7 AUGUST 1920, Page 17

POETRY.

LOVE IN THE SPRING.

CALL it not Love, this splendid lust of thine, That makes the sky grow warm, and heaven above

Rain mellow gold ! which, like long-guarded wine,

Drugs sense and soul; for in the guise of Love Lust masquerades too often—some short while

Sits in high places, walks in honoured ways,

With half the world attendant on his smite, And all its creatures vying in his praise!

And dreams, at length Ambition is completed, And he on High Olympus safely seated, A crown'd usurper, Earth's almighty one, No longer mortal, Master of the Sun!

CHARLES JOHN RIVERS.