BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1681, 22 February 1913, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

, VERSES OLD AND' NEW. FOR SIXPENCE. i.(ln memory of the old days when the back seats at the Abbey Theatro, Dublin, were sixpence,) For sixpenco I have been to Tir-na-n-ogo (No ,more 1 had to pay), And looked my fill at Icings and gods and ' fools— . May God be with the day! Tor sixpence I have seen the heart of . mirth ' And sorrow's stricken face, ' 1 Have laughed aloud, and dried my. covert " tears Beforo I left my place. For sixpence I have left the world outside ■ Rain-swept-'and chill and mean, And been a guest in Entain Macha's halls, Companion to, a queen. And all for sixpence I have heard fine ' talk - From playboys, rogues, and tramps, And so forgot tho east wind in the streets, , The fog, the dim-eyed lamps. Sixpence the passport to this 6plendfd - ■ ' n;orld v. Enchanted, ■ sad or.gav; And you the playboy of them all I saw For sixpence—William Fay. ..-W. If. Letts. : . , THE SHALL DREAMS. When I wa's.a young girl I dreamed great drcauis ■' / ■Of giant castles fashioned oa a hill of gold; , The .gold is but a gorse-bush, and haply .it.seems ... , , • Sly castle's but a cottage, now that I am •• . old. Now that", I am old, f dream small dreams - , ; Of tiny feet that falter, and tiny songs, , . - unsung, .'. •' , : ■ ; : Though' I heard , the trumpet blare and .' saw red gleams ■ ■, ' : . From tire flying feet- of Cherubim, when 'I was young. x . ..' When I was a young girl I dreamed long i- , dreams, Of ever flowing rivers and earth and 6ky . unrolled; Ully sky s a window, square/ the ,rivers are but streams, ■ ■■'. i And the earth is a hedged meadow, now, that I am old. Now that I am old, I dream short dreams . ' Of small warm woods and little . paths anions; . " ' •' I who saw stretched shadows and thesun's long b?ams , "'Oil'-the.'cedar-.treos of ■ Lebanon,-when I ■ . nas young. . ' And youth is a memory with its long, V ,deep dreams,: ■ ; ■ - '.. Its venture u'nadventuredl the' glory still , untold; "■ > ... But I,can keep for ever, unashamed it- ' V...-seems, '...-seems, ~" .. ■ ' •'.The- small, dear dreams of comfort, nO'w that I am old. —Frances Chesterton. - , / ANNIVERSARY. In purple robes, like sad Penelope, • Tho world waits for-her wandering lord the Sun, ' .'.Andievery branch of each bird-haunted ~ treo v, 'Longs for the day when night is almost . done. • -..v . . ■ ' But"vainly do we wait upon the shore ■' Of 'that great sea that ever darkening . * ■ lies;,' < . t: -v. Waiting ; '.for sails that 'homeward wing no more,.' -.. . • ■ .. For ships,that'steer..no,more by,charted, skies. "'-nl'' ; ■ The year, has turned its .wheel—the earth ■ again ■'• ■ ■■■■ ■ :■ . , Draws o'er her treasure-vault tho bitter . . • bars; •; - : • ••• '>:< . And.love, palo .vigil long and ■vain, .; Forgets that night must come ere there ' "- • be stars.' : .':■ : ; , '—Dorothy Margaret Stuart.