THE WEEK’S POEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 67

THE WEEK’S POEM.

The poems I have chosen for you this week, children, are in a way symbolic of this Little Folk’s page of ours: “The Fallen Poplar ” tells of a tree that a wind has felled, and makes one think of the Otago Witness, which will not be published after to-day, but “In Dark Weather ” there is a note of springtime and awakening which suggests that, though the page has been cut down in the Otago Witness, it will grow and flourish anew in the Otago Daily Times. Perhaps this symbolism may seem farfetched to some people, but you, I know, will understand it. Both poems are by Mary Webb. DOT. THE FALLEN POPLAR. Never any more shall the golden sun Make of your leaves, my dainty one, Ardent shields of silver green, With cool blue sky set in between. Never any more in the chilly night Your boughs shall move on the sad starlight, Softly unbound by the eager air, As a lover unbinds his lady’s hair. Never any’ more, O poplar tree, Shall dawn awaken your song for me; For a wind came down from the granite hill, And you, the friend of my heart, lie still. —Mary Webb. * * * IN DARK WEATHER. Against the gaunt, brown-purple hill The bright brown oak is wide and bare; A pale-brown flock is feeding there— Contented, still. No bracken lights the bleak hill-side; No leaves are on the branches Avide; No lambs across the fields have cried; —Not yet. But whorl by wdiorl the green fronds climb; The ewes are patient till their time; The warm buds swell beneath the rime— For life does not forget. —Mary Webb.