Poets' Corner

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 743, 16 August 1929, Page 14

Poets' Corner

THE VALLEY OF DESOLATION IWrltlen for The Sun.] The Valley of Desolation has no trees in it, And no grass growing And no slim streams; But about it is at wilderness, A wildness and a strangeness, Such as broods above the no-man’s-land of dreams. I went down into the Valley of Desolation, And oh! the d r outh of it, with no brown shade. And the sorrowfulness of it, with no grass growing, And the aridness of it, parched as a stone; But a bird sang there in the silence, In the gaunt, uncomprehending silence, One grave brown bird, mateless, alone.

I came out of the Valley of Desolation, Up out of it, and down out of it, Down a fair lane; And now, never does a bird sing to me, sorrowfully, And never does a tree sway to me. And never does a lithe wave run to me. But my heart goes reaching bach there again. HELENA HENDERSON. Christchurch. BOOKS IN DEMAND AT THE AUCKLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY NON-FICTION “MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY,” by Benito Mussolini. “AMERICA OF TODAY,” by J. A. Spender. “THE LININGS OF LIFE,” by Walburga, Lady Paget. “THE HOLY CITIES OF ARABIA," by Eldon Rutter. “REPUBLICAN GERMANY,” by H Quigley and R. T. Clark. “MONTROSE,” by John Buchan, “AN ADVENTURE WITH CHILDREN,” by M. H. Lewis. “THE RUSSIAN LAND,” by A. R. Williams. “THE SUN. 'THE STARS, AND THE UNIVERSE,” by W. M. Smart. “THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.” FICTION “CHILD OF THE DEEP,” by J. Lowell. “ BASQUERIE ,” by E. Mercein. “BARBARIAN STORIES,” by N. Mitchison. “NO DRAGON—NO DAMSEL," by A. Armstrong. “KING’S BARDON ,” by Bernard Holt. “DEWER RIDES," by L. A. G. Strong. “THE WORLD DOES MOVE,” by B. Tarkington. “THE SECRET ROOM,” by A. R. Weekes. “PICKWICK PAPERS,” by Charles Dickens. “WAR,” by Ludwig Renn.