Old English

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 November 1916, Page 3

Old English

(By WALT MASON.)

W hen Chaucer lived there were some other bards, with inspiration loaded to the guards. And there weire highbrows in that distant age, who looked m!th scorn upon great Geoffrey's page, and said, "Gadzooks. he writeth middling fair, for one whose soul is of afflatus bare; as crossroads jingler he may cut some grass, but who'll recall him when ten years shall pass? If you'd read verse of great majestic power, you must peruse the gorgeous works of Grower." Now, it is true that in G. Chaucer's time tho critics joshed him for his paltry rhyme, and held that iLangland/ of "Piers Plowman" dope had moderns skinned beyond all hint of hope. How vain the judgement of the crttic clan! They heap thfciir laurels on some 10-cent man, and say his harp will never be unstrung while there are men to reac'i his native tongue. Their petted poet crosses the divide, and i<s forgotten ere he's faiirlv died. While some unknown, who smarted; 'neatli their jeers, lives in men's hearts through all the rolling years.