

And know the feel of my garden flowers of every shape and hue;

I know the sunset glories when the wild harsh storm has gone,

And the shrill call of the wildfowl as they wing towards the dawn.

I love to hear the children, their laughter and their play;

I have heard a baby crooning and a tender mother pray;

I know the joy of a fond embrace and the warmth of a soft love kiss,

These joys of the world are still all mine—there's none that I'd care to miss.

So what care I for the world's mad noise or the crowds that go rushing by;

I would rather sit on a rock-bound coast and list to the sea birds cry,

And feel the urge of the mighty waves as they roll in their majesty;

And thank the Lord for the Joys He has given—the Joys I cannot see.

—H. F. Titchener.

New Zealand Institute for the Blind, Parnell, Auckland.

This is the prize-winning verse in the competition announced over 1Zb. The entries, although very large in number, were rather disappointing in quality. Rules of rhyme and scansion must be reasonably adhered to if verse is to have value.—[Ed.]

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