New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-09

I'LL your last days are iOkl
Here however, il little poem with certain breezy
grace about IT, fun OF the very fragrance OF INC 0d
fashioned garden" it describes:
1t il set by fields Of clover
Aud sentineled with trees,
Hosts of sunbeams range II over;
IT'S owned by birds and bees
Friendly morns awake its flowers.
S.ill noOn-times bring II gold,
Patron twllights grant II dOwers
Or deWs, when days are olu'
Purple phlox and sunnowers trusty
Guard all its fair estates;
Dandehons. broad and lusty,
Like peasants, crowd It's gates;
yiolets bloom in corners shady;
Upon the borders gay
Sits the stock crimson lady,
And pinks have holiday
Iarkspurs leaning out of places
Where bashful myrtes creep,
Peep at monk flowers hooded races
And peoples gone 10 Sleep
There are wild and headstrong brors
And thistle knights and danes,
Bloomless weeds. like jOyial friars,
Grasses with ancient Names
vagrant hops that court the clovers.
Prim acs in a row,
Gaudy beans grow wiilful rOvers,
Grand hollyhocks Tor snow
Quaint. bright papsies. foxgloyes stately,
Lilies with petals wide,
Jasmine tinted dehcately
Aud DAISIES, mcrry-eyed.
lam queen and lady in it,
Queen over leaf and flower;
Crowned with sprays of purple spinnet
Town no higher power.
Teens the world with fears and sorrows,
For me, have no care
MY good realm excludes tomorroWs
And all / want Is there.
Winds Of heaven. an, touch IL lightly,
This garden that love!
Cover its dead blooms, unsightly,
And watt its seeds abovel
The verses entitled April" are in harmony with
the shy, capricious month they picture-ths month
which fills the grass with green content, and makes
the weeds and clover vail" The volume really worth
its covers and its place the shelf and that is good
deal to say OF new book Of poems where already are
so many.
must speak briefly of the edition Of Mr.. Ayers
"Poetry Of the Orient" TO which so much has been
added as to make it practically book. One Of the
most valuable portions OF the work is the authors In
PRODUCTION 70 Oriental Poetry" which occupies almost
the first hundred pages. Mr. Ager apologies Tor
bis scanty gcanngs from the great harvest OF the East
but he gives us much than We are likely to get
in any other way that We can only thank him.
Tho range Of Oriental Poety, he tells us, Is
much wider titan that Of Occidental; since q
large portion OF the religious, metaphysical geograph
ca PATHOLOGICAL historical and mathematical treatises
Of the East are written in measure and rhyme. The
ancient laws, even, framed in verse; and the chill
drens school books frem Mecca TO BOrneO from Bagdad
TO Pekn are almost invariably composed in poetic FORM
There seems he powerful propensity in the whole
Il
with recurring sounds. SO 1t tricks out everything in
rhyme from the philosophy Of Buddha to the practical
maxms Of Confuciu from prayers to the Oldest OF the
GODS to chronological dispositions in the latest Arabic
Grammar, Eastern poetry is very ingenious, ana
abounds in qurks, Puns, and alterations The East
erns enjoy poeca riddles and they compose acrostcs
whose lines read the same, forwards, backwards up
wards downwards at each end and through the center
They write cutting satres, in lines of various length
so arranged as to take the shape Of battleax Of
spear
every Eastern poet is preacher, and some OF
their brief quaint sermons are fun of wisdom Says
Firdousi:
Look at the heavens, how they roll on;
And lock at man. how soon he's gone!
breath of wind, and then no more =
A world like this should man deporef
What an exquisite quatran this, translated by Sir
WIN. Jones from the Persian:
On parent knees, naked. newborn child,
Weeping, thou sat'st. while all around thee smiled:
So live that, sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile while al around thee weep.
And what subtle wisdom is in this exhortation
Oh square myself for use a stone that may
Eli In the wall Is not left III the way.
The specimens Of the poetry OF the orient which fol-
low Mr. Ayers admirable introductory essay, will give
TO the majority of readers much of the Eastern tera
ture as they will fad time to peruse. Having read
them one will be toeraby familiar with the Oriental
spria spirit curously compounded Of pety and pas
sion Of fatasm and sagacity. Indeed the quaint wis
dom Of these selections Is perhaps, their most prom
nent characteristic Says poet:
The who doth not pick
It, thorn Will not him prick:
To-day, then, he content
To snuff its fragrant scent.
But another poet follows with reminder Of quite
opposite tendency, and tells us:
The Winter bears no buds
The summer yields no ice;
The fire the young heart floods
The old man feels not twice.
To the book itself, you must turn If you would have
more OF this wisdom OF the East, which, after all, it
seems to me- looks upon virtue and goodness as wise
regard TO ones own interest. l. c. NJ.