Evening star., 1939-02-22
New Books at
Random
By Margaret Germond.
THE LAND OF OUR DREAMS, BY
Isabel Likens Gates. Washington:

Isabel Likens Gates. Washington:
Ransdell, Inc.
This is volume of poems written by a
woman who several times has enjoyed
the distinction OF reading her own compo-
sitions at memorial services in Arlington
National Cemetery and also before other
large audiences on occasions where
commemorative, cultural or anniversary
programs were being conducted In ad-
dition, she is well known as broad
caster from all of the Washington studios.
Mrs: Gates was born in Nevada, and it
was in the small home community in
that State that she began writing poetry
before she was twenty years DID, Many
of her compositions were published in
Western newspapers during that early
period of her inspiration. Then came a
lapse OF twenty-five years before she be-
gan writing again, and since then she
has been regularly producing verses
which have appeared in the columns of
washington newspapers and in such
periodicals of Nationwide circulation as
American Forestry Magazine, the Ameri-
can Motorist and the National Tribune.
Being the first woman in Washington
to broadcast, Mrs. Gates became a regu-
lar contributor to radio programs Twice
week for ten months she broadcast
from one OF Washington's studios and
on four occasions spoke over a Nation
wide network. Land of Our Dreams, /"
the poem from which the volume takes
It's title, has been illustrated by Douglas
Grant, and some months ago the decora-
ton was printed as the frontispiece in
American Forestry Magazine. No illus
tratlons have been included in this VOL
ume, though many of the poems were
given this decorative setting in previous
publication.
Covering wide range OF subjects
these verses reflect the thoughts, moods
and sentiments of person keenly aware
OF the beauty inherent in the material
as well as the spiritual life that sur
rounds mankind on this planet. In the
two following poems about trees is to
be noted diversity and yet a similarity
of thought:
A Memory.
Give me trees where roadways trend.
With towering, sheltering arms;
Where joyously the wild birds sing.
And noisily the spaces ring
With notes of their love and alarms.
Oh give me tree where the roadway
bends.
That my soul may find release
From raSplng cares of yesterday
And trials of now that beset the way.
Surcharglng with love and peace.
Give me tree with its sheltering arms.
Wherever I chance to roam,
That seeing, vision, early-late-
tree that stood by the garden gate
OF childhoods home, sweet home.
Turning to the great Sequoias and
noting the tragedy wrought by man, the
poet thus laments in
Trees Of God.
Side by side, in numbers lying
Where the great bald eagles flying,
There they lie;
Stretching PROSTATE in their prison,
Where in grandeur they had risen,
Mighty monarchs of the forest,
Reaching branches to the sky.
Where the storm king howls and RACES,
Scions of the vanished ages.
Towering high;
Shrouded in their crystal whiteness,
Verdant in their summer brightness,
Trees of God in hoary grandeur,
All the elements defy.
Came the white man. did not falter.
Progress price on Mammons altar
Laid he then;
Stripped the forests of their glory.
Left gaunt trunks to tell the story
OF the majesty and beauty
Sacrificed to ways of men.
The following lines contain a worthy
tribute to
Friendship.
The heart of friend and the hand OF a
friend,
And the love of friend, to me
Are more than the wealth of all Cathay
And the treasures OF the sea;
For the heart of friend and the hand
of friend,
And the love of friend that's true,
Are the heart and the hand and the love
of one,
And that one is you.
In the groups concerning those in
tangible influences that impel mankind
to think beyond the days affairs will be
found the two following selections:
Night.
Night, and one lone star in heaven gleam-
ing;
Mountain blending with the distant
sky;
Tree tops shadowed 'gainst far horizon;
Dusky bat wings sweeping f1tfully by.
Silence though thousand voices sound
ing
Melodies almost too faint to hear,
Too distant, or too rapturously COM
mingling,
Or striking duly on an untuned ear.
Life and love, the love of recreation,
And mother love above a brooding
nest:
And one bright star from out the dark
ness cleaning;
The beacon light of home, and peace
and rest.
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