SELECTED POETRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4813, 9 March 1918, Page 3

SELECTED POETRY.

AN AIRMAN’S DREAM. When I am tired through and through. And all the things I have to do Seem little, senseless, brutal things, My mind escapes on happier wings To an old house, that is mine own, Lichen-kissed and overgrown,; With gables here and gables there, And tapered chimney anywhere; With millstone hearths for burning logs, And kettles singing from the dogs; With rough hewn beams of darkened oak, Fragrant with a taint of smoke; With unexpected steps and nooks, And cases full of leather books— Soft water colors that I love; And in the bedrooms, up above, Large four-post beds, and lots of air, Where I can lie without a care, And hear the rustle of the leaves And starlings fighting in the eaves. Around the house a garden lies, A many-colored paradise. With beds of flowers, not too tame, All bright, and never twice the same. And if the Lord is very good, And all things happen as they should, There is a river gliding by. Transparent as the summer sky/ Cool to the touch and very deep, Quietly smiling in its sleep. There large, well-educated trout Scull themselves lazily about.; And there a brook with cheerful noise Comes chattering low its little joys, Telling how, through Newton Wood, It stole, sedate, and very good. Down the stream a mile or two The fen lands come, where trees are few, There sturdy, sad-eyed fenmen toil, Tilling their heavy, deep-brown soil; A land where the grey heron breeds, And wild fowl paddle in the reeds; A land of motion, golden reds; Of ripening corn and osier beds; A land in which, where’er I go, There is no man to say me no. I’d have for my companions there A boat, a gun, of dogs a pair, Cocker spaniels, silver grey. With tails a-wagging all the day And other things I’d have are these; Large bre'akfasts and enormous teas. Honey and home-made bread, still hot, Fresh butter in an earthen pot, 4nd new-laid eggs and clotted cream. 6 Lord, to think it’s all a dream! “Miles,” in the London Spectator-