RECENT VERSE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 592, 21 August 1909, Page 9

RECENT VERSE.

in a modest, booklet .("Offerings." Dun- ' edin :"OtagO;l)aily Times" Co.) John Chris- f tie puts forward verses of many years. They Jare siriiple, pleasant verses; the sweet clover J of pdbtry rather than the flowers. In-,somo r early stanzas on Discrimination, he makes T a perfectly just claim for such performance; a "These things are what they are, > and it is . well .: ' : ' ■'.■• -■'■'• ;• ■-"-■:' . ■ To priza them for suchworth as they, possess y v But lie whose soul hath • felt tho rhythmic swell t Of the vast ocean, though he'lovo not-less i Thp murmur in tho river or the tree; .. _ Knows the grand secret dwelleth.'with the c ,-sea." . \' — '"' -■.-..-■■ ~-• i N With" just such quiet'felicity.Mr. : iChristie v expresses ■" almost, all,, his fancies. and philo-' _i sophy, are simplo 'fancies',' sejdoin soar- f ing ..into, the /realm (jf 'imagination,, and.'it is v a marily : ; calm .philospphy, quite orthodox. The- author : has a slender. lyric gift;: wl)ich ho does, hot' strain. •■; - . :■'.■■' He, writes/generally on tho common subjects iliat have universal interest. The drainatic..quality is rare, and description takes secoudVplace .to philosophy. -If any. wbrds £ and scenes have impressed themselves espcci-' [; ally on tho'writer's mind, they are those, of Scotland; "The Braes of Paradise" is an inspired phrase. One very long poe'm, "Macal'- a pine," written in 1885, describes tho develop- s ment of a human "spirit beholding pain and r death, -and Jill the seeming injustices aiid c iinomalies of life, till it achieves an optimis- v tic Faith. There is also a long religious poem, q "Night at Nazareth."- Nearly all the other poems aro short. The following verses} ;entitled "Singing Heart," present Mr. Christie's lyric quality at its best, and have a s poignancy which ho not always attained:— 0 fining heart', 0 singing heart; . r ■ $ Where hast thpu flown, where hast thou flown? b Ha< thou in only forty years > _ '• c Been turned to stone, been turned to stone? If thus'lit two score tliou dost dree, V ■" AVhat will thou bo at .threescore ten? , , Or will youth come again to me; . . : Like springtime to my native glen? • 0 second childhood, very eoon _ . h Conduct,me to thy dear domain, ' „ If there the heart doth ,sing m time t With all tho'perfect world again! ~,-/- .', j, Tlie mysterious word "Opalwles"-.'covers, d briefly,'a multitude of sins.- moro explicitly, t a collection' of verses "pathetic arid inisceN -v laneous" mostly' ropubfished from Queens- a land newspapers. ("Opalodes,!- , 'by Hebei 1 Hedley Boothi -Brisbane , / Powell and. Co.| f They are so diverting that it were ungener- S ous not-to thank Mr. Booth for thorn, d Where Henley has writtea . "EngUuid, mj £

