BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

: ' VERSES OLD AND NEW. A'LYRIC. , i-' 'Tut of! that mask of burning gold . With emerald eyes." "Oh, no, my dear, yon make so bold 1..t - To find if hearts bo wild and wise, And yet not c01d.".. ; . ■ "X.would but find what there's to find ■ Lovo or deceit." . . . . 1 ."It was the mask engaged your mind,-; •• • ■ • And- after .set your heart to beat, ■ , Not what's boiiind." ' ; . "But lest you are my»eneniy,' •••; ■ r I must:inquire". ; , , . - f'Oh, no, my dear, let all that be, ' What matter, so.there is but.fire. ' • I,v , In you, in me?" . iv; v-W. B. Yeats, in ''The Green Helmet."' ; HEROD BY THE, DEAD'SEA. ".■I roam besido thU tideless flood; ' Roam' without theo, and without God; >!■ , • Mariamncl . ' : ■' 'Despair hath drawn me to this wave, • As motionless as is ; thy grave; Mariamnol . , ' • ■- My soul is mirrored in this eea; ■ ■ ■Ho human breeze doth visit me; r, Jlariamnol ' -v >' And liko to .'memory, asis meet, ' . Heaves bitter apples at my feet; • i.-Mariamno! ■:< " 't.- • ii -They speak 'of me as one' distraught, . i; :But ah! too odd, too clear, my thought; ;; . .Manamnel > - : . - --V v o.'fiercest lovo decreedi thy doom; " This must thou know beyond the tomb; , : Manamnel'" ; i , . . ' - Canst'thou not send one littlo.word, ' ■l'he'Tolce, the.voice, that once I heard! ' 1 i--•JJariamnel. / ..v <■.<; V■•'Speakl :and.the dead tea shaß'arise,,. And thunder to tho skies;" <\ . .. ,■ Mariamnol :• > . . i. —Stephen-..Phillips, in the .London "Titaes." „ > I ' • . . . IJHE rMOTHERLAND. . , ."since God toifolks:of six or seven . •••»• 1 1 Gavo.strength with which no king may ■ -:}: strivo,'';'■' 1 -.- ?'c';' 1!■ \; - - V::;" i Since', half .'the sweetness 'under heaven Ho gave to peoplo, under five. I,We little khew what we wero giving, _ ■ Methinks, -when wo gavo play for 6trifo . 'Andifor, the land, where we are living ,• The «iunlry ( where wo played at Life. , ',-:< o'er wooden trees, end toy-church steeplo . Burns faintly each man's morning star, ; 'Motherland .whoso' laughing people Tho dearest of all people-are ! - " ?-To;ii)eatli,somo,-fragment of thy stories . ' beggar. brings, and to thy song, : /Behind'the'dying Oimperoris glories, ■ " His old tin soldiers tramp along." ' —H. de Vera Staepoole. in 'Toems and : , Ballads/'- r '. /• 1 >, ' . t THE MOON AND TME SEA. " i; At-night. I heard the moonless 6ea , Tormented by the .hurricane, ; - . Fighting ; and crying in - its pain Fiercely and Inconsolably: , . , i Eight at tho clouds,- against the v rain, "* It. leaped out, lashing .to bo free; , t And every itimo'dropped helplessly •- Back down--into the gulf again. ' Then, as I watched,, tho clouds, were " \ * parted; o ' ' . »l. > The moon camo through, and calmcd.tho ■ j Wild, . ' , 'r, .. : ■ ' And'soothed' the sea;-and^with-herkiss ■ :fßilverodfits dolorous abyss: . And'now it lies there ; nuict-hearted; > f .. . . i.. Looking lip at' licr liko a .child. !' ' ..' i- 15. C; iNation." 7 vjc ; r >< r, ■< i V ." ' THE CLAY .GOD; ■ Clay god, what ljrood'st thou in the dust • .'. and mould , •" 'Of this dark temple and deserted'fane? >.{■' ' What withcr'd:fantasies of power old?:;What ancient tales of.'mystery'and-pain? . What secrots that shall nevermore, be , •' told? :■>">< i-.i-V '■ v. What phantoms that shall never ; walk » again?- s , - v What*musio. of a ghostly dulcimer • ' i 1 Or : chanting of a : cowled' spectre-priest • . Hear'st thou in this old shrino where fc many..a-tcar' i; . ' 1 ' v ; Fell |tov thee once, and left thee un.l appcas'd? ■ v • • , . " : ' Thou aro forsaken of all human fear, ■'And -from theo'yearning 4 hath forever i. ccas'd, , . . ■ Deep-sunken .is thy. onco far-slaring eye, 'i Where the years a vengeance on thy - -cunning wreak. -Sad moonbeams.banished;from the living •' : ■ .sky i '• ' i''' '' ; Lie'on the curve'of'thy once sacred cheek, • Like iwralths of beauty that, when lovo . is by, -- . ■ " Fall in the dust no more to move or ' ' / 'speak. ■,

Old blacken'd-lamp-chains 1 , hans abouty - thy head;'. .. Stirr'd by tho swayins of a mournful : ' < breeze . , ' That growth in thy-kingdom of tno dead ! Somo memory, of "a fair,, lost day to seize,' Until it too in'riiin cold is laid And roams .no. more at any storm's "y dccrces. ■ Brood o'niwiA silcnco for thoaale reward 1: Arid: paruoniof -thy inisty centuries! ' Brood on,: no thuuilrous battle may retard Tbv rulo.aud thy uueourted ease! • Brood tini thou-',hast:no comfort for the - . ■ -bard ' -■ As from tho. terror of the night he flees! " For thc« all kinns on golden thrones' \ . that sit .•• 'i■ "'.-. " : , ''' . Are, as won vapours of,tho twilight lone. For "thee desire is a lamp unlit, And ages liko to distant waters run. : Silent thou.read'st.tho page which thou : hast writ ■ • - ; Kteding no eyes and careless of the sun. —H.'Ti.Chandler, in';the "Westminster. Gazette." 1 ■ ■ ' j :