29 SEPTEMBER 1888, Page 15

POETRY.

MIST.

I can rejoice that I have not been born In. Southern climes, where heavens are deep and clear, Where stars are brighter, and the hues of morn And sunset shine with richer glow than here ; Where spring meets autumn in the circling year ; Where myrtles flower, and palm-trees wave on high : For, had I lived in such an atmosphere, 'The solemn glories of a Northern sky Would bring to me not joy, but gloom and dread; 'The veils of rainy mist that magnify The mighty hills and glaciers round me spread, While in the clouds is lost the mountain's head, And every hollow to the baffled eye Seems like a sea's unfathomable bed.

JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.