13 JANUARY 1912, Page 19

POETRY.

A BIG BOY'S LULLABY. FAIRIES and shadows all have had their day, The tender glamour of " good-night" is past, You shut the door—

as men do—when you pray, In grief or joy you turn your eyes away . . . The world has got you, little son, at. last. When yet you were a dream I wrapped you, dear, In all the fearful wonderment of Spring, But when you came I almost ceased to fear, Lest this great moulding, this my purpose here Should suffer from a moment's faltering. And now my moulding's done; a ruder hand Shall shape my dream to sonic design unknown, And I, a stranger in a sweet, strange hind, Shall watch the fair fields of your soul expand, And reap what fruits of all that I have sown P

Yet that which was remains ; and though the world. Holds you to-day, my arms once held you fast. And when at night time you are lying curled Child-wise in dreaming—when your heart's unfurled! To bear God's tender evening psalms at last—

Listen, my little son, for T, too, sling: Hush, love is over all and love's divine. The world that parts us is a shadow-thing (Laugh at the world and it shall crown you king), And you are mine still, Boy, and only mine.

MILDRED HUXLEY.-