SAGE v. BARD.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 6, 12 May 1894, Page 7

SAGE v. BARD.

(TO THE EDITOEj Sir, —Poetry invariably garnishes or tarnishes some portion of your columns, just according to the quality of the poetry; and the Hues from Southland’s Poet Laureate which appeared in your last week’s paper are, I consider, of the tarnishing sort. It is generally allowed that writers, whether of prose or poetry, embody their' own feelings, sentiments, and experience# in what they write. Accepting this as true, what a sad picture do those lines present of disappointment with married life after forty years’ experience with it! Here is this gifted man, more gifted than Holy Willie, and he was gifted, complaining in bitterness of soul of ladies changing and maidens growing bold, of nagging words and frequent strife, and embittered married life; to escape which he is ready to pack up swag and go on the wallaby and begin life anew on the lines of free love and sing—- “ Bound I* none my fortunes be ; This or that girl’s' frown I ftar not; Her I’ll love that loveth me, And for the rest a pin I care not.” It is inexpressibly sad to find a man possessed of such a spirit as this at a time of life when, as Shakespeare says, love waits on judgment; and if rhe poet laureate is not seen with swag packed and shouldered passing from amongst us to roam in other lands, “to flirt whene’er he gets a chance, and join in revel and in dance with ladies fair,” it will be because poverty chains him to his present lot, for the amorous joys he is sighing for are only for those possessed of wealth. These lines show the poet laureate’s morals to be in ajdeplorable state, and we can no longer look to him and say—- “ Lead, kindly light, Amidst the encircling gloom. Lead thou me on ; O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, Till the night is gone.” . Yours, etc., T. Buxton.