There they stand, on their ends, the fifty faggots That once were underwood of hazel and ash In Jenny Pinks's Copse. Now, by the hedge Close packed, they make a thicket fancy alone Can creep through with the mouse and wren. Next Spring A blackbird or a robin will nest there, Accustomed to them, thinking they will remain Whatever is for ever to a bird. This Spring it is too late; the swift has come, 'Twas a hot day for carrying them up: Better they will never warm me, though they must Light several Winters' fires. Before they are done The war will have ended, many other things Have ended, maybe, that I can no more Foresee or more control than robin and wren. COCK-CROW Out of the wood of thoughts that grows by night To be cut down by the sharp axe of light,-- Out of the night, two cocks together crow, Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow: And bright before my eyes twin trumpeters stand, Heralds of splendour, one at either hand, Each facing each as in a coat of arms:-- The milkers lace their boots up at the farms. _Seumas O'Sullivan_ James Starkey was born in Dublin in 1879. Writing under the pseudonym of Seumas O'Sullivan, he contributed a great variety of prose and verse to various Irish papers. His reputation as a poet began with his appearance in _New Songs_, edited by George Russell ("A. E."). Later, he published _The Twilight People_ (1905), _The Earth Lover_ (1909), and _Poems_ (1912). PRAISE Dear, they are praising your beauty, The grass and the sky: The sky in a silence of wonder, The grass in a sigh. I too would sing for your praising, Dearest, had I Speech as the whispering grass, Or the silent sky. These have an art for the praising Beauty so high. Sweet, you are praised in a silence, Sung in a sigh. _Ralph Hodgson_ This exquisite poet was born in Northumberland about 1879. One of the most graceful of the younger word-magicians, Ralph Hodgson will retain his freshness as long as there are lovers of such rare and timeless songs as his. It is difficult to think of any anthology of English poetry compiled after 1917 that could omit "Eve," "The Song of Honor," and that memorable snatch of music, "Time, You Old Gypsy Man." One succumbs to the charm of "Eve" at the first reading; for here is the oldest of all legends told with a surprising simplicity and still more surprising freshness. This Eve is neither the conscious sinner nor the Mother of men; she is, in Hodgson's candid lines, any young, English country girl--filling her basket, regarding the world and the serpent itself with a mild and childlike wonder. Hodgson's verses, full of the love of all natural things, a love that goes out to "an idle rainbow No less than laboring seas," were originally brought out in small pamphlets, and distributed by _Flying Fame_. EVE