POETRY, OLD AND NEW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14005, 10 March 1909, Page 9

POETRY, OLD AND NEW.

TUB STOIC. RICHES 1 hold in light esteem, And love I laugh to scorn; And lust of fame was but a dream That, vanished with the morn; • And if I pray, the only prayer That moves my lips for mem Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear, 9 Ami give me .liberty!" ... •,-«.. ' Yes, at) my swift days near their goal, 'Tib all that I implore; In life and death, a chainless soul, With courage to endure. —Emily Bhoxte. ..■/,.'. WHICH? ' . Here are two little hands, What can they doGood things or bad things The whole day through? Helping or hindering— ■ »-..•' [,'...■ Which of the twor Here are two little feet, Where have they run— Into the shadow or Into the sun? Helping or hindering— Winch have they done? Here are two little lips, What can they say Glad word;* or cross words Through the whole day? Helping or hindering .. 4 ■ •'..- Now, which are they? WINTER WEATHER. Grass afield wears silver thatch, Palings all are edged with rime, ; " Frost-flowers pattern round the latch, Cloud nor breeze dissolve the clime. When the waves are solid floor, And the clod« are iron-bound. And the boughs are cryetall'd hoar, And the red leaf ivait'd a-groiiud. When the fieldfare's .flight ,is slow,. ~,. And a rosy vapour rim, Now the uur. is small and low, Belts along the region dim. When the ice-crack flies and flaws. Shore to shore, with thunder shock, Deeper than the evening daws. Clearer than the village clock, v ;.. •, When the rusty blackbird strips, "■■"■■> ' Hunch by bunch, the coral thorn, And the pale day-crescent dips, New to heaven a slender horn. * Lord de Table*. ... ■ FISHY. ■ . He flung his line into the stream, With dexterous swirl and swish, And told his friends, with modest pride, He caught a fair-sized ■■■■■'.... .-.■:■■■■■ ■. Fish. :. :. •■■ ... He told the tale again next week, Described the lordly dish; The size increased a little bit; 1 This time it was a ' F-i-s-h. Soon holding forth upon the deed Became his frenzied wish. And when a . month had passed away He always hooked a F— I—S—II. Three months have run their weary course; His friends now mutter "Pish! When Jones begins to tell about That time he caught a \ ; F- 1 —-S II I A BALLADE. Once it must come to the sense of all, Through the maze of toil, through the roaring way, To the noisome court, to the prince's hall, Wherever the life-tides clash and sway. As a dream of peace to one long astray Awakes desire in the heart of man, ; : ;i When the false joys pall, and the hours loom grey. '' ~.'■..■■■,•■. To the. message blown on the flute of Pan. ■■"••■'.' The merchant sweeps from his brain the thrall Of the humming mart of the crowded day. From scheme and barter to hark the call Blown sweet and faint from the far away: An alien song from the past astray When youth and laughter together ran , Through woodltuds damp with the morning's spray To the message blown on the flute of Tan.

Grieving and worn to his refuge crawl From the wrecking, years, from; the bitter fray, Sad hearts to the calm, where his peace founts And the groves where his kindly shadows play. Joyous or sorry, or ■ gold or grey, Never a portal, nor threat, nor bap, Ti them who follow the ancient way To the message blown on the flute of Tan. King, who shall hear and the charm withstay? Never a. one of the human clan But back to the fold at last shall stray To the message blown on the flute of Pan. , —F. O'Neill Gallagher, in the Daily News. ' ANNABEL LEE. It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived'whom you may know By the name* of Annabel Lee; , » And this maiden lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child, and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But she loved with a love that was more than' love— v I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted. her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of'a cloud, chilling r My beautiful Annabel Lee; ' , So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre ..-■■-., In (his kingdom by the sea. The angels, nor, half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me ■■"'.'»' Yes 1 that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling anil killing my Annabel Lee. . But our love it' was ; stronger by far than the 'lovo ;'■'■ '.- '■'' Of those who were older than we— Of-manv far wiser than we And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; -"'"'■' For the moon never beams without bringing me, dreams 'Of i the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eves *, ■ ' " ~ • Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, J lie down by the . side. Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,; In the sepulchre there by the sea, , In her tomb by the sounding' sea. .—Edgar Allan Toe.