POETS WHO WERE PROPHETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 30

POETS WHO WERE PROPHETS.

The ease with which men in London have - recently, talked .to . other, men in New York or, San Francisco and the continued strides now being made in the field of television have served to call attention to some remarkable prophesies found in English poetry. Perhaps the most striking of these prophetic visions is to be found in Stephen Phillips' poem, "Midnight— 31st of December, 1900." When he wrote the lines the old horse bus was still in use in the great cities of the world. The automobile had not emerged from an experimental stage, air travel was unknown, wireless was a plaything only and television undreamed of. Te shal ride on a power of the air on a Force that is bridled. On a saddled Element leap; In that day shall a man out of uttermost India whisper. And in England bis friend shall bear; And a maiden in an English meadow have sight of her lover Who wanders in far Cathay. Strange as are these prophecies of Stephen Phillips, they are not more strange nor more accurate than Lord Tennyson's dream of flying many years before, in which he Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be: Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies. of magic sails. Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales. There is a lack of complete fulfillment in the vision of Stephen Phillips. Television has not yet reached the stage of perfection when a maid in an English meadow may see. her lover in far Cathay, but no less an authority than Senator Marconi is convinced that such a thing., will be possible in the not distant future.