BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1657, 25 January 1913, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

MOONSET AND SUNRISE. * The forts of midnight fall at last;, The anciont, baleful powers Yield up. .with countenances aghast, i , _l'heir dragon-guarded towers. . * Henceforth, their, might as dust being ■._ trod, . 'Tis easier to believo in God. Where were the great ones of tho earth, _ Kaiser and Tsar and King, - Small thanks to them, for this glad birth ■ Whereat the day'stars sing! The little lands, with hearts of flame, Have put the mighty thrones to shame. To-morrow who shall dare deny The heroes their reward, And snatch from under Victory's eye j •The harvest of thb sword? Not we ourselves, a second time, Could dye our hands with such a crime. Idlo the dream that e'er the Turk Can ch'ango into a Man! Have, we not seen'his handiwork j 'Since first his reign began— . Since'first ho fed his lust and rage - Oil ravished youth and slaughtered If of his power no lingering traoe •Remained' to insult the sky, .. Were not this earth a better place •Wherein' to live and dio ? If he could vanish from the Day, What but a stain were cleansed away ? Three lustrums have in turmoil sped Sinoe Greeoe; unfriended, hurled Her javelin at the python's head, .Before a languid world, , ; While tho great Kings, in-far-off tones, Mumbled upon their froisen thrones. She dared .too,,much, or dared too soon, ..•And broke in disarray, , ' Where, underneath, his crescent moon, The coiled Corruption. Jay. " Heartened anew,' the scaly thing Returned unto his ravening.. k But now his empire, more and'more ; - In narrowing confines penned, -. -' "V An old and;putrefying,sore. • : Hath festered to its end: '■Not far. 1 the hour,'when ho at last Shall, like a ~foul. disease, have passed. . Pity for others had ho none; In storms of blood and firo He slew the daughter with'the son, . ■ ■ •The mother with the sire) ■ And oft, where Earth'had felt his tread, The quick were envious of the dead.. But since his fierceness and his strength, His faded'pomps august,; : His courage and his guile at length ,' Sink into night and dust, ' For him; , too, let Compassion plead, . Ev'n as for all of Adam's seed. 0 lands by his dominion curst Throughout five hundred years,— . iThat never could appeal his thirst, 1 With all your blood and tears,— In this newdaythat breaks.divine ■Ho shall drink deep another" lyine. i The cup of lowliness shall slako slips that nought else might' cool, . .When hurricanes of terror 6hake ■ ; ; ,Tho towers .of Istamboul, ' And blasts blown oh that Golden Horn Arouse'the/City of Dreadful Morn. For now the hour of dream's is past) " Tho gibbering ghosts depart,• And Man is unashamed at last ' To have a,human heart. : And 10, the doors! of da\vn ajar, And in-the'-East agam.a'.Star) Xoveless and ciild was Europe's sin, , Loveless the path' she chose, • '• •. ' . And self-upbraidings deep, withiii' ; ,She' strangled;lis they rose; ' , ' ' But that dark trespass of, our own Forbids that we' should cast a stono. ~ . Enoush, if hands. that heretofore Laboured to bar His road, / ;■ Delay-henceforward nevermore The charioteers of God, Who halt and slumber, but anon, ' * With burning wheels, drive thundering ■■on. 1 : ) ■ •8Ii" 1U /lOllA^WilUam^Watson,

TO A TERRIER. ' '(November, 1910.)

'"Crib,- da - your grave- beneath the chestnut boughs ■ ■ • To-day no fragrance falls nor summer air, Only a' master's love who laid, you there' Perchance jaay warm , ; the earth 'neath' ■ which .'you drowse"... In dreams from '-.which no dinner-gong may rouse,, / TJnwakeable, though close the rat may

; dare, •- ■ ■ ■ •■'•-•■■ Deaf, though, the rabbit thump in play- v : ful, scare, • • ' ' Silent,- 'though twenty,'tabbies pay their

lAnd yet. mayhap,■; eome night' when' i;■ ...shadows pass, '• ■ ~ .'A tifl from the fir tho brown owl hoots on '; high, ' 'V , Then should one.whistle 'neatha'favour- ■ , ing star ... Your small white Shade shall patter o'er ' tho grass, . . Questing for him yon loved o' days gone by, ■ Ere Death tho. ■ Dog-Thief carried you afar!" •. •■:■■■■■ —Patrick Chalmers. ■