Verse—Old & New

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19136, 3 October 1936, Page 13

Verse—Old & New

The Poet Laureate 1 ‘ Sweet Friends ’ ’

Brint not my tile nor loiters; put thorn by: AVlien I am dead let memory of me die. Blessed be those who in their mercy heed This heartfelt prayer of mine to Adam’s Seed; Blessed be they, but may a curse pursue All who reject this- living prayer, and do.”

—Air. John Masefield, tho Poet Laureate, in “A Letter from .Pontus, and Other Verso.” “Even when he is no more than merely poetical, the P.oct Laureate remains a dramatist,” writes “E. 8.0.,” in the Morning Post review, which shows Mr. Masefield’s skill when portraying character. “In ‘A Letter from Pontes,’ written ‘in tlie first year of the divine Tiberius, ’ a subaltern on the Legate’s staff is sent to Tomi, on the Euxino, to spend the winter there and find out what could be done to stop the savages pillaging. There lie meets Ovid: “ ‘ He was unlike the Ovid in my mind (All graceful, wanton, charming, credulous), Being an ,o!d, bleak, brokenhearted mini Dressed in wool trousers and a sheep-skin coat, Living in dire poverty on biscuit, Balt mullet and the country vinegar. He had a onc-roomed hovel, floored with clay, A lamp, a bed of goatskins, a few books, A hearth, where seldom any lining burned, A few fair relics of his happiness, And implements for writing: nothing else.’ ” Some “Instructions”

“There are .11 pages of biller couplets called ‘Nets’ which will make most people sit up, ” says the London Star reviewer.

“AVe do not expect a Poet Laureate, who is, after all, a Court official, to be in this mood;

“ 4 COLONIES built a fort for safety’s sake, AYir.h red-brick barracks near a marshy lake.

AVlien it was finished GOA’ERNME NT proclaimed “ Lakes within a mile of barracks must be drained.” “ ‘ BARRACKS objected on financial grounds, “ Draining the lake avill cost: live thousand pounds.” “ 4 GOVERNMENT answered: “In re Drainage . . . stet. Fix doors and windows with mosquito net.” ’ “In the end, while a Government Commission is sitting on the problem of hooks and eyes for the mosquito nets, the barracks are shifted elsewhere. A fever has burned them to a shell in the meantime.” The Countryside Tin* lover of Masefield verso will ponder with delight on the varied selection of verse which tolls of the countryside. Here are, for example, two sfanzas from 44 Autumn Ploughing”:—

44 After 1 Jig ranks of: stubble- have lain bare, And field mice and tho finches’ ■beaks Jiavo found The last spilled seed corn left upon the ground; And no more swallows miracle m all. . . 1 “ Then, out, with the great horses, come the ploughs, And all day Jong the slow procession goes, Darkening the stubble fields with broadening strips,” Progress of Man In a line poem, “The Will,” on tlie progress .of Man down Hie centuries, he closes with an appeal us to the task which lies ahead:— “ And shall lie not, bj- AA’ill, attack The country’s shame, the people’s lack, The rags upon the nation’s back? “ The blots upon the nation’s mind, The ignorance that makes us blind, The hate that shuts us from our Kind? 44 Surely, by Will, lie will blow clear His trumpets that all ears shall hear, And. helping angels filial! sweep near, “ And the banners of the soul advance, Up, out of hate and ignorance, Into a new inheritance.” Scantily Speaking. He: I’ll bet when you have to do your own washing you wish you’d married some other man. She: A r es, J wish IVI married •Mahatma Gandhi. Agreed “Do you know,” said the young student at the agricultural college to an old fanner, “your methods o:f cultivation are a hundred years behind the times?” Looking around, lie remarked: “AVliv, IVI be surprised if you made £2 out of Hie oats in that field.” “So would I,” smiled iho farmer, “it’s barley.” Death on Poachers A Scottish magistrate in a mining district was continually having cases of poaching and wife-beating brought before him. The wife-beaters lie generally lot off with a caution, but the poachers lie punished with the utmost rigors of the law. One day a minor was in the dock, accused of all but beating his wife to death. “I’ll fine ye half-a-erbwn as a warning,” the judge said, “and if ye coma before me again I’ll treat ye as if yo were a common poacher!”