MR. MASEFIELD'S NEW POEM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 9

MR. MASEFIELD'S NEW POEM.

Another jpeat narrative poem by Mr. John Mnscncld appears in tho February number of "Tho English Review." Tho note is more sombro (says the "Observer") than that of tho now famous "Evorlasting Mercy" of tho October number. Instead of the high spirits that permeated that remarkable work, tho effect hero is one of horror mingled with pathos. "Tho Widow in tho Byo Street," who gives tho pootn its title, lives in a littlo Shropshire town with her only son:— ller littlo son was all her life's delight, For in his littlo features sho could find A glimnso of that dear husband out of sight, Where out of sight is never out of mind. And so sho stitched till she was nearly blind, Or till the tallow candle end was done, To get a living for her little son. "One thing alone made life not perfect sweet," her daily fear of what would come "When woman and her lovely boy 6hould meet, When the new wife would break up the old home." "All tho timo Fate bad his end prepared." The woman conies into his life—an evil woman, whose smile, and voice, and faco are "all temptation." They meet at tho October fair, and from that moment the madness of love enters the boy's veins, and ho neglects, even comes to despise, his widowed mother. The widow, who reads tho woman through and through, pleads with hor son. In a remarkable conversation, carried on in poetic form she tells him with amazing frankness all sho is:— Jimmy: "I eay sho's not." Mother: "No, don't ee Jim, my dearie, You've seen her often in the last few days, She's given a love as makes you come in weary To lie to me before going out to laze. She's tempted you into the devil's ways, Sho's robbing you, full fist, of what you eafn, In God's name, What's she giving in return?" Jimmy: "Her faith, my dear, and that's enough for me." Mother: "Her fuith, her faith. Oh, Jimmy, listen, dear; Love doesn't ask for faith, my son, not he; Ho asks for life throughout tho live-Ion" year, And life's a test for any plough to ere. Life tests a plough in moadows made of stones, Love takes a toll of spirit, mind and bones." ' ( There is a Shepherd Era. in the poem, "a moody, treacherous man of, bawdy mind." Ho is chief among tho evil woman's men.. He is in her house ono night when the boy, mad with jealousy, climbs a tree and leans along a mossy bough to peer through tho window panes. He Eecs her in the man's arms:— Agony first, sharp, sudden,, like a knife, Then donn the tree to batter at tho door. "Open there. Let mo in. I'll have your life ; You Jezebel of Hell. ..." The boy kills Shepherd Era with Callow's plough-bat. "Unly a second changes lifo to deuth":— Hate with his babbling instant, red and damning, . Passed tfith his instant, having drunken : red. ■ "You've killed him." .' "No, I've not, he's only shamming." •-■" "Get up." "He can't." "Oh, God, he isn't dead." "Oh, God." '-. -■■; "Here, get a basin. Batho his head. "Ernie, for God's sake, what are- you playing ntP" "I only give him one like, with the bat." The boy is arrested, tried, sentenced and hanged. Mr. Mascficld's poem encompasses it all. The old widowed mother totters home to her little room:— She drew the blinds and trembled in the gloom. Her mind at last ;'grpws *dim : ;: she•ibelieves her boy will cbmeV agaiii, v :'And that they are mistaken who say he was hanged. In tho end, she is heard in tho sunny meadows singing her crazy song:— Singing as though her heart were full of peace.