WOMEN POETS AND LOVE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2569, 10 June 1903, Page 67

WOMEN POETS AND LOVE.

By Coxstaxce Clym:.

Considering Byron's well-known statement, '"Love is of man's life a f hing apart, but woman's whole existence," the women poet.- have Uaidly dealt so deeply with the passion as one should have expected. Mothers luve played in their children's nursenes for ages, yet none thought of the pretty fancies that came to Stevenson in his '(Jluid's Garden of Verses." Similarly, women have wept and smiled, and known to its deepest love's jealousies and subtle joys ; yet it 1? the man poet after all that has 'cuved the phrase* tint live and the woids that burn. Nevertheless, the woman poet has scored some triumphs even in this direction, and certainly one of the saddest poems, "Auld Robin Gray," was the work of a poetess. In ballads they aie frequently more than successful. Mrs Browning's "Roniaunt of the Page " could have been wiitten only by a woman. Tiie new-nnde bride disguises herself as a page, paves her bridegroom's hTe in battle, and seeking to discover, before she reveals herself, how he will look on her ! actions, learns that he would consider her "unwomaned," and "love her much as his servitor, but little as his wife," whereat, in despair, she refuses to reveal herself and dies beneath the Payuim scimitar. A woman poet can tell a love story as well as a man, but for pure pathos where can we match Burns's "Had We Never Coved Sa« Blindly," Byion's "Fare Thee Well, and If For Ever." or the concluding stanzas of "Come into the Garden, Maud," which has been termed the queen of love songs? Ifc is not easy to find a parallel for these^ among the female wiiters, though Mrs Norton's '"Love not, love cot ; the thing you love m iv die," has the ring of poetic sincerity. The tngedv of waiting naturally appeals to the woman wntei It is fine'y illustrated in Rose Terry Cooke's ''Then" : What care I for thy car'.esar.ess 1 ' I give from depths that overflow, F.egardless that their power to bess Thy spirit cannot sound o r know. For. "h^ce-ins; on a distant dawn, My tiiumph funnes more sw n et tl'an late, Wlinn from these mortal mist* withdrawn lhy heart shall know me,— l can wait. Chn c tina Rosetti's Better by far you shou'd fo.zet and smile. Iliau that you shcu.d lenicmber and be sad, is ti ue of woman only in rnre moments of magnanimity. It how a woman feels that she ought to lo\e, but not as she i pally does love. When love is more than a vision she can bear to be overlooked in life, but not to be forjrotten after death. The need to triumph ultimately is strong in her, even if. l:ke Rose Teiiy (Jooke, <-he can <-cc her tnumph only in tlit* vague other woild. In her "Portuguese Sonnets " Mrs Bi owning doe* moie than any other Englishwoman to revesil the working? of a woman's heart. Very tiue to Nature is her cry, Be'ovpd, my be'o-ed when I Kb nk That thou wast in the world p year Bgo, . . Vi'order'ul ' Never to feel thee thr'il tli^ day or r. ght "With personal act or sr~ec.li. Specnllr beautiful is the sonnet wherein, in symbolical language, *he lells how her life that seemed doomed to the perpetual dimness of a sick room was made new and bright to her by the faithful love of her poet hus-bind. And many a woman has felt with gifted Elizabeth Browning when she asks that he should often till her that he loved her : Toll the silver utterance, Not forgetting, dear, to love me lao in silence in your soul.

Advice ao Mothers — Aro you broken in your rest by a sick clul'l suffering with the pain of cutting teeth? Go at once to a chemist and get a bottie of Mrs Winslow's Sooththo Strtjp. It will relieve the poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless and pleasant to taste, it produces natural, quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub awakes " as bright as a. button." It soothes the child, it goftens the gums, allays all pain, relieves wind, regulatea she bowels, and is tho best-known remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea, whether arising from teething or other causes. Mrs Wmslow'a Soothing Syrup 2s sold by Medicine dealers everywhere.

— A London miller, who has been a deeper of 40 lorsea for some years, recently adopted motor traction. He has now found <that one five-ton motor waggon practically replaces 10 horses and five iari6, and that for a yearly charge of £330 for the mechani-cally-propelled ■waggon, -which includes interest on capital, depreciation, fuel, driver's wages, oil, repairs, and insurance, the same work is done which previously cost him fc.tween £110', and £1200.

— The old popular notion that thin and delicately-formed lips indicate more Epiutuality and elevation of character than do thick, coarse lips, ib denied by a scientist who has made a thorough 6tudy of the Fiibject of lips from a eoientifio standpoint. The popular impression, he avers, is based on imagination, amd the differences in human lips depend on race distinctions as do the differences in the eiz/3 and shape of noses.