England," "Opal" has the nerve to rushiu as follows: — . . ■' ' ' ' '■ .What havo wo brought to you, . Australia, • beloved ? ' . ' Is there aught we dare not-'do, .Australia', our oivn? ' • : You, who-jwitli a-clarion call, - Come to each and: unto all, You whose banner shall not fall,Though thefiends have their bugles blown, Australia— - - . . - Though the Pit'hath\the , bugles blown. Further on, Australia is urged to "stride forth," "To' tho march-by the Six States blown." But another poem-to Australia, on "The Dawn of Federation," staggering in an almost unimpossiblo metre of Swinburno's "Armada,"- threatens sadly ' to disorganise that stride. - A martial poem of a different kind may iappeal to the Suffragettes. In it Mr. Booth sings:— ■ I hold no brief for union or clique. But speak out for our womankind; Not alone for those in- dairies or shops, . Tho same blood flows in all, I find. And many a maid, in Society's niask, Whom ye deem shallow or weak., If men were worthy, would raise her veil. % ;■ And display, the treasures, ye seek.... In other verses of a.similar quality Sir. Booth ha-s a groat deal to. say about womankind.' ,Ho devotes a lengthy "poem" to the entrants for Australian."beauty'.quest,".and confesses in two sbparato "odalodes" that he prefers .flowers to buds. His triolets are -also' individual, ami thero is a consciously humorous arid colloquial section, "Breezes from the. Gulf of Carpentaria," from which wo biivo not space to quote. ; - NOTES. .',' The firsb ;set of verses reprinted on this page appeared in the "Spectator," and was written by a Sydney lady. Tho "Spectator" baa printed several poenis by Australian writers in the last two or three years, but "QutJand Born," glowing with emojtion arid romance,: is unquestionably' tho best Aust tralasian. verse that has appeared in the great: weekly. Its appearance, will assist to dispel the depression with which' poetryrlovers have' witnessed tho decline of Australian poetry'and the gradual decay of the tribes of poets in-the'island-continent. But more than one Ella M'Fadyen is heeded to improve the repute of present-day Australian verso, which for the most part is bar-, ren and artificial, cold and flashy. . The pUro gold of "Outland Born" shines very clieerly in the rubbish. ; .' ■ • ■ One who has been reading Mr. Kipling's breezy' little-' thing in "The Morning Post" sends the London "News" a cutting from "The Yokohama Gazette" of a poem in.the Kipling manner. Hero : are' two of tho stanzas,' though the poem is not 'so courteous as one would wish: ■ \ And He wrote the Old, Old Story, the Tale of '•■• a Thousand Tears, ; ' ■ ' " The Tale that suggests so clearly the length of the Author's Ears;'- '..' , . 'He used up his Capitals freely, He tortured, the Tongue of the Queen, . And He grinned as Hβ thought of the Northland Gold to come from v those Editors . Keen., , , ' '•. "* ' ■■' And He spake:."'Tis a Glorious Legend, This Talo of a Thousand Years, And it's easy.enough to writo it, with tho aid of the Gazetteers; For I look up tho index of places, and take the 'hard >amcs F.olk like best— . Brogabri,'Leeuwin, and Kaikouras, and North.land and.Southland aud West.".-.' .. Jt seems (observes tho "News") iliat ift. Yokohama they know how tho thing is done, i , : ; ■ ' ■ : . . • i A.new writer, who handles the sensational novel of the Louis\Tracy kind at least as well as Tracy, ■; has been found in" Charles Owen, a New Zealander, -now in-England. Mr. Owen's first:book, -"Captain .Sheen, i'- ; . wakened: expectations which ,ar.e- quite fulfillwl in a second story from: his pen, "Philip Lovehick," published in Bell's Colonial Library. The scene-of ibis tale is : laid near , Wangauui, aud "local colour" is faithfully used throughout. -Tho plot has considerable •claim to originality, since its chief : interest is a court case, which trims' upon a sensaiional horse-ride, undertaken , ' to prove an "'alibi. Philip Loveluck, a '-struggling young man on the land, has good cause for bitter enmity against his sisters' husband, a'persecuting, avaricious. wretch -.' named; '.Martin ■Fairmani Tie"': old man, is found murderedunder cii'oumstances which Uirow. a -terrible 'weight of suspicion upon Philip, whose only hope of escape from a conviction for murder 'lies in the establishment -by his friends of tho, , impossibility of his having: covered a. certain distance, on horseback in a particular time, prior, to: the' crimo.being- committed. A plucky girl,', named lilary Monk, , and Loveluck's, friend, Andrew Graham, demonstrate, by> dangerous experiment, that tho distance could notpossibly have been covered in the tirao available. ~ Graham, is in love with Loveluck's.'-sister,' who in rth'e beginning; of the story is forced to live apart from her contemptible,'husband.' Loveluck ' of ;necessity falls in love with Mary Monk, but will not' marry her because, in spite of' Ms acquittal by tho Court, suspicion of the murder still hangs heavily upon him. Tho confession of the real murderer, which opens up' for Loveluck vistas 'of new happiness, but involves a dreary fate for Andrew. Graham, is. altogether unexpected_ and dramatic. There is a lttle crud-eness'in the way in which the sex interest is handled, but the story'is skilfully planned and,'for its kind, unusually well written. Although limited in its- scope, tho Tenny. son Centenary Exhibition, newly opened at the' Gallery of tho Fine Art Society, BondStreet, includes many items of rare interest. The letters, for instance, addrfessed, to Gladstone by the poet throw a pleasant, light on the relations between the. two- great' Victorians; In reference to the .statesman's proposal to confer a- title'on Tennyson there is a characteristic epistle dated, March -30, 1873:— '■-.-. . ' .'■ -■ ■ . ; "I do not like to troublo you -about my own personal matters'in tho midst of .your , absorbing public work," writes the laureate, "but not only on account of my feeling for yourself, but also for/the sake-, of-that memory which we share, L speak frankly to you when I say that I had rather wo should romain plain Mr. and Mrs., and that, if.it were possible, ,-the- ■ title should_ first be assumed by our'sori at any age it : may bo thought right." ' \i ; . Dr. G. H..R. D'abbs, of Austin Friars; who was for-many years Tennyson's medical, attendant in the Isle, of Wight, has. an- in-~ teresting note in. "My 'Journal' , —the-little monthly which he writes and , 'gives away— '■ concerning Tennyson's "Crossing the -Bar.": Looking:through an old book the other day; which was practically a.biography of Robert Whifctaker M'All, Dr. Dabbs camo upon the fact that in tho year 1817 M'All's father wrote these.lines:—- , . *■ '- '. . Jesus, When I pass the wave 'Of the dark and stormy sea, . ~ ■ Let thine arm be stretched to save, ITix my trembling heart, on'thee,-, Sweetly spare'my every fear,'• 0, my Pilot, -be thou near. ~ . ' Dr. Dabbs says he is perfectly ■ certain the laureate never saw M'Ali's'verse'.' Tho American book-buyer has a danger to avoid which, the "Book Monthly." states, scarcely besets us here—"faked books," or, rather, "faked" sets'bf "books. Takothp case of an author liko Stevenson, whoso writings,are not all copyright,,iii America. Some enterprising person, gets together^an edition of thoso which non-copyright places at his disposal. Then ho bumps out the edition with uncollected things by Stevenson, and ho advertises tho whole.'"as a complete Stevenson. It is nothing of tlio sort, b'ecauso it does not inoludo Stevenson's later books, which got tho benefit of .'American copyright. J A correspondent writes ■ to tho "Westminster. Gazette": —"Others besides myself will surely bo moved by feelings of almost intolerable humiliation and distress on reading that the richest country in the''world, has brought itself to tho pitch of bestowing upon the granddaughters of' Charles Dickens tho magnificent gift of—£2s apiece. Surely, if the facts had been-made'known In somo discreet way, thousands' anil hundreds-, of thousands who love the memory- of .Dickens -would have come forward to ; -eiisuro" comfort and dignity of: living, to- his grandchildren. Arid how comes tathat this public shame—for it is no less—is inflicted..oii-thc.co'un.try? Simplo hccaiisft literary .property is treated differently from every other form of property.