LITERARY COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

LITERARY COLUMN.

This Column is open to literary contributions, good and abort. Contributions will be gladly received, original matter preferred, the objeot being to oncourage native literary talent. " Bchneider." — Your verses will appear shortly. Contributions received from "H." and "E.P.P." Appended ia a poem by v H.," which is Tiighly commended : — DARKNESS. Sweet veil, that throws a kindly shade O'er rich and poor — The raiment that the sun has made To hide the tear on leaf and blade And slumb'ring flower. Before the world was in the womb Of time and space Thou reared the universal tomb, That all thinga living might their doom In silence trace. The city large, the hamlet small, Forest and stream, The lowly cot, the castle tall — Thy seamless shroud envelopes all In dreamless dream. — " H." Oub Vkbsb Competition. We publish below three Verse Competitions, which are highly commended :—: — How can I, in an eight-line verse, The merits of our friend rehe*rse, Who, to our faults and failings blind Is ever genial, just, and kind ? "Tis very sad to bo restricted ; To writing verse I'm much addioted, And cheerfully wonld fill a volume In praises of his Puzzle Column. — " Schneider." Dear Editor — wonld I could ably rehearw The good you have done me, and put i inverse.

You've pleased me, and teased me, and many a day From my brow you have driven " dull care " far away. You have sharpened my wits. I could tell you in prose And praioe up your Column ; but everyone knows We poets have all we can manage sometimes In making our thoughts fit exactly to rhymes. — " Florence Howe," Barnard Street, Timaru. There is a Court whose subjects know no fear, But dwell in unity from year to year. Puzzledom is its name— its ruler well is known — It is none other than our good " Touchstone." Those who would reach this court and swell its ranks Will find an access through its quips and cranks, Must crack the nuts whose equals are unknown, And then they'll welcomed be by our "Touchstone." — " Colleen Bawn."