BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1443, 18 May 1912, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. - ..., A ■ THE MOOR.

The world's gono forward to its latest fair And dropt an old man done with, by tha io sit alono amongr the bats and stars At miles and miles' and miles of'moorland bars Lit only with last shreds of dying day. tli© world, not all the world's gone ' 01<1 s l { l i j I n ' ' J ' ou ' re liko to m ««t one traveller A journeyman well kenned for courtesy hmb • Wa 1 ° With ' life a " d If this bo he now riding up the hill him take you "P with ."^Seraphim 11 Death? " " 0f None elso to seok thee out and bid theo coitvo. I care that thou art come from -turn, Unbody me—l'm tired—and get me homo." —Ralph Hodgson. SOUVENIR. The day shall bo my Souvenir to you, With earth and heaven upon its leaf displayed; Dim dawn and dusk shall fringe with stars and dew Its edges, out of slanting sunbeams made; The sweetness of tho wind's breath shall breathe through Tho rich designing of its light and shado. Within its borders shall the birds begin Tjie lwppy reasons for their songs to build; With earliest blossom that tho brave root spin ' Its centre shall deliciously be filled; And all its letters shall hold music, in Tho notes wherewith the way to March , is thrilled. .Upon the bright silk of tho shimmering hours Its message and design shall be expresst; And under all tho beams and nests and Dowers My heart shall lie a hundred times con- ■ fesst; lAnd when the night dims its symbolic bowers, ( A Dream shall fold it up against yonr \ Breast. ' —May Doney. ; A MEETING WITH A BIRD. At mid-inorning yesterday, up in the hills, I mot a strange bird with such wonderful trills And magical blending of music and noise (Liko tho composite voice of a group of 6mall boys, Or perhaps, better still, like a half-dozen girls, Some chatting 1 , somo singing, in eddies and whirls Of small talk and melody, all in a mix), He stopped and dumbfounded mo quite with his tricks. Tilted upwards so pert, with its saucy buff capSo far back and so small that the slightest mishap Might, methought, jar it off in a trice to the ground— Oh, who is this very bird-Babel of sound? (Mirabile . dictu!) the bird seomed to talk. Saying, "How-dy-do, friend!—you are out for a walk ■"And can't guess who I am that is easy to trace ■From the puzzled expression all over your face. •"Here's a strain with a somersault in it, or two, • Pray, tell me, sir, don't that suggest it to you?— >' . ''Or "this, with' a movement so much to taste I sing it both (backward.and forward, nor waste" ■ ■ ■: ;■ .' "A note or. a syllable doing it—see? mentioned my name, and you missed, it-rali, me "But Til, give 'Ton.just one warble-more, Wflile' you think— ' Ho, you've hit it at last!—au revoir! — Bobolink!" —Augustus Wright Bomte'rger. '