VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 18819, 12 May 1920, Page 4

VAGRANT VERSE

THE NEW SONG AND THE OLD.

A new song should be sweetly stingy It goes but to the ear; A new song should be sweetly sung. For it touches no one near: But an old sung may be roughly sung; The ear forgets its art, As comes upon the rudest tongue The tribute of the heart. A new song should be sweetly sung; For memory gilds it not; It brings not back the strains that mag Through childhood’s sunny cot. But an old song may be roughly sung; It tells of days of glee, When the boy to his mother clung; Or danced on his father’s knee. On tented fields it is welcome still; It is sweet on the stormy sea, In forest wild, on rocky hill, And away on the prairie-lea:— But dearer far the old song, ■When friends we love are nigh, And well-known voices, clear and strong; Unite in the chorus-cry. Of the old song, the old song, The song of the days of glee, When the boy to his mother clung, Or danced on his father’s knee! Oh, the old song—the old song! The song of (/.e days of glee; The new song may be better sang, Bat the good old song for me! ;—John JL Mitchell.