Page 104 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

104 An Account of the

The Lament of an absent Brother
Dear Brethren of the Mystic Tie,
Whose virtues shine with that bright light,
Whose company was ever my delight,
And work and pleasure fairly joined
To perfect our Masonic Rite,
Whilst I
A broken link in that great chain
That binds Apollo and our chair,
(Musagetes of Muses Nine)

In flying clouds of Hippocrene,
Song dance and heavenly sheen,
Thou sailest down from Heaven above
As Master of our little Lodge,
To encircle hearts in brotherly love
And raise them to thine own above.
I would be with thee, were my heart
Still able to support the toll
That sickness brings within its length,
Till week by week a little strength
Is added to the general whole,
And once more I can play my part.
But now, alas, a roving guest,
My eye o’er sea and sunset earth may rest;
But only in my dreams at last
A vision fair, a faint mirage,
Of our “Nine Muses” comes to be
A living bright reality.
The sentiment and its expression are characteristic of a man much beloved
and lamented.
Musagetes, i.e. leader of the Muses, was a title given by the Greeks to Apollo.
The writer has ventured to regularise the punctuation which in Bro. Reid’s
holograph manuscript is incomprehensible.