LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2507, 7 July 1915, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A PROPHETIC POET. Sir,—Sines tho war started, tliero have been pointed out many instances of literary parallels and prophecies, both of the outbreak of war and of various incidents in its course. But I think no one has yet referred to the very remarkable poem of William Watson, one of our finest living poets, a poem remarkable not only for the curioua appositeness of its allusions, but also for its fine literary charm and' the strength and fierce spirit of Mr. Watson's words. The poem is "Moonset and Sunrise," written in. November, 1912, and published in the collection of poenls entitled "The Muse in Exile," publishers H. Jenkins, Ltd., London. Tho poem was, written, at the time of the war between Turkey and the Balkan States, hut the following stanzas *eem peculiarly in point to-day with regard to the'real issue being fought in Europe and Asia Minor. The first stanza runs: "The forts of 1 midnight fall at last. ■-The: ancient . baleful powers Yield up with countenance agha6t / .Their dragon guarded towers. ' Henceforth, their might as dust being trod •. ' • ' 'Tis easier-to believe in God." 'And when we consider Belgium and Servia, and some may 'add 1 New' Zealand, the last-lines, of the next , stanzas ring;prophetically ''Where were the great., ones of the . , earth, ' ■ ■ Kaiser and Czar and King? Small thanks to them, for this glad birth Whereat the daystars sing! The. little lands with'hearts ,of flame Have put the mighty thrones to shame." With our ■ own bovs' deeds at the Dardanelles ringing in our ears, and the accounts, of Turkish atrocities at Erzereum and long-tortured Macedonia, we feel what'the poet felti as he wrote: "Idle the dream that e'en the Turk .Can change into a man I Have we not seenliis handiwork . Since-first his reign Vegan? . Since first he fed his, lust and rage Oil ravished youth and slaughtered age? "If of his power 110 lingering trace ' Remained to insult the sky, Were not this earth a better place Wherein to.live and die? . If he could vanish from the Day What but a stain were "cleansed away?" Mr. Watson," in bitter words, foretells the end of the Turkish misrule, ■which, like "an'old and putrefying sore, Hath festered to its end." He is writing of Turkey in 1913, but he might be writing of the Kaiser, ih 1914 when he writes as it he wrote of Belgium: "Pity for others had he' Bone; In storms oi blood and fire 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 hie ~ strength His faded pomps august, His | and his guile at length Sink into night and dust, For him to lot Compassion plead Ev'n as for all of Adam's Seed." • : With the guns of, the. 'Allied Fleets and the/bayonets of their, armiesvat.the gates, of Constantinople, "when hurricanes of terror shake the towers of Istamboul," the poet's words seem shortly- to be' accomplished fact, and the'.Orescent give way Co the Cros6". "For now the hour of dreams is past; ..'■The gibbering ghosts depart: And man is unashamed at last To havo a human heart. _ And 10, the doors of dawn ajar And inithe East again a Star!" ■ This poem, written in 1912, is surely worthy, of .a place,amoiigst any list of literary- prophecies. '- . And there .is-another poem,, a short one, in this collection of Mr. Watson's verse which finely expresses the feeling of her overseas: Dominions to ; tho Motherland at this time of trial. It rtpis: . ■ ■ -■_ - Imperial. Mother. ,/ . "Imperial 'Mother-' from whose breasts We' drank as'baSes the pride whereby We question even thine own behests, , And judgethee with, no timorous eyo. "Oft slow to hear when thou dost, call Oft vest with an unstable will, When once-a rival seeks thy fall' : We are tliy sons aild daughters etill! , "The , love that; halts, the faithi - that : . : veers, - 'Are then deep sunk as in the Sea: The Sea where thou must brook 110 peers, And halve lyith none thy,'sovereignty." I am, etc., - L. ETHERINGTON. ... Gisbome, Juno >30, 1915. ,