Almost all the verses in this book have appeared before, themajority of them included in two books, I Pose and This isthe End. Messrs. Macmillan, who published these, have been kindin raising no objection to re-publication. I have also to thank theEditors of the Athenæum, Everyman, and the Pall MallGazette for allowing me to reprint verses.
The title of the book has no reference to the writer’s age.
S.B.
CHRISTMAS, 1917
A key no thief can steal, no time can rust;
A faery door, adventurous and golden;
A palace, perfect to our eyes—Ah must
Our eyes be holden?
Has the past died before this present sin?
Has this most cruel age already stonèd
To martyrdom that magic Day, within
Those halls, enthronèd?
...