Eastward, a cold unearthly sheen
Of mists fantastically riven,

All steel and silver damascene,

Bright armour for the hosts of heaven.

Unbidden memories of home

The stranger landscape seem to hallow,The tender touch of English Crome

On Norfolk broad, and stream, and shallow,

A dream of looming towers that crown
A northern city's smoke and shadow,
Where Lincoln Church looks stately down
On flooded fen and steaming meadow.

One moment-off the vanished sun
A redder fire of glory flushes,
The pools grow rosy one by one,
The pallid east in answer blushes;

Another,-half the glow is gone,

The near and far in shade are blended, Black-plumaged night flies swiftly on,

The curtain falls,-the dream is ended.

A QUESTION

Methinks too little cost

For a moment so found, so lost!"

Ought the Man to be cut,

Just as much as the Lady? When they've met Justice Butt Ought the Man to be cut? When they've stuck in a rut Down a lane that is shady ;

Ought the Man to be cut,

Just as much as the Lady?

NORMAN GALE

Born 1862

A BIRD IN THE HAND

Look at this ball of intractable fluff,

Panting and staring with piteous eyes! What a rebellion of heart! what a ruff

Tickles my hand as the missel-thrush tries, Pecking my hand with her termagant bill, How to escape (and I love her, the sweet!) Back where the clustering oaks on the hill

Climb to the blue with their branches, and meet!

Nay, polished beak, you are pecking a friend!
Bird of the grassland, you bleed at the wing!
Stay with me, love; in captivity mend

Wrong that was wrought by the boy and his sling. Oh for a Priest of the Birds to arise,

Wonderful words on his lips that persuade Reasoning creatures to leave to the skies Song at its purest a-throb in the glade!

Bow, woodland heart, to the yoke for a while!
Soon shall the lyrics of wind in the trees
Stir you to pipe in the green forest-aisle,

God send me there with the grass to my knees!
See, I am stroking my cheek with thy breast,
Ah, how the bountiful velvet is fair!

Stay with me here for your healing and rest,
Stay, for I love you, delight of the air!

KATHARINE TYNAN

Born 1862

GOLDEN LILIES

O Daffodils all aflame

I know from whence ye came
To warm March with your blaze!
As Gabriel went a-winging
Through flowering country ways
He heard your trumpets ringing.

God's Paradise this was,
With a city of rainbow glass,

The River of Life there flows,

The Tree of Life there blooming

Hath many a name that glows

Like flower and fruit illuming.

But Gabriel going down,
With a gold gown and crown,
Was grave as him bestead ;

Great tidings he was bringing,