SOME CURRENT VERSE

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12008, 10 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME CURRENT VERSE

THE PINES Calm, unafraid they face the storm, The pines upon the hill, The winter oold, the summer varm, . With, an unadiulterated will; And winds may blow And waters flow Or all the earth be still. Their years ate oenturies, their lives Span many lives of men; And mortal fails or mortal thrives Or mortal fails again, But op the steep , , . Their watch they keep O’er rook and rill and glen. Would we. might stand, as stand the kings Upon the mountain side, Above the level —little. things, Ambition, sorrow, pride; Would' we were these, The giant trees Whose j souls .have never died. God give me strength to he a pipe Ann not to be a weed, To lift my head and give no sign However I may bleed—- . To'face the years, To hide the tears. To be a pine indeed. ' ' ‘ ‘—DOUGLAS MALLOCH.

THE ANGLER’S WISH i

I in these,flowery meads would he: These crystal streams should solace ■.l me; . , To whose harmdhious, bubbling noise, 1 with my angle, would rejoice; Sit here, qnct see tho turtle-dove Court his chaste mate to acts of love. .Or on that bank feel the west wind Breathe health and 1 plenty; please my mind To see sweet dew-drops toss these ! flowers, .*,.■.. i 'And then wash’d off'my April showers. Here, hear my Kenna sing a song; There, see n blackbird feed' her young, Or a laverock build her nest: 'Here, .give my weary spirits rest, And raise tny low-uitcfi’d thoughts above Earth, or what poor mortals love :' /Thus free from lawsuits' and the noise Of princes’ oourts, I would-rejoice. Or with my Bryan and a book, Loiter long days near Shawford brook;: There sit with him, arid eat my meat, There see the aun both rise and set, There bid good morning to next day. There meditate my time away, And jungle on: and bog to have A quiet pasage to a welcome grave. —IZAAK WALTON.

FOLLOW THE SEA

“Wliat. is it makes a man follow the tea? Ask mo another 1” says Billy Magee: *‘M\aybe iifc’s liquor and maybe,' -ib’a love— Maybe it’s likin' to bo on tho move— Maybe tho salt drop that runs in hie blood Won’t let his killick lie snug in tho mud; What is it makes such poor idjits as me Follow the sea—follow the sea ? . . . -. Jiggered if I know!” says Billy Magee. “What is it keeps a chap'. rollin’ around All his life long from the Skaw to the •Strand 1 f . . Samplin’ the weathers fronj Hull to Rangoon— Roldrums an’ westerlies. Trade an’ typhoon— 1 Hurricane, cyclone an' southerly buster— .'■ What is it makes 0. chap follow the sea— . . Follow the, seai—fdllow the seaBust me if I know !” says Billy Magee. “What is it makes a man stick to the sea? Ah, you may ask me 1” says Billy Magee. “Stick to it hungry an’ stick to it cold Stick to it after he’s broken and old. Freeze in the Forties an’ sweat on the / Line Shiver an’ bum in the rain an’ the shine. , . Stick it until he can’t stick it no more— Ourse it an’ leave it for something ashore— Chuck up his shore job an’ follow the sea- ' Stick to an’ live by an’ die by the . sear Search me if I know I” says Billy Magee. —O. FOX SMITH In “Sea Songs and Ballads.” “Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call to-day bis own; He who, secure within, can. say, To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv’d to-day.” \ Like many other Warwickshire men, I have never been inside Shakespeare’s birthplace.—Lord Willoughby de Broket Boys have got into their heads that to speak the English language with care amd precision is indelicate and godastio,—Sir Henry Newbcli,