Part 2 (2/2)

Your cars, the older-fas.h.i.+oned sort, And drawn, perhaps, by alligators, Were not the modern Juggernaut- Child-dog-and-s.p.a.ce-obliterators, Those ”stormy petrols” of the land Which deal decease on either hand.

No European tourist wags Defiled the desert's dusky face With orange peel and paper bags, Those emblems of a cultured race; Or cut the n.o.ble name of Jones, On tombs which held a monarch's bones.

O Euclid! Could you see to-day The sunny clime you once frequented, And note the way we moderns play The game you thoughtfully invented, The knowledge of your guilt would force yer To feelings of internal nausea!

_J. M. Barrie_

The briny tears unbidden start, At mention of my hero's name!

Was ever set so huge a heart Within so small a frame?

So much of tenderness and grace Confined in such a slender s.p.a.ce?

(O tiniest of tiny men!

So wise, so whimsical, so witty!

Whose magic little fairy-pen Is steeped in human pity; Whose humour plays so quaint a tune, From Peter Pan to Pantaloon!)

So wide a sympathy has he, Such kindliness without an end, That children clamber on his knee, And claim him as a friend; They somehow know he understands, And doesn't mind their sticky hands.

And so they swarm about his neck, With energy that nothing wearies, a.s.sured that he will never check Their ceaseless flow of queries, And grateful, with a warm affection, For his avuncular protection.

And when his watch he opens wide, Or beats them all at blowing bubbles, They tell him how the dormouse died, And all their tiny troubles; And drag him, if he seems deprest, To see the baby squirrel's nest.

For hidden treasure he can dig, Pursue the Indians in the wood, Feed the prolific guinea-pig With inappropriate food; Do all the things that mattered so In happy days of long ago.

All this he can achieve, and more!

For, 'neath the magic of his brain, The young are younger than before, The old grow young again, To dream of Beauty and of Truth For hearts that win eternal youth.

Fat apoplectic men I know, With well-developed Little Marys, Look almost human when they show Their faith in Barrie's fairies; Their blank lethargic faces lighten In admiration of his Crichton.

To lovers who, with fingers cold, Attempt to fan some dying ember, He brings the happy days of old, And bids their hearts remember; Recalling in romantic fas.h.i.+on The tenderness of earlier pa.s.sion.

And modern matrons who can find So little leisure for the Nurs'ry, Whose interest in babykind Is eminently curs'ry, New views on Motherhood acquire From Alice-sitting-by-the-Fire!

While men of every sort and kind, At times of suns.h.i.+ne or of trouble, In Sentimental Tommy find Their own amazing double; To each in turn the mem'ry comes Of some belov'd forgotten Thrums.

To Barrie's literary art That strong poetic sense is clinging Which hears, in ev'ry human heart, A ”late lark” faintly singing, A bird that bears upon its wing The promise of perpetual Spring.

Materialists may labour much At problems for the modern stage; His simpler methods reach and touch The Young of ev'ry age; And first and second childhood meet On common ground at Barrie's feet!

_Omar Khayyam_

Though many a great Philosopher Has earned the Epicure's diploma, Not one of them, as I aver, So much deserved the prize as Omar; For he, without the least misgiving, Combined High Thinking and High Living.

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