VARIOUS VERSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 17

VARIOUS VERSE.

"DAWN." Awakening from his chilly night's repose Earth's radiant monnrch lazily tobc, And caeting off his sombro night attiro As daylight crept o'er every tower and spire He stagtjerod to his feet with fretful yawn And hailed a blinking salutation to tho dawn. Tho cocks crew lustily their shrill weird pipe, They eemed to mock tho darkness in his dusky flight, < Aa though to them belonged tho royal right To rouso tho world once more to work and life. The city's smouldering smoke doth early rise In curling columns, mounting to tho skies. From multitudes cf chimneyß, short and email, And others, tow'ring o'er them, great and tall. Low 'mid the valley's bluish smoky maze. With glimm'ring lights, the cars flit thro* tho sullen haze, With dull crescendo whir, they gliding go, To bear their daily burdens to and fro. Oft on their route they pause, and scarcely wait, Adding still other burdens to their human freight. Tho 6parrows twitter underneath the eaves, "Up, lip, it is thedawn! tho world, the 1 darkness leave !*' Then off in pairs they fly, with winged speed, To snatch the early worm, for hunger's need. While Wollington is stirring, from his rest Eising, the sparkling suu shines o'er tho harbour's breast, Touching the windows with his splendour bright, . Ho makes their glasses glow with lucent light, And far beyond the hilly, emerald crest, Slowly the dull, paila moon dips in the distant west. —Elizabeth M. Goldsmith. , —Wellington; RONDEAU AND SONNET. | Once, Elsie, when a pretty child you wero, Blithe-hearted as the merry birds of Spring, And evory sweetest flower rivalling, With dreamful wondering eyes,' yot void of caro, Ideal of the Spring you seemed, most fair ; Then of your beauty might tho Kondeau sing, Its tripping feet your own seemed following, And oi their music, echo, everywhere. Yet now, with throbbing heart and lifted head, Stepping into the kingdom of the Soul, Slow-paced, becoming Summer's statelier tread — As hearing first Life's muffled organ-roll— Tho Sonnet's measured musio marches by And, touching earth, aspires to reach the sky. — A. A. B. Cavanesß. — National Magazine. "Saturday Night." — There is no better exercise in composition than verse-writing, but unleis a beginner has unusual natural genius his early "studios" will pot bear the light of publication. In most cases the novice has little "ear" for measure or rhythm — sometimes recognises neither. It is a primary requisite that measure and accent bs true, and even then tho result may be bald and unmusical. In your littlo piece of twenty-four lines wo find lines of eirfit, nine, teu, eleven, and twelve syllables, Desides a number of misplaced rccents. Even in prose writing rhythm and accent are important. Study good models carefully and your stylo will improve. Two statistical/ publications hava coma to us from Australia: — "Unification of Australasian Statistical Methods aud Co-ordination of tho Work of the Commonwealth and State Bureaux," published by tho Conference of Statisticians of the Commonwealth and States ! of Australia and Colony of New Zealand, which met'last year in Melbourne. (It is time that tho fantastic "bureaux" .vas banned. We have better English word 3 to express the idea.) It baars the impiint of the Government Printer, Melbourne. The other is the second part of the Returns oi Trade and Customs and Exciso Revenue of Australia for 1905, compiled by the Commonwealth Statistician and issued by authority by John Sands, Limited, Syduey. We have somo scientific pamphlets deserving of note. ''Scientific Work >'n the Sea-Fisheries" is the reprint of a lectuio reported in the current volume of the Zoologist, delivered on 4th May at the Royal Institution by Professor M'liitosh of the Gatty Marino Laboratory, University of St. Andrews. It is the first of a sorics, and the author's conclusion is, that the condition of the British fisheries and their future _prospects, are on the whole noi, unsatisfactory. "Tho Whole of Esperanto" is a littlo penny booklet, contining a short story in the artificial tongue, with vocabulaiy, list, of prefixes and afiixe3, and instructions for tho formation of words. "Tho Cinematograph, in Science, Education, and Mattors of State," by Charles Urban, F.Z.S. (48, Kupeit-street, Salisbury-avenue, London, W.), is interesting as showing how the invention, at first regarded as a toy, is now indispensable in every branch of science. We wish that n. better name — say of three syllabes, could bo agreed upon. In any case, protest must be made against the initial "C." As spelt in this pamphlet tho word is neither French nor English. English analogy requires "X," both in spelling and speech. We do not write "Cinetics." Other pamphlets are of the usual miscellaneous kind. From a batch of circulars, etc., sent to us by Meosrs. H F. Wy^tt, and L. G. H. liorton Smith, of the Navy League, thevo appears to be a serious split in that body, which has dismissed tho editor of the journal and altered its policy. The "oxprccs purpose" of the league having beou "re- ] ei3ting decrease and advocating increase of naval strength," the present majority of the executive committee is charged with having "reversed these aims," and further with having sought proxies of members "upon aa untrue and misleading statement of fact." — "The Swiss Army and How it is Constituted," is a reprint of certain articles by Lieut.-Col. T. Reay, lately published in the Melbourne Herald, aud now sont forth with ;i commendatory note by tho Defence Minister. — "Sidelights on Conscription," by G. Galo Thomas, issued by tho Peace Association (40, Outer Temple, Strand, London). The author suggests that the "spoiling of the Volunteers'" by retent official discouragement has been deliberate, as "part of the game," the volunteers being reoj>p;nised as tho great obstacle in the way of conscription. Evidences are given of tho widespread evils of conscription on tho Continent, and the prevalence of self-mutilatiou as a moans of evasion is quoted as an example of the horror in which it is held by tho young men. — "The Passing of War," by James Anson Farrer, is another tract from tho same association. — "Concerning tho Daily I Mail, by "A Reader. " (II Morgan ' Browne, 24, Norfolk-street, Strand, I Westminster), is a wholc-hsirted attack on the "Yellow" methods of tho widely-circulated halfpenny paper. Mr. •Browne, who ssenis to have ke.pt a careful register of the Mail's iniquities, from its bogus finding of tho commission in the Fishing-floet outrage lo its Soaptrust libel, makes out a strong indictment. — "An Answer to Mark Twain," is ;i scurrilous publication sent to us from Brussels by the "Federation for the Doienee of Belgian interests Abroad." No. 7 of "Tho Trouble in the Congo Free State" is from the samo tainted auarter. ' J