ESSAYS IN VERSE THE RETURN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1915, Page 11

ESSAYS IN VERSE THE RETURN.

I heard the rumbling guns. I saw the t smoke, o The unintelligible shock of heste that v stiU • Far off, unseeing, strove and strove again: * And Beauty flying naked down the hill. a From morn to eve : and then stern night h cried Peace ! v And shut the strife in darkness : all was „ still. t Then slowly crept & triumph on thene n dark — And I heard Beauty singing up the bill, r — John Freeman. \ Westminster Gazette. * THE OLD INN. * The ghosts of what dead gallantries , Withm your low-ceiled walls remain, And from those diamond-panes, your eyes, * Look forth again? J The trim lawns stall are dewy-pearled, a The oak tstiU guards your crescenfc drive— But, since your daj, what flaga havo « . i uxled, . \ And yet men strive ! \ J Within your hall tho rafters rung With toasts that pleased an. elder day ; Alas, the old songs hive been sung, ] And died away ! ] The mellow candle-gloom is gone, < But the same firelight leaps ai»w . j To ohar the mantel, and the- dawn, < • Still finds a- few — i Stiß smiles a "Finis" to the tale ] i That on the world's rim first found: i [ breath: . 1 For Love and War sball never fail, The leg&n& saith. i No more the shrieking brakes proclaim The, distant Coach with News and Friends, Nor bugle note some chariot's fame Distinction lends. Out on tha ribbon-road there stands The sign-post of the final mile, Whose vigilant new-painted hands Bid : "Rest awfule V* And though the motor's acrid smoke Assails the ancient stable-shed, , The weary guests your charms invoke As those long dead. And quite as fair Milady seems As she who minced in rich brocade — Then, long up-stand to house our dreams Till Memory fade ! — W. S. T. Fernandez. — The Nation.