ESSAYS IN VERSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1910, Page 13

ESSAYS IN VERSE.

THE FOG. The fog, in downy volume, rolls apace, Enveloping the sea and land in gloom; And at the Heads, where cruel rocks menace, Resounds the detonator's sullen boom. Between each warning note deep syren tones The intervening stillness hoarsely break ; Anxiety, to-night, an Empire owns, Where good 6hips ply, with skippers wide awake. Wellington. — Nemo. TO THE SOUTH. Where the close packed sea-ice grinds and shocks, And the screaming skuas fly, Where tha mariner searches a break in vain In the lowering leaden Bky, Where the floe-ice groanß and the blizzard roars: This is the path to Antarctic shores. Where the great calm cold enwraps the cape, And Erebus' smoke streams clear, Where only the seal and penguin move O'er the snow through the long dim year; This is the spot where they made their stajr For the six-months night ere the eir- / months day. But who shall tell of the southern march, Through the far dim fields of white, With a death hole waiting on every hand, With the chill frost's deadly bite? While they crouch neath the snow-packed canvas flap That snaps in the biting gale, While we lounge at ease by our cosy fire, With a pipe and the evening mail ; Let us spare from our leisure moments one To honour them, Scott and Shaokleton. — Enid Sydney Jones. < The -Australasian. RANK AND FILE. You might have painted that picture, I might have written that song; Not ours, but another's the triumph, 'Tis done and well done— 7SO 'long ! You might have fought in the vanguard I might have struck at foul wrong : What matter whose hand was the foremost? 'Tis done and well done — so 'long ! So 'long, and into the darkness, With the immemorial throng — ■ Foil to the few and the splendid j All's done and well done — so 'long ! Yet, as we pass, we will pledge them — The bold, and the bright, and tha strong, (Ouvs was never black envy) ; All's done and well done — so 'long ! — Editb M. Thomas. American Magazine.