SONGS FROM THE DARK

Southland Times, Issue 22728, 2 November 1935, Page 11

SONGS FROM THE DARK

Since she was seven years of age Tilly Aston has been blind, but during the greater part of her life the writing of verse has been a solace, and an aid in days of adversity. People generally think of the blind as having suffered the heavy blow of the shuttering in of their eyes, but rarely remember that they are victims, too, of the economic storms and suffer these without being ,in a position to fend for themselves. Tilly Aston was bom in Victoria, the last of a family of eight, and when she was seven her weak eyesight failed. She says that her period of sight was well used—"My family did everything possible to give me images and impressions”: One chill morning, in the small hours, my father carried me out of bed to look at a magnificent comet, and I bless him for the memory of that radiant vision. I saw the earth and sky, sunlight and moonlight, and the twinkle of the stars. I wandered by the creeks that flowed about Carisbrook. and handled the grasses and reeds, and looked up at the great t re es Some of that precious seven years was spent with a married sister on the northern plains of the State, with their blue and shining distances. . . . Not the least cherished of those images are the faces of my own folk, still with me as they were imprinted in childhood, and thus eternally fair and young and sweet. She went to University and then became a teacher of the blind, but an accident compelled her to retire and since then she has lived quietly in her own cottage. She began writing verses immediately after the conclusion of her school studies and in 1901 came her first volume, “Maiden Verses.” She established a place for herself as a writer of short stories and articles, and in 1923 published “Singable Songs,” which drew from Helen Keller a charming note of acknowledgement. Her latest collection of verse is now

to hand, with the title “Songs of Light.” They are arranged in groups for each month of the year and they sing musically of a mind and heart still young, still happy, still full of confidence. For the most part they are reflective and even .grave, but at intervals there is a gay bound of laughter and the. author is skipping about with sheer joy as she recalls the joy of living things. She writes to encourage. “Blindness is never sweet.” O Brothers in the dark! I have another song for you! Arise! Above are the illimitable skies. And out beyond are boundless widths of space, Where you can run and win your mortal race! ’Tis shame to dream and loiter in the Sun Of ease and progress by another won, To take of everything and nothing give! Beat down the bars and cry, “O let me live “As others; let me toil and take my fill Of all life’s best!—” Brothers, you can—and will. This woman has “boomerangs” in her mind—she has a world in her arms and the capacity to catch things which are beyond the ken of those who have eyes to see. She has courage, she has the sure touch of a singer, and so all these lyrics are singable. They are singable and they chime gracefully as you read them. Tilly Aston is a natural singer, and these pages reveal her as one of the most musical of Australia’s poets. “Songs of Light,” by Tilly Aston. (The Lothian Publishing Co., Melbourne.)