Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-09-21

Hame! dearest word IN a. the Wcrlu-
Except anither--"free"--
And love-" that's far and far away
The sweetest of the three.
And it's hame, hame, name,
Fain wad be hame,
To my ain countree.
And am free--at last at hame
Wi thee, my bonnie dearie,
My ain fOlk-neebors-a' the same,
And a things bright and CHEEKY.
The volume opens with a New
Years Wish to Merris:"
wish thee a thy souls desire,
wish thee a. thy heart delight,
Nae broken strings in thy life's Tyre.
Amang thy roses meier blight.
Nor weeping eyes, nor darksone days
But sunny, gentle, peaceful rest,
OF a. the worlds lovely Mays
For me thou'rt ever far the best.
After the preface is sonnet in which
he ascribes all the merit of his verse to
"Merris -
He thought of lovely "Merris' here
Her influence makes his verse ring sweet
and clear.
Chaste as the moon upon her silver throne,
She decks him in q glory not his own.
Following are few things in Scot
fish dialect, simple in form, quiet in
tone, having happy little expressions of
sentiment like this:
See. the moons in marriage yelling.
And the dainty, choiring stars
A. in bridal silver sailing
Notes in heavens music bars
While my love and are partefi.
Naething can us comfort gle;
And when bath are broken-hearted,
What is left us but to dee?
The body Of the book is composed of
sonnets, the same sonnet that was used
by our great sonnetists, Shakespeare
and Sydney, and like theirs, addressed
to one woman, Merris," in this case
who was their inspiration and their
theme. As it il right to judge man s
work by the best he has done, these
sonnets will stand the test as the best
work of their author. There is no
calculable fault in his technique; he
has not sacrificed form for matter and
made his work artificial; nor has lie
devoted SO much attention to the
subject-matter as to render his verse
slovenly. His work bespeaks skilled
| versifier, lover of the English tongue
and of its Scotch dialect; he knows
how to use words, shows no fear to try
skilful and artistic blending, and
seldom fails in the attempt His style
is easy and possesses a quality one
might ascribe as self-respect. Through
out his lines may be detected a
moderate optimism, a complacent hone
for the future, reverence for the past,
a love for fellow-men and God s dumb
creatures.
Here is one Of his most beautiful
sonnets:
Unbarring dreams Of o.den, golden times,
| Unblurring mirrors of the bygone years,
Restoring youth her lovely summers
primes,
Bringing the breath of pinelands once again
Across the waves upon the curying shore;
How doubly dear and fraught with longing
Are scenes that we shall. see no more, no
more?
Thctendril, churning, creamy lines of spray,
All earth, all heaven in splendid queenly
guise Tex
With all the glories Of the dying day
And remember thinking such things are
Epitomized in thee, my guiding star.
Here is one, tho latter part of which
bears resemblance to tho Elizabethan
love poetry:
When golden slumbers end the weary day,
In dreams again pace the northern shores
Whereon the wild, inconstant feminine
spray
Kisses the land, or his broad bosom gores
Then find comfort in her lovely arms,
She hath for me no proud, averted eyes,
She bowers me with all her glorious charms
Sweet amorous kisses, soft delicious signs;
And there is nothing else to be desired
No heavens possess a more delightful ioy
Than two fond hearts by mutual love in,
spired.
| 81, G,,a Irx,st1 o,,k
Break, break, my heart, before the dreamer
Since only she the thirst for her can Stake,
And here is one freighted with yalu.
able suggestion:
Judge not the youthful harshly; they arr
not l.=
To be arraigned with those of ripper growth
Even sucn, though heavily with foil,
fraught,
May finish with some sanity aftermath;-
For ever yet the goodliest mellow fruits
Have felt the bitter blasting tears OF Spring
Misprisoned April winds that shake tn,
| roots
And through the branches icy bullets sling
The fierce crematings of the July moons,
When breathing only is to be outworn;
The pensive mildness Of autlmnal moons
Frosting their likeness OH the mellowins
| corn
They who endure, triumphant through il
all.
Are chocer, rarer than some green wind
fall.
In another vein is preached this vita
truth:
Wherefore all natures fighting, fierce un
rest?
Survival of the fittest everywhere;
Ducks push their crippled ducklings from
the nest,
Unwounded beasts their wounded comrade.
tear; s
Plants also only hold their own by force,
All weak resistance on the globe spells death
Tho wheresoever be the planted corpse,
Some vampire thing from 1t new vigor hath
Yet when the sun, moon, stars and eartl
are cold. -s.=i
Frozen to solid death our bounding sea.
What matters then who lived or loved o