A SOMNAMBULIST'S POETRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8612, 24 December 1913, Page 12

A SOMNAMBULIST'S POETRY

VERSES WRITTEN DURING DREAMLESS SLEEP BY OVERWROUGHT WOMAN. The following versos, which havt never before been printed, were written by Mrs Nathan Utley (.Margaret Adelaide Darby) during the night of July 2Stk, 1869, says a writer in the Hartford, Conn., “ Daily CourantThey may be cited as an extraordinary instance of the effect of unwonted stress upon u, supposedly, soundly sleeping mind. Eor it was during a dreamless sleep that the lines were written, and their discovery, in a hand' writing which could not bo mistaken, awakened no chord of memory; the mind was a blank from the time of retiring until the complete awakening 1 , and subsequent finding of the poem. The awakening was in itself unconventional. Mrs Utley’s house, which is istill standing in .the little city of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is built upon a hill hack of the town, and overlooks the town and the harbour. Upon th® I roof of the house is a cupola, surjrounded by a narrow balcony and an iron railing. It was there, after a .climb up a flight of stairs and a Blender ■ladder, that Sirs Utley awoke, shocked ■into consciousness when her hand cam* lin contact with the cold iron railing. The fact that she was holding a pen, ; which even in her fright she did not drop, led very quickly to the discovery of the verses on her writing-table. As for the circurnstoimes which made possible this curious feat in somnambulism, it is of interest t» know that Mrs Utley was born on the iittlo spot in the North Atlaaitio known as Sable Island, in 1832, and. lived there for some ten or twelve years. Several of her brothers became sea-captains, and practically all, her life she had. lived within sight, almost within sound, of the sea. Very shortly before tlio writing of this poem, she had received word of tho finding of a vessel bottom up, a vessel in which a young and favourite brother had sailed. Within two or times nights she had. seen, at a friend’s homo, a wreath of seaweeds and shells; this it was, which, acting upon a mind sorrow laden and filled with love for the sea that amounted to a passion, was responsible for the unconscious performance. Tho narrator is not endeavouring to motivate fiction—how tho pen wis retained so long, or where Mr was during it all, the reader must decide for himself. Tho facts are as given. Tho original manuscript is not in existence, but a copy, written under a wreath similar to tKe on© which occasioned the outburst, is in the possession‘of one of Mrs Utley’s daughters in Boston. Mrs Utley was never known, during tho seventy-six year® of her life, to attempt anything inthe way of 'versification, other than, the single example which follows;

Like wrecks wo are driven cm shore by wild waves. Our own native bow r ers, we hare left in. the deep; We have lef t all our kindred, our sisters . and sires, We have left them like wandcrere, and here lonely sleep. Then lift us up gently and fondly careen US, Bestrewn as we are on your cold, rocky shores; Wo can but feel blest, as you droopingly find us, And kindly restore us to our own native rest. We come from the depths of the fathomless ocean. Where your loved ones so oft on our bosoms have lain; We have made them soft beds in. one own native bowers. They sleep their last sleep, they are fre* from, all pain. Then cherish us fondly, though not earth's bright flowers. For dark stormy waters flow over our heads; Your suns cannot warm ug, your s terms, cannot frighten us. We bloom ’neath the deep in our own. native bowers. We are proud that your walla now ia pictures exhibit And all fondly gaze on our beauty so rare. When yon know that your loved one* still sleep in our bosoms. And w© twine their forms with our rich flowers so fair. Then cherish us fondly, we are ocean\ rich blessings. Though driven by tempest along you* rude shores; Wo come from the graves of your eons and your daughters, Though you mourn for them here, yet they sleep 'mid there flowers.