POETRY.

QUOD SEMPER.

CHILD. " What wind is this across the roofs so softly makes his

way, That hardly makes the wires to sing, or soaring smoke to sway ?"

WIND. " I am a weary southern wind that blows the livelong

day Over the stones of Babylon, Babylon, Babylon,

The rained walls of Babylon, all fallen in decay.

Oh I have blown o'er Babylon when royal was her state, When fifty men in gold and steel kept watch at every gate, When merchant-men and boys and maids thronged early by and late Under the gates of Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, The marble gates of Babylon, when Babylon was great."

CHILD. " Good weary wind, a little while pray let your course be stayed,

And tell me of the talk they held, and what the people said, The funny folk of Babylon before that they were dead, That walked abroad in Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, Before the towers of Babylon along the ground were laid."

WIND. " The folk that walked in Babylon, they talked of wind and rain,

Of ladies' looks, of learned books, of merchants' loss and gain, How such-an-one loved such-a-maid that loved him not again (For maids were fair in Babylon, Babylon, Babylon) ;

Also the poor in Babylon of hunger did complain." CHILD. " But this is what the people say as on their way they go,

Under my window in the street, I heard them down below."

WIND. " What other should men talk about five thousand years ago ?

For men they were in Babylon, Babylon, Babylon, That now are dust in Babylon I scatter to-and-fro."

LUCY LYTTELTON.