BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1575, 19 October 1912, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

VERSES OLD AND NEW. AUDENARDE. He was round and ruby-fated, ha was belted, froggcd, and laced, ' , And ho stood just four feet nine; I can almost See him now, with his jolly tow-row-row, 1 And his drum-sticks twinkling fine; Through St. James's and the "Mell," how , he used to strut and swell To the changing of the guard,—. But they said he stepped his proudest, and they said he drummed his loudest, ■ When they went to Audonarde.

They had fifteen miles to make, and the brimming Scheldt to take, Ere they brought the French to bay; But he finished like a winner, though he wont without his dinner, And he drummed it all the way; As they waded through the sedges, as they scrambled through' the hedges, And the fight grew hot and hard, Not for all the bullets hummiiig would he stop his jaunty drumming, 'When they went to Audenarde. / He was seen amid the flashes, he was ' heard above the crashes, He was first in each attack; But they looked for him in vain in the darkness and the rain, Wlion they came to bivouac; He was lying in tho daisies, with his .drum-head shot to blazes And one chubby cheek nil scarred,— He had died for good Queen Anne like a ' valiant English man, When they went to Audenarde.

Bo they laid him by the Scheldt, in.bis epaulettes and belt, With his drum-sticks in his hands; And wo shall not see him now, with his . jolly tow-row-row, When the old battalion lands; Through St. James's, and the "Mell," he ■ will no more strut and swell To the changing of the guard, ,For with every step he trod, he was , marching up to God, .When they went to Audenarde. . . —Frank Taylor. . -..THE LAUNCH. Forth, to th« alien gravity, Forth,- to the laws of ocean we . Builders on earth by laws of land Entrust this creature of our hand Upon the calculated 6ea. Fast bound to shore we cling, we creep, And make our ship ready to leap j Light to the flood, equipped to ride ! The strange conditions of,tho tide—' New weight, new force, new' world: the ' Deep. 1 'Ah thus—not thus—the dying, kissed, Cherished, exhorted, shriven, dismissed; .On him, not yet estranged, we wait— Our utmost—till he reach the gate To keep'the incalculable tryst.. —Alice Aleynell. ' : TEAKS. "Sigh.o'er the hill-the moon barque steers. Ihe lantern lights depart. Dead Sp'rings are stirring in my heart; And there are tears. But that which makes my grief more deep Ja' that you know not when I weep. —From the Chinese of Wang Seng-Ju.