Selected Poetry

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 42, 25 October 1923, Page 28

Selected Poetry

' '/•.; ; But Song Shall Rise ;• j... The city’s hands are lean and grey, V 7 r o/; f ■ ;• , The city’s. hands are strong ; ;...// , , .£ They wind about - your throat by day ,-7 /. c .. ’ 'V '. tX7 / / They strangle all > night : long;. . ..X ~ { I '7... r ■:" With eager .tort and : twist they slay ?-• •; . 7- >.. Morning and evening song. 7 « • 7 . '.. .7 ... .- The city’s hands are grey with dust And strong with slaying men;/ 7 a if} ’ They fold before the gods of rust . Within their iron den, ;f*. ' f But song shall rise above their lust f . And men be free again. ' The man-god with the man-made wings, . ;i; . Denying space and time, - » • ' y Unto the clutching city brings ■ The scertf of rose and thyme; Like freedom’s self the motor sings Above .the city’s grime. / , .John'Russell McCarthy, in The Lyric. ' * Spanish Johnny The old West, ‘ the old time, The old wind singing through The red, red grass a thousand miles, „ And, Spanish Johnny, you. He’d sit beside the water-ditch : When all his herd was in, And never mind a child, but sing To his mandolin. . s The big stars, the blue night, . The moon-enchanted plain; The olive man who never spoke, But sang the songs of Spain. His speech with -men was wicked talk— To hear it was a sin; But those were golden things he sang To his mandolin. The gold songs, the gold stars, ''... The world so golden then: And the hand so tender to a child - Had killed so many men. He died a hard death long ago f . 7. Before the Road came in The night before he swung, he : sang K -- To his mandolin. _• -— Willa Gather, in April Twilights and Other Poems. .'.'¥" / ’ v ■ Grandser IMy "Grandser was a fearsome man I v .';X.7; He died before I came; : . But I have watched my Granny’s face • /;■ • That withered at his name. '; ' _ ’ And .I. have spied the scared gaze And lips as white as chalk \. V Of slender aunts whose dreams he haunts f . ' . With., his terrible sailor-talk. . : , 7 / ; Only my Mother *. always said ' ■/;. v • /. It! '• With-;wistful looks at me — 7 * s *' ;r ‘His eyes-were blue like the eyes of you— '■‘f . r., • -And be'rah- away to sea!” v' ! ' k ’ '' ! "* r f f 7:' ‘ ! /''7 :- r 7 f .v ta Oh, the wild sea-thirst in the blood, -i f 7; • '- . Her rhythm in the heart I -hi;./ * 7777 <• ::7--yiy '- r r7h.The,. mighty ,urge of the tide!s surge/ 7 7 ,7,- 7;;>- } ... The -salty sting, smart d? f-r yf \ h

Of course he fled the dull'town s tl-- : .' -... When, the magic grew too : strong; A lad will go; (but a lassie, no I, ;■. She has to bide and long). , ..

// ' He sailed thrice over thg. round world, y To ports as strange as hell; : -v # ; : C. vA_thousand curious things he saw, : . „ . A thousand haps befell. “ .’ # Till he docked at, last in the home port, - - -V, And married a gentle maid - •’ - 7. With a land grace and 'a flower face/ : Whom the sea-wind blew afraid. . . Oh, squalls are rough, the combers rough, : /r .. ' . And sailors, rough as the’sea. .U- "/ But Grandser was as soft as silk ' ' "7 =.. „ * To the daughter .oh knee; . - ■. , - ' , v • -v. & - , . c-. ■ ' ' 77 "I- • - '■■■ Growling her talks .serpents, whales, ■ And mermaids green; as waves; . ' Of tropical girls festooned ' with'- pearls; ,„• , - , • Of palms and coraline :' cave%; //I;, ~ l ’ She did not fear the strangel oaths, ; Nor the blue fire of his glance, 7 Nor his callous hand. . She could Understand; : And so can I, by chance! . ' My Grandser was a fearsome man, But a hero to her "and me. If I had a son I know he’d run Like a brook away to' sea Abbie Farwell Brown, in Contemporary Verse. * Our House It should be yours, if I could build The quaint old dwelling. I desire, With hooks and pictures bravely filled And chairs beside an open fire, - • White-panelled rooms with candles lit— I-lie awake to think of it - '• A dial for the sunny hours, v ~ : A garden of old-fashioned flowers Say marigolds and lavender , ...\ And mignonette and fever-few, And Judas-tree and maidenhair And candytuft and thyme and rue— ■ All these for you to wander in. .. A Chinese carp (called Mandarin) • , ' Waving a sluggish silver fin ’■* * ' Deep in the moat; so tame he comes ' . To lip your fingers offering crumbs. ? ' Tall chimneys, like long listening 1 ears, White shutters, ivy green and : thick, '' And walls of ruddy Tudor brick '- ' And windows with small. leaded panes, ■-*- . , i: ' Broad- window-seats for when it rains; ..vXh/: A big. blue bowl of pot 'pourri - : And — a Spanish chestnut tree. , ..7, ' .1To- coin the autumn’s minted gol^l. / » . - ■. A summer-house for drinking tea — • > -. ■/; All these (just think) for you and me. A staircase of the old black wood -.- ' : /*• ...' Cut in the days of Robin Hood,'' . / ; , " And banisters worn-smooth. as glass ; > .■. V-,/ fv/ Down which your hand will' lightly pass; t V• A piano with , pale yellow Ueys /-•' ’‘ " .// /'/ '* ' - For" wistful twilight melodies,.'. -, .. .-/ // .- " /"/.' ' ... And dusty bottles in - a bin — . " / ///All you to revel in! . X' ' • '7' .‘..Vy r .— s .•• ■.. •,« 7.:; I j,' But when? Ah well/ until that'time . -- 1 - .*« -IS'- !■: We’ll habit in this house of rhyme. 1 l ‘ ; ! i-'v'yf; of ' —Christopher "Morley, in the American Poetry Mdvazine *. ! * 1