BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. THE SONG OF THE TINKER, a am the man of pot and pan, I am a lad of inettle; IJIy tent I pitch by the wayside ditch To niend your can and kettle; ■While' town-bred folk bear a year-long yoke Among thedr feeble fellows, H clink and clank on the hedgerow bank, And tilow my snoring bellows. I loved a lass with hair like brass, , And eyes like a brazier glowing; . But the female crew, what they will do, I sweaT is past all knowing! ■■ She flung her cap at a ploughman chap, And a fool I needs must think her, .Who left for an oaf the mug and loaf. And the snug little tent of a tinker. But, clank and clang, let women go hang, And who shall cure a farden? With the solder strong of a laugh and a song My mind I'll heal and harden. My waye I'll wend, and the pots I'll mend . For gaffer and for gammer, }'A$A drive my cart witli a careless heart, And sit by the road and hammer! —May Byron, in the. "Spectator." ;, the daisy field; A field of daisies white and green. , v The fairest thing my eyes have seen— A field of daisies that the sun In silence, lays his lips upon; .. It is -a pleasant place to play From dawn to ilark on a summer day, Till the mowor with a frown Comes and outs tho daisies down. 0 happy daisies, men have sung A thousand, years the fields among, Have looked and loved and longed and :'■■ dared, While you their joys and secrets shared, Nor you nor they have turned to see ~~ The mower toiling ceaselessly. ' Come, my beloved, it is day, The moWer still is far away, Fear though we wander far 3o lands where strangest wonders are, To lands that only lovers see, The mower strides as fast as we. Fear not, for wo shall dreaming lio 'Neath daisies, 'neath a summer sky, 1 Hearing life's murmurs overhead, ''-■ ■ (Who.knows what is it to be'dead?) Talking of all that we have seen Up in the world of white and green, And maybe, with a bated breath, Saying, '"Tis life we fear, not death." —Sylvia-Lyjid, in the "Nation.".'