A SINGULAR STORY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1455, 15 October 1872, Page 2

A SINGULAR STORY.

(¥rom the New Zealand Herald, September 20.) Yesterday a correspondent drew attention to a curious paragraph in the Eclectic Magazine, referring to Mr Domett and his colonial career. Under the head of «' A Singular Story," the San Francisco Bulletin publishes the following : ONE OF ROBERT BROWtfISG-'s POLITICAL HEROES AND HIS RETURN. M. D. Conway wrotes from London to the Cincinnati Commercial:— A generation has gone since Robert Browning wrote his poem entitled " Waring." Few things that he has written have excited so much interest. There was such an*iutense realism about the lit tie romance embodied in it that many of bis readers have felt that Waring was a flesh and blood character. And they have frit truly. For your readers who may not be so familiar with Browning's works, I may say that the poem relates a young literary man of high rank, who, having surrounded himself with line wits at supper one snowy December night, and entered very fully into the joy of the occasion, disappeared next morning, leaving no trace behind by which his whereabouts could be dis covered. There is subtle pathos as weii as satire upon the fashionable world ou which the youngest poet (Waring) has turned his back running through the story — Oil, could I have him back once more, This Waring, but one half day more! Back with the quiet face of yore. So hungry tor acknowledgment Like mine! The poet finds out how much he loves him now that he has lost him, and then speculates whither his friend has gone;— Ichabod, Ichabod, The glory lias departed! Travels Waring East away ? Who, of knowledge, by hearsay, Reports a man upstarted Somewhere as a God, Hordes grown European-hearted, Millions of the wild made tame On a sudden at his fame ? In Vishnu-laud what Avatar ? The second p in of the poem brings us into another literary company assembled many years after, amidst which one brealo out with the words, " When I last saw Waring ; " — How all turned to him who spoke— You saw Waring ? Truth or joke? In land-travel or sea faring ? Then to breathless listeners the guest relates, that far away at sea a boat laden with savages came out to sell them wine, and went off with a bound : Yet I caught one Glance ere away the boat quite passed, And neither time nor toil could mar Those features ; so I saw the last Of Waring ! Vou ? Oh, never star Was lost here but it rose afar! This is but a brief sketch of a very impressive poem, but. it may serve to add interest to the fact that Waring, the man who bore the nom de plume, has just turned up. A few days ago Browning wa3 brought a card, which had ou h a well-known name, and he started forward to meet an old man in whom, however, he could still recognise the great peaceful forehead and large proud eye of the subject of the poem. After the supper which happened some thirty-five years ago, this young wanderer had walked away, leaning on the arm of Browning, who was thus the last person who had spoken with him. He (Domeu) was a poet whom the poets could recognise, but the world could not, and so he chose to go far away and live among the wild people of distant islands — Rather than pace np and down Any longer London town. But Browning's prognostication was correct. Though Waring went among the barbarians of New Zealand, aud decidedly curtailed the tailors' bills by adopting their fashions, he was too much of a man not to become their chief. He married there, and became a true Avatar. Subsequently lie became Governor of New Zealand |Premier"]. He remained there thirty -three years. But he.was not idle in other ways. Silently he thought and wrote during those years, and now he returns to England with a poem of 14,000 lines, which Smith, Elder and Co. will some day lay before the world. When this story, which as yet is known to but one or two persons, creeps into (he papers, as it probably will, it may furnish our philosophers with another

glance into the heart of aristocratic society. The number of young men of high position and ample means,, who have for some years been showing an inclination to give society the slip, is remarkable.