VERSES OLD AND NEW.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 556, 10 July 1909, Page 9

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

THE WATC OF LIFE. As when a traveller, setting forth, Is mocked by sudden rain, And knows not whether to go on Or turn him back again— '. So I, with hesitating mind, A way of lifo do stiivo to find. * And as the traveller distraught, i Bonenth broad-banging: trees, , Seeks for a while Fiom wind and rain A little sheltered ease— So I. by questionings opprest, Seek for some quiet place to rest. And as the traveller, knowing not The storm has long time ceased, Because the rain has pierced the leave 3, Believes the storm's increased— So I in quiet places find •There is no rest for troubled mind. And as the traveller, passing on, ' In duo timo gladly sees That what ho thought was growing stoim Was only rain-drenched treesSo I my way of life do find Bj leaving shelter far behind. —St. John G. Ervino, in "Tho Nation." DAWN OVER NAPLES. By the Hill'pathway of a sleeping sea' Hitherto we come through island gates, liko clouds, •. \ , Whero climbed up Ischia before Biuao with a necklace of men's homes in shrouds . ' Of nightly vapours. Then dim Capri rose, Inwhoso song-haunted grottoes Nereids Cuddle their little azure babies clceo • 1 And twinkle deep blue eyes through hyacinth Bathed in a light that's bluer than the sky, With purple hair afloat on headed foam, lhey-dream and sing where lapis lazuli '' » ,V . l lp tho seciet P lacra of their home. And lo! the mountain with tho fiery snout Jags darkling on tho dawn, and from his steops The breath of Sleeping cyclops feathers out And brightens in the dayspring, where it ', leaps / _ I Along the bosoms of tho folded hills J?o nippjo them with silver. Now the stars ' Aro swallowed up in fire that flows and fills High heaven and eaith and sen; tho flaming bars i * Ascend; the Shining One doth take his way On golden chariot-wheols across the Bay. —Eden Phillpotts, in tho "Westminster „ , Gazette." Naples. '