ves, not to read any farther.

THE SONG OF THE POKER.

[Illustration]

The Poker,
Clanging.
I am the Poker the straight and the strong,
Prone in the fire grate,
Black at the nether end