LITERARY COLUMN. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue LXVII, 30 January 1904, Page 11

LITERARY COLUMN. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

"Hearts of Gold, and Otlwr Verses." By Will H. Ogilvie. Sydney: Bulletin Company. In this, his *«econd volume of collected poems, tho author has made a not-nbio addition to the growing library of Austialian verse. We have hero the reflection of many moods ; of tender pathos sometimes, and suggc&tivo thought; more often of the mere dul'ght of living ; warm love-lyrics, ringing lines that toll of tho gallops before daydniwi, the long rides by moonlight, or tho desperate nice for life, when tho Hoods are out — then, again, the not* of disappointment or remorse, of reckless defiance of fnto. Sometimes perfectly finished, again careless and uneven, Air. Ogilvie's verso is always musical, and is penetrated throughout wilh a deep love of his adopted land in all its ai<pecls. lie loves as only those- who understand them can love, the rough and over ready men of the bush stations, whose "hearts of gold" have been tried and proved iv many a dire emergency, nnd who will fnce danger nnd death for a comrade's sake: "Though poets have not yet sung you, Nor writers your true worth told, I, who have wrought among you, I know you for hearts of gold ! "Bending^your arms when tho floods arc down*, Lest a noighbour'a stock in tho dark should drown ; Sweating with green boughs, turn and turn. Lest a neighbour's crop in tho night . should burn ; Riding the, hills nt tho risk of life. For a doctor's aid for a neighbour's wife — Hearts of gold ! 0, heurts of gold.! "Afen who have- riddon all day, Hungry aud saddle-sore, Snatching a morsel nui l riding away Maybe foi ten hours more, In tho lined advance, that the ranges may give One more faint chnnco to a child to live — HenrUj of gold ! 0, hearts of gold ! "Women alone in tho Bush, Alolhora nnd wives, Keeping your guard in the weird night huf.li Over Iho sleeping lives; In woo or wenl staunch und fond, True os steol to tho mnrringo-bond — Hearts of gold ! 0, hearts of gold !" 'lhe bush-poet has not often a good word for the squatter: but Ogilvie rises to enthusiasm in his "White Alan' on the Western side, "tho heir of an ancient race," "with a heart as big ns his lands wero wide." "And tho Mvagmen po«iing at any hour Had their pound of meat and their pint of flour; An' 1 tho drivers bogged on the blacksoil plain, ' Nover asked for the Whito Man's help in vain, F.or tho famous team with the epnde-unr brand Would slew them out to the. nearest sand ; And the teamsters swore as thoy took the ' track : "no is the Whitest Marx out-backl" Times go hnrdly with tho "White Man," tho Bnnk forecloses nnd leaves him a solitary paddock which ho ploughs with his own hands. "And there came a day when the White Man -died, > And tho neighbours gathered from far nnd wide — From fnr and wide and the fenceless West To follow their friend to his lnot long rest; And tho bushmen crowded from far and near, Brown cheeks wet with a ailenfc tear: For out in the land of the sunsets red They knew how to honour a White Man dead."

In "Western Heroes" — tho men who "have- saved and fought, nnprnised and .unadorned," the author, ns in many other reverts to the favourite theme m ith whirh his book oputM>: "When Death conies closo with fingers cold, Tf I h'avo thousand.** ten, I'll bid them mould of bcaton gold A cutfs for Western men ; For overy splendid rescue mado From tloou and thirst and tiu\ For those who gave thoir gallant aid In friendship, nol in hire !" Tho second section, "Among the Hordes," contains fifteen or sixteen spirited poems of a style always popular with Australian rcadeia, and which will bear comparison with Lindsay Gordon's best. Air. Ogilvio has his own receipt for ridding the hoi-jviinui of the di.siigrecable companion, "black Care," assigned him by I lorace : "Behind each gay rider Sit« Cnro, we- nro told, With dark hnir to hulo her And clinging hands cold ; If swift we bo flying Care en mini but sway And fall! Leave her lying 1 To horso and away 1" Tn "Atm Cura" we find the enme idea. "Wildflow'ers by the Way" is a cluster of lovo-lyrics. One of these, "Playmate," is as sweet nnd louder ns Whittier's little poem on a like the mo, little as tho two poets havo in common : "There were so many others, true hearts the gods desired, So very, many others grown gray nnd old and tired ; flow was it that the angels across the golden gato , Leaned "do\\n to tuko your clinging hand, your tiny hand, l'hiymate J "A httlo timo to weep for you, a littlo tuno to fret, Then shadows on tho playground, dear, to show tho -sun is set ; All, when tho golden sUus come out to light tho Ivory >Wny, God lay your little hand in mme — the .hand I hold at piny !" In "Over (ho Water" the author shows that with nil his lovo for the illimitable horizons of his aduplctl country, he lms .still a warm place in his ulfoclions for tho land of his birth, a.s, in fact, ho ha* told us in one of tlie earlier pages : "—" — I lovo her beauty, this Land of mine. And I love the sheen of her ferny coafct, Her pastures green and her mouulaiu line,— But maybe and maybe her ocenn most ; Btwau.se on the blue there are w;t no bars And a fenceless road is tho road o'crseas, Till we lift tho henlh on tho misty scars And the bloom on the red, red rowan trees." But tho bushman feels in the Old Land that there is not room for him : "Their stock ! All tho steers in tho Island mob Woufdn't covor a half-mile block I It's a man and a spado and n funeral job When nn old ewe dies in the Hock ! And thoy nibble and wander, threes and fours, In tho clover-fields, full-fed, But I'm sick for tho sight of a thousand stores Coming down on a two-mile spread !" In "Tho Ploughman" ho pays 'tribute to his great poet-countryman : "We, turning tho pages, have heard him sigh When the keen shnro dips and tho Jni.iioa die. —Oh, tho turf by his tomb should bo dnisy -starred, If the Enrth would be fair to her ploughman bnrd !" The wild horses of the ocenn attract him no less than the creatures he loves so woll on land. "Dropping tho Cross" v a lino sea-piece, but the disappearing constellation turns his thoughts homeward :

"In the long night-watches, dread and W>!lf\ When tlio fool.snre cattle lay, WV lmvc picked up tho (,'io.hs 'in tho sky and known A friend till the breaking day; In tho wild night-rides when tho'winds of ha to Sot, tho gtvnt gum-boughs atoM, lsy beam and yard .she has held us frlr.iight, And the inialimeii tnust the Cross." In the concluding section thc.ro nro, among others, some child-piece*. These, lifter all, aj-e tho sure&t U'at of a poet's commi.ssion ; for it is only in proportion as he rot a him the child-mt'iiiories and tho child-heart that he can outer tho Kingdom of Poetry. Here is the first .stanza of "Timo and the Children" : "Where they play among the grasses If perchance a dark cloud pn&svs O'er their .sLiaying, Not a .shadow of tho morrow brings a sorrow To their playing. For they hear the blucbclla ringing When the fame*, rock the stceplo, And they .soc the given grans swinging 'Xcatli the feel ofjjittle neople. Ah, Father Time! their golden hours are few And the- arch of tho rainbow is still to climb And tho fairies to find in tho dew ! Will you not wait for the children!" 110 pictures the woe of the little oneBaby no longer, for thei« is a *ucc««or to the title — who mln "in the darkness weeping," "a, wira little love-lorn heap" : "They havo taken his bnby-scept.ro, They have taken hi.s robe and crown, They ha\e driven him nut of his palaco And iluttorcci his hou&e-flng down. "They have driven him forth from his kingdom, And the ivory gate* are closed, And they think that ho does not notice — Ah! poor Ultlo King deposed*!" And yet another, from " The Applewinds : "I had no thought of stormy sky In days when I was i,ninll And all the world \vns» bouuded by Our ten-foot garden wo 11. I never thought the storm-winds c.iino From wrecks nnd ribboned wiils : T ni'ver knew thenf by their namo Of equinoctial galoi; But swooping round tho orchard bends Kncc-dx*p in leaves of brown, I only knew them «nt) tho frjends That shook tho apples down !" Them nro eighty-eight pieces in all in the volume, tuul ono might mimlv multiply citations. Wo nave, wo think, quoted enough to show that "Hearts of Gold" is n. book that ©very reader who nppivciutes Australian poetry should mako his own. "An Australian Ln.tsio." Br Lilian Turner. Word, Lock and Co., London and Melbourne. A nlcnonnt little .story of home and school life in tho "North Shore FrighInnda," some thn-o rmW from Sydney. Wo have a fnnuliur thrnie in tho Turner books — a. family of narrow means' and Khiftk'KS, and the young folk untrained so far n» homo discipline i.s oonceincd. Tho children have a wtvtlihy grandfather, of whom they stand in grout nwv, living on un adjoining property. Thoir mother, Mrs. Bruce, is hia only child, and us he dioipprowd of her mnrrii go, he has kept rigidly aloof. Mrs. Bruce i« a complete failure in homo innnagoiiunt, nnd dovoted to her umlsic nnd nor garden; Mr. Bruco i.s an author who neglect* work for which ho i* paid and toils over a literary ent-or-pme winch it is doubtful will ovVr yield him nny tulurn. 'Uia eldwt (laughter. •»- heriting her mother'}* beauty nnd pr.ictionl incapacity, is at a Sydney nonulinijochool. The intercut centres* on ft«tt.y, tho "law*ic" of twolvo, the family drudge, upon whom falls tho hurdfit of duties nogloLtrd by the root of the household. Tho- only unflo'.fbh rnoinbor of tho fauu'ly. she is also Uie ' mod coiificicntloiu, and has more limn a duo .vodac of her own shortcoming.*!. Tho grandfather adopts a big boy of thirteen, the only child of an old sweetheart, who figures prominently in tho narrative. Ho challenge* Cyril", Betty's cawardly twin-brother, to a fight ,i< night, and Belly, finding that Cyril lm» crept off to bed, ntliriA hmeff in hi*» clothes and lceepa the appoint mont "for tho honour of tho Bruce*. " She is a» imaginative child, and not only plans, but encudroura to carry out, utrange .schemes to re&tore tho family fortunes, even playing "ghost" in ncr grnuilfathor's hotujo lo bring him ti> a bciuso of ln« misdoing. The fitory, to which a sequel nnppar.s U) bo conU'inplaled. i« very roadab.e, and will appeal utrongly to children.