SPRIGHTLY VERSIFIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 21

SPRIGHTLY VERSIFIERS.

PRODIGIES IN THE CRADLE. (By A.A.A.) . I have just come across two Australian children who. write verses; their salvation is that their wise parents—■ their father is a Scotchman—do not brag of the fact. They are the girl and boy of Professor and Mrs. Mackie, and their father is the Profess of Education in Sydney University. The • children are spontaneous verse-makers, without systematic training, though, in their culturSd home,poetry and the gorgeousness of words have tapped them. It is natural that Margaret should have a good deal to say, and to dictate, about fairies. Her first recorded: effort was in her. fourth y ear s ."..' . . ,'■' "The happy winds are blowing, The fairies are asleep. Every -.moon is coming out "And every-star does peep." She appears ■to have become a DoubtipgyThomas*about fairies when she was seven, and passed on her disbelief to hier little brother John, who never refers to them in his outbursts. When in her ninth year, she herao to veisify history. . . ARTHUR OF BRITTANY. "To Arthur of.' Brittany, beautiful Brittany, i Imprisoned by a cruel king, - Twice as he lay on-his lonely bed- - Did Hubert, news of John's- soldiers bring. ,v - :-, ■••-■ The third time John-himself appeared. And sent for'Arthurfin';, he -night. The stars above .the .River Seine Saw him drown and veiled their light." In her ninth year apprize for. "Verses Without a Topic" ;Was offered by her mother, and Margaret—-it was just after Empire Day—wrote: "Fireworks," fireworks, shining bright, Shining all with'coloured light, Breaking the Silence of the night, like stars that are all green and red, - Shooting across the garden.bed, As high as any giant's head."

John's first effort' was made in bed, at six o'clock on a March morning, at the age • of five and a-half. He still regards it as his chef d'oeuvre: "Now the sun % ls rising, Now the night is past, Now the flowers are ■ waking In the world at last." He is no pacifist, and his next verses deal largely -with swords and spears, and the red blood of Britain. When he was just six, came;; .' "There was an old bear Went into, his lair,And found a hunter spearing him. And when 'he came but He caught a grout, : — And all around was queering him." Then at six and a-half: "Said the hare to the bear, 'Waat'sthat on your head?' - .'lt's a'hair;' said the bear,- , 'So_ I'm-going to bed.' 'But I'm the only hare,' ".-■ Said the hare to the bear, 'And I'm the only, bear,', • Said the bear to the hare.' " . • A week later he dictated: "I have something Important-to tell you, T am going to tell it you now. The very best way to travel Is to ride on the back of a cow." Two months later, he realised that poems have titles, so he wrote: . "Will the.blue sky ever.be my home? Will it be above mc wherever I roam?" and he called it "The Traveller's Song,"

About the same ' time he - wrote: . "Midnight Is nigh. The stars do lie Like silver lamps Across the sky." Authors always - disappoint mc. Why should they, talk of everyday things, when they must, know I want to hear them talk of their books? .These young versifiers were true to type. Margaret, with her Gretchen ,pig-tails buried .herself in the last number of "The Merry Go Round," which I had bought ■ her— I wish I hadn't —John, who has really too much luck, for besides having written "Said the hare to the bear," he has a crop of Titian red curls, eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes completeyto-tone, would talk only of stamps. So I went back to my verandah overlooking the river, read Blake, and John's quiet little "The birds do fly Across tbe sky, > . • But they do. sleep When the stars do peep In the dark and dreary night, " When they have ended flight." Then I turned to Shelley's "Versea on a Cat," written "At perhaps ;eight-or nine years of age," and lastly to Margaret's eight-year-old: "THE LITTLE BEAR." "I'm sure I saw a little bear On a tree in the bush down there, For I saw something brown and big Leaping up from twig to twig; But it went so very fast That in a moment it was past. But I'm sure in the bush down thereI saw a baby and a mother bear." I like Margaret's bear better than Stvelley's ©at. :,