BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1313, 16 December 1911, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. THE LATIN SEA. Tho wonder of its blue is under us; Wo seo, with glamour of Homeric lore. Shimmer tho- wave that lured Ulysses oar And Jason faring for the fabulous. _ Yon ircllised slopes wero thine, TheoAnd those trim galloys, bound for' Capri's shore, Dart from the covo and follow, as 01 yore, i . The burnished trireme of Tiberius. Hellas and Rome, templed antiquity. Looming along thy shore, 0 Latin sea, Live' once again beneath tho dreaming ' 'glance; •Around thco clings the virgin world s ■ romance; Arid there, beyond tho Pillars of Heri oules, ' Glimmers the .Isle of Hesperides. —J. M. O'Hara, in "Pagan Sonnets." : , EDGEHILL. ■ October 23, 1612. "Queen .'Mary, in -this field," ,'I hear That clarion ringing still, The Palgraye's war-cry keen and clear At dusk beloiv; Edgehill. The mists ; of Autumn rising blue Hide .the long wooded ledge, I'hear the horse-hoofs'crashing through The cat's-ice in the sedge. 0 deathless day of high romance! When king and peoplo mot To put the issue to tho chance, ■With faces fiercely set. . , What wonder if on such o night The lonely peasant, bears The far-off echoes of the fight, ■ The clash of swords and spears., What wonder from their hasty, gravca ; If restless spirits rise, • Where lost Sir Edmund Verney wavea • ■His standard to tho skies;. : 1 If in the moonlight shifting through The shadowy becchen groves, They fight their tournament ancvr, If here his-spirit movesBrave Rupert, wizard, lord of song, The lignt of ladies', eyes, Who saw the right and did tho wrong In kindly human wise; ■ Here in this place, as on this day, Soft heart, and courage steeled, He leads his trn pers to the fray, "Queen Mary in thi> field. A health to courage now, or then, Good rest to those that fall, _ Good luck to those that live again, To hear the trumpets call. A health to all stout company, . That knows not how to. yield; A tertiavit'three times tlifeo, "Queen Mary, in,.the field.', ... —P., in tho "Spectator." HALLOWS': E'EN. The girls are laughing with tho boys and gaining );v the fire. .... They're wishful, everyone of them, to sco her heart's desir'o. - Twas The;ie cut th- barnbrack and found the ring inside, Before liext Hallows Ben has davrned herself will be a bride. But little Mollie stands alone ontsido tho cabin door iv And breaks her heart for one the j waves threw dead upon tho shore. ■Twas Katie's nut lopped from tho hearth and left poor Pat's alone, But Ellen's stayed by Christy Byrne s upon tho wide hearthstone. • An all the while the childcr bobbed for apples set afloat, ... , o?he old men smoked their pipes and, talkod about tho foundered boat But Mollie walked-upon the cliff and never.feared,llio rain, _ . She called tho name of one she loved and bid him como again. Jopg Peter J to win a wealthy wife, Hosanna threw the apple-peel to know who'd share her life; AndXizzie had a.looking-glass shed hid itf-'somo. dark place To try if there -foreninst her own'-she d ceo her comrade's facc. ■ But Mollie walked along , the quay where Terry's feet had trod And sobbed her grief out in tho night with no one near but God. Sho hoard tho laughter from the house, she heard the fiddlo. ' She called her dead love to her'sido—why would she be afraid? _ . Sho took his cold hands in-her own, she had no tjioujrht of dread,' And not o star looked out to -watch the , living kiss the dead. The lads are gaming with tho girls and laughng bv the fire, . But Mollie in tho cold dark night has found, her heart's desire. —W. M. Letts, in the "Westminster 'Gazette." ,1. LIGHTNING. 1 felt the lurch and halt of her heart Next my breast, whero my own heart was beating; And I laughed to icel it plunge and bound, And strange in iny blood-swept ears was the sound Of tho . words I kept, repeating, Bepeating 'with tightened arms, and the hot blood's blindfold "art. Her breath Hew -warm against my neck, Warm as a llame in tho close night air; And tho sense of hor clinging flash was sweet Whero her arms and my neck's blood surge could meet. Holding her thus, did I ears That tho black night hid her from me, blotted out every speck ? Q I leaned me forward to find hor lips, And claim hor utterly in a.l;is«, When the lightning flew across her face, And I saw her tor the flaring spaco Of a second, afraid, in tho clips Of my arms, inert with dread, wilted in fear of my kiss. A moment, like a wavering spark. Her face lay there before my breast,, Pale love lost in a snow of fear, And guarded by a glittering tear, And lips apart with dumb cries, A moment, and she was taken again in tho merciful dark. I heard the thunder, and felt tho rain, And my arms 101 l loose, and I was dumb. Almost I hatod'her, sho was so good, Hated myself, and the place, and iny blood, • Which burned with rage, as I bade hor como Home, away homo, ore tho lightning floated forth again. D. H. Lawrence, in tho "Nation."