Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. \ MY OWN COUNTRY. The corn 18 springing tall! , The Clover's good to smell; Over 1119 new oub meadow Com&s the evening belL Herts i 8 ft pleasant country Either in shine or haze! It is not 60 dear as my ewn country ■ In the: old days. Thefe'fl Hot thd gold oil ths wheat) ■There's not the brown on the grass, Was in my owil deaf country, In the old days, alas! ■ Knee-deep were the meadows; 1 The corn one yellow blaze; . Lovely the hills and the hill-Bhadows, In the old days! When I walked with my father, My heart was at rest. .When we were always together, ; The heart sang in my breast. Herts is a pleasant country, ' and wild-wood ways. It is not so dear as my own country, In the old days. I—Katharine Tynan, in the "Westminster .Gazette." TO A DRAGOMAN. I still can see him, lean and languid-eyed; . Beneath his fez his clear-cut features dun With the swart totioh.of the Egyptian sun; 'A trifle stooped, yet with:& hint of pride; I still can hear his soft voice like the tide Of Nile at nightfall when ;th6 stars have won. Their immemorial places,' and begun t : Their march acr6s§' the desert, waste, and Wide. I still can feel, about him the strange_spell That dominates his land, a kindredship With all inscrutable and 1 ancient things., jAnd fancy, if'he would, that he .might tell The secret of the Sphinx's sealed, lip V And of the'pyramids and mummied kings. ; —Clinton Scollard, in "Voices and' Visions." '.I ' CLEOPATRA'S MUMMY. : ! A heap of crumbling bones, 1 -'v BlaCk with old Egypt's dust .and grime; A bit "of shrivelled skin;' 1 And..painted cloth, Brittle from years, • ..'...• And with'-bitumen stained. v.. • Once; were' these crumbling- bones ' Clothed inV a woman's beauty, i More fragrant than the breath of incense Burned wherfe tihkling ; bells, And crystal fountains, Filled with gentle music The whispering groves of fair Dodona, , And the pale-eyed' priestess Breathed the hallowed air. , Here lies the dark-eyed daughter of the Nile, .Who nursed on golden bed, . The Sucking asp.

The lonely shadows deepen, And form the English sunset, Dull and gray as sea-blown mists, Dies the last flickering, beam, And all at length is still. The visitors are gone: The doors are closed: The daughter of great Ptolemy, : In the London-town,' ■ •' Slumbers unconscious of her shame. P. R. Marvin,' in "Poems and Translations." • AT DAWN. Sow 'many years, ! how many generations, Have heard that sign in the dawn, When the dark earth yearns tb the unforgotten nations •}■■ . And i the 'old loves withdrawn, Old loves, old lovers, wonderful and nnnnm- ' bered As waves on the wine-dark sea, 'Neath the tall white towers of Troy and the temples that slumbered In Thessaly? i»-"'When the mists divide with the dawn o'er those glittering waters," Do they gaze o'er unoared seas—. . Naiad and ,nymph and-the woodland's rose- | , ,crdsiM>daughters' .. j .. j • | .' And thib Oceanides! . I ' ' Do they sing together, perchance,, in that 'diamond splendour, '• 1 • That world: of dawn and dew, With eyelids twitching to tears and with eyes grown tender, The sweet old songs they knew, The Songs of Greece?. Ah, with harp-strings mute do they falter As the earth like a small star pales? When the heroes launch their ship by tho ' smoking altar Does a memory lure their sails? Far, far away do their hearts resume tho story That never on earth was told, When all those urgent oars on the waste of • ... glory , Cast up its gold? " ■ —Alfred Noyes.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19080905.2.90

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 294, 5 September 1908, Page 12

Word Count
593

BOOKS AND AUTHORS. Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 294, 5 September 1908, Page 12

BOOKS AND AUTHORS. Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 294, 5 September 1908, Page 12

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert