BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1186, 22 July 1911, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. /■THE JOURNEY. Heart-sick' of Eis journey,, was tho Wanderer ; Footsore and.sad was he; And a Witch who long had lurked by the ■ wayside, .. \»j '-. Looked out of sorcery. "Lift np thino eyes, thou Lonely Wanderer,", She peeped from her casement small, "Here's' shelter and quiet to givo theorist, young man, ' ■•, ~ And'..apples for thirst withal." ; . And ho looked up out of his sad reverio,And saw all the woods in green, Tvith'birds that flittered feathered in tho ■ dappling, The iewol-bright leaves between. And he lifted'up his face towards her lattice, And there, alluring-wise, • Slanting through the silence of the long ■' past, .Dwelt the still green Witch's eyes. And vaguely from the hiding-place of ',- : memory ■ , Voices ssemed to cry, . "What is the darkness of one brief-lifer ' time ' ■■, "To tho deaths thou hast made us die? . "Heed not the words of tho Enchantress '.-Who would-us still betray!" And sad with the echo of their reproaches, 'Doubting, he turned away. "I may not shelter 'neath your roof, ■■ lady, ■ ■ ■ . Noriin.this woods gre.cn. shadow seek Nor will your apples'quench the thirst, homesick Wanderer knows. •"Homesick. , forsooth!" she softly mock--1 cd him; < And the beauty of lier face Made in the siinshino, pale and trembling, A stillness in that place.. And he sighed, as if in fear, the young ■ Wanderer, , '• - . . (Looking to left and; right,. Where the endless .narrow road swept onward, ', •'■ ■'."'' Till in distance lost to-sight. And there fell upon his sense the brier, Haunting the 'air with its:weath, And the fairit shrill sweetness of the . -'birds' throats, Their tent of/leaves beneath: And there was the Witch, in no wise -, heeding; • '. Her arbour, and fruit-filled dish, Her pitcher of well-water, and clear > damask — ■■ -" , , All that the weary wish. ■•; '. ' And the last gold beam across the green world

Faltered and failed, as he . Remembered his solitude and the dark night's ' . . : '

Inhospitality. : ; . . ■'. v ■ His shoulders ' were bowed with his Jcnnpsack; . ■ ■. ■'. • < His staff trailed heavy in thd dust; . His eyes wore dazed,' and hopeless of the . ■• '• white road " Which trend all pilgrims must. And he looked upon the Witch with eyes of sorrow' ' ■■ ■ . In the darkening of the day; And turned him aside into, oblivion, ■ •Vnd the voices died away. And the. Witch' stepped down from her casement; In the husfi of night he hoard The calling.and wailing in dewy thicket ' Of bird to hidden bird. And gloom stole all her> burning crimson; ~ Remote and faint in space. ' 'As stars, in gathering shadow of 'the "evening Seemed now her phantom face. .... And one's night rest shall be a myriad, 'Midst dreams that.como and go; Till heedless fata, unmoved by. weakness,: bring him V This same strange by-Way through; \ To the beauty of earth that fades in • 'ashes, . ■ " : . : .-..'. The lips of-welcome and the eyes More beauteous than the feeble shine of Hesper ''..'' ■ ' Lone in the lightening skies; • ,--■. Till once again the Witch's guile entreat (him; , _ But, worn with wisdom, he ' * '* Steadfast and cold, shall choose the dark night's •■•....'■..■ -i'.' ; . Inhospitality; "'-■■-- •' "', ' .---Walter;dp" la Mare, in;tho , ;'-''W , eßtmm-- '. ',' "■'■'' ster Gazette." . v .