VERSES OLD AND NEW.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 639, 16 October 1909, Page 11

VERSES OLD AND NEW.

* , SONNETS,'ON DEATH. , Above his heart tho rose is red, The rose above his head is white. The crocus glares with golden light, i Tho spring returns—and he is dead! * Wo hark in vain to hear his tread, '' We reach to clasp his hand in vain; ' r Tho' lifo and love return again Wo con no morq be comforted. v Wijh'-'tearless'eyes wo kept steadfast ' His vigil wo were sworn to keep, But, when he loft us, and at last ' Wo "saw him pass beyond .the Door, ' And knew ho could return no nioro, We nept aloud as children weep. / I "saw that day, in Ins dead eye i The light that sufiers no eclipse,i ' I felt the chill on his dead lips Of shoreless seas and starlit skies ' - I knew he lives indeed who dies • • A champion in the lists of Truth. I knew the days of all his youth Were tournaments and victories l < < -And yot Once more heart-brokenly > I kissed his .lips and clasped, his hand ' i And suffered darkly, humanly, Till, there beside his corpse and me, I almost seemed to see him stand, alive, triumphant, freo! —From 'JThe Great Adventure," late George Cabot-Lodge. ~ ,' WOLFS EYES , T (From tho French of Jean Bichepin ) The hang-dog fellow looked at me askanco, i And i shut nis lips, mumchance He said no word to quicken chanty, But thrust his hand at me » No glibly muttered thanks fell from his tongue For the poor dole I Hung, But in his gray wolf's eyes was plauily set His reading of the debt. Thoy said.> "Dost think, proud fool, for ha'pence thrown To have me all thine own?" They said "'Tis I that make thee chanty; 'Thou givest nought to'me." They said "In giving thou alone canst find Comfort, in being kind" They said. "These Ha'pence given, and thou,art free To lord it virtuonJy " They said: "What kingly nght*is this, to thrust Thy fellow in the dust 1 " " they o aioV "My right it were to spit at theo, And spurn thy charity " They Baid "I take it, but thou canst not lift The cui;se that dogs a gift." ' This message in the gray wolf's eyes was set, i For so he, rend tho debt, r And I, too, looking on his hang dog face, Said nothing for my caso. But fingered yet more ha pence,' went my way, Wvth nought at all to say , Fpr there was truth in what the wolf s eyes said j And, shamed at heart, I fled i ' AJohn Palmer, in "Tho Nation. i' EXTRA MUEOS. < Fair was this dawn, the wind'at east, The welkin'clear, the oflmg freo, Mv oKartiof life I oped, to feast; •■ My soul on ports beyond ;the sea. "Unmoor'-rCast off, and folldw me' Whv dawdld here?" tho fresh breeze said. "Now all's aboard—What may not be?— This harbour speaks alone the dead TJnmoored from Earth's degenerate bed, My sails all up, the sheets hauled taut, I'set my<cour6o for isles ahead In sapphired seas of thought And "as my hark, careening', sought Morgana's port across the deep, Sorone in-pleasnanco 1 caught - Such thoughti as,erst had made me weep, ( Tho heave l of' Fancy's deck, tho sweep Of white-fltcted blue thafgave new hope, Pot off life's:* wreck/death's beckoning sleep, Left far astern CaTe's'bmding rope New scenes I saw for wider scope; Fresh purposes my being thnlled, Clear 7 vision icame ,wherfl. I 'did' grope; "New strength-ray t My port in'sight, 'the 'signals read,My craft t tacked for home again, i Wind "vain Shibboleths dead, And all -my canvas''full of scram > Night cups' with-'diamond dome the main; A fcalm, full the'land,' As, tjdo-swept,;to my > quay I gam— > i ForWeF-more 1 to understand. ■' ' ; _!j.< aV Patierson, in tho "Westminster ' , v GM«tto." ■* ' i ' ' t