BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 247, 11 July 1908, Page 12

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. THE'LESSON OF THE TREES. Master, I learn this lesson from the' trees: ' Not to grow old, The maple by my door ■ Puts forth green leaves as cheerily as I, / When I was, taller than this selfsame tree 1 , Put forth my youthful longings. I have erred; Standing a bleak- and barren leafless thing Among.my hopeful brothers., lam shamed. I will not be less hopeful than tho trees; I will not ceaso to labour and aspire; . I will not pause in patient high endeavour; I will be young in hehrt until I die. ; ' —Eicliard Kirk, in "Lippincotfs Magazine." SOME GREAT THING. .Our time is not yet come; the hours — The generous'hours—will surely bring iThe longed-for chance by which our powers Shall reach at last to .some great thing. For chafing at our low estate , .<■ We feel, on trifling deeds intent, Spoiling for some moro worthy fate, The best within us still unspent; 'Nor dream that Life's great chance, disguised As. something mean, for many a day 'lay to our hands, unrecognised, : {Then passed unrecognised away. —W. G. Hole, in "Now Poems." I AT.THE DOCK. THE snip. JThey loiter round the Dock—that holds von Ship ■, ~ Shuddering at tho; dark pool's defiled lip from springing' bows .to:foam-deriding stern; hey have; left her, ; and await her call " Ee- ■■■■ ■ turn:" ; . ■ '■■■■;■■ Liko any human mistress she has cast ■Careless her ancient lovers, till at last Perforce she calls them, and perforce they 1 ■ come Like any human lovers. ... Ah, what homo Know theso, savo in the Ship, the Ship!' She • groans .■■ >. ■■■. ; Day and night with travail of their strenuous . bones. • < . They know her for their mother, sister, spouse;' •Heart of their^ passion, idol of their-vows; ffhey ward her, and she is their, sure defence •'Gainst, the sad waters' leagued malevolence. IThe Ship, the Ship! they are her:slaves, and ■ - she.iTheir Liege, their Faith, their Fate, their History. ■ - ■ • !Lo! they have bought her'buoyancy with their ■ blood, 'And their ribs cling the keel that cleaves the ■ flood. , .Their watches in the night, their loneliness, .Their toil, hunger and. thirst, their heart's ; distress, 1 '. ■ JTheir han'ds, their feet, far eye and smitten , head■ ■■■ ■ ■. .Whereon the Sea's upgathered woightis shed; With theso the Ship, the Ship is laid and • , rigged, .'Launched and steored out;.with these her living grave is digged. ■ ■ 1 They lean olose over her—and long,.perhaps, For tho broad seas and the loud wind that ■ claps Boisterous hands on the Ship's course;; and . wait. .• Per call who calls them with the .voice of Fate. ' —John Freeman, in the "Spectator."