BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 473, 3 April 1909, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES NEW AND OLD. A BALLAD OF HEAVEN. ... He wrought at one great work for years; The world passed by with loftv look; Sometimes his eyes Vero dashed'with tears; Sometimes his lips with laughter shook. His wife and child went clothed in rags, v An in a windy garret starved: He trod his measures on tfte flags, And high on heaven his music carved. Wistful ho grew, but never feared; For always on the midnight skies His rich orchestral score appeared In stars and zones and galaxies. Ho thought to copy down his score: The moonlight was his lamp; ho said, Listen, my love"; but 011 the floor His wife and child were lying dead. • Her hollow eye 3 were open wide, He deemed she heard with special zest; Her death's head infant coldly eyed The desert of her shruuken brerist. "Listen, my love, my work is done; I tremble as I touch the page To si»n the sentence of tho suu I And crown tho great eternal age. "The slow adagio begins, . The winding sheets aro ravelled out That swathe the minds of men, the sins ..That wrap their rotting souls about.. "The dead are heralded along, - ' With silver trumps arid golden drums, »ne flutes and oboes,' keen and strong, My brave andante singing comes. "Then like a python's sumptuous dresa v Tho frame of things is cast 'away, And out of Time's obscure distress, The thundering scherzo crashes Day. "For thijee great orchestras I hope My mighty music shall be scored: ' °o. thr «e high lulls they-shall have scopo With heaven's vault for a sounding board. 1 r Sleep well, love: let your eyelids fall: ■ Cover the child; good-night, and if- . . . What' Speak . ... tho traitorous, end of all! Both cold and hungry ... (ftld and stiff. \ __ "But, no. God means us well, I trust: Dear ones, be happy, hope is nigh: . V .Jve are too young to fall to dust, And too' unsatisfied to die." *,■ He lifted up against his breast The woman's body stark and wan, And to her withered bosom pressed The'little skin-clad skeleton. "You see you .are alive," he cried. '■ He rocked them gently to and fro. No, no, my love, you have not died; Nor you, toy little fellow, no." Long in his arms he strained his dead And crooned an antique lullaby. Then laid them on the lowly bed, 4 And broke down with a doleful cry. ' "The love, the hope, the blood, the brain, Of her and me, tho budding life, And ,my great music—all in-,vain! My unscored.work, mjj child, my wife! "Wo drop into oblivion, . And nourish some suburban sod : My work, this woman, this my son," Are now 110 more: there is no Uod.' "The world's a dustbin; we are due,. ' . And death's cart waits: be life accurst!" xte stumbled down beside the two And clasping them, his great heart burst. Straightway -; .e stood at Heaven's gate, Abashed at d - trembling for his sin: . I trow he hud not long to wait, For God came out and led him in. . And then there ran a radiant pair, Kuddy witJi haste and eager eyed To meet him first upon 'the stair— His wife and child, beatified. ■ They clad him in a robe of light, And gavo him heavenly-food to eat, Great seraphs-praised ,him-to Archangels *jM f God, smiling, took him by the hand, ' " ' And led him to the brink of.heaven; Hosaw where systems .whirling stand, \\ hero galaxies like snow.' • Dead silence reigned: a.shudder ran ' ! ■ through space; Timo ftfrled-his wearied wings; A slow adagio .then beganSweetly resolving troubled things. ' The dead were heralded along, - ' iAf « drums and trumps of flame, And flutes and oboes, keen and strong A brave andante singing came. Thon like a python's sumptuous dress The frame of things was cast away, ( And out of Time's obscure distress,' > Ihe conquering scherzo thundered Day. ' •' He doubted; but God said ."Even so; •' Nothing is, lost that's wrought with tearsThe music that you made below . • • 1 *3 now the music of the spheres." —John Davidson. "SIC'TRANSIT." Summer and winter, through dark,days and bright, We watch the stars set and the sunrise flame The morn, and then the noon, and then the night Passes, like beauty turned to blight arid ■ blame. Wan age we see where youth played out its ' And where the birds sang and the leaves un- , curled Bare boughs and. empty nests; and we exclaim; ■ "So passes, then, the glpry of the world." \ em pira- trembles now-for Caesar's might, . No Antony at Cleopatra's name: \ me knight Ut deokUh6 tomba '° f squire and Ruler aud warrior, damosel 'and dame.' > .Hops fails like fear, their end one and- the . same: Passes youth's dream, a flower with May-dews pearled, .. . . And" then the dream of love, and then of fame; So passes, then, the,glory of the world. . AlaS! fli f gh't- atter€d str : eilg ." 1 and fettered.. * ' r t ear '' leDgtll ' grown &ed and What have we at. last of all for which we fi"ht» shame' a ' graye; hon °ur mado one with Wh lame^ 6 ' "' Dg ?P cd H°. f ? ot toil s, halt and And t0 ' toilers lleart > Ms spear hath Wh !ame?' g ' " Thi? sun no clou<l ' ?'erSo passes, then, the gWy- of the world?" ; Envoy. prince i of ? the night, what checks thy random Th °fiirlJd ] n the tllD mornin s' s unpassed' and yet returned; went, and vet v , 4 -- s came j J go "passes,-then, the glory of the, World! /S.'- Gertrude Ford, 'in the "Daily Mail." ■ AFTER MANY DAYS. : , ' When the months grow into years And date replaces day, • And slower fall the tears, • And light breaks on. the wayIs it treason to the dead? 1 • •^ Fr s m the A r . very "far off land" Do they miSs the.tears unshed® Do tney miss? or understand? D ° kl Y»v. who know love : best, s .claims on- love p.rc wide? Sl * V i S^a , ro us r 9 TTI their Rest, ihey who have Wed and died? -K.M, in the."Westminster Gazette."