On a Pair of Ancient Slippers.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 880, 11 January 1889, Page 5

On a Pair of Ancient Slippers.

The genr of the current number of the Universal Review is a charming poem by Sir Edwin Arnold on a pair of ancient Egyptian slippers f of green and gold,’ In half-playful, half-serioua vein, the poet

pictures in his fancy the fair wearer of the slippers in the days When Ccesar Augustus was Eygpt’s lord. Of course she was embalmed when she died, little dreaming that The feet will pass, but the shoes they have worn Two thousand years onward Time’s road shall tread. She died, Eelieving in Horns and Pasht, Isis, Osiris, and priestly tore; And found, of course, such theories smashed By actual fact on the heavenly shore. Did her soul transmigrate, and was the dark maiden the poet met at dinner last week a modern incarnation ? Perchance she was married ! But vainly I knock at the bars of the past, Little green slippers with golden strings ? For all you caa tell is that leather will last When loves and delights and beautiful things Have vanished forgotten. Nay ; not quite that. I catch the light of the grace you wore When you finished with life’s daily pit-a-pat And left your shoes at time’s bedroom door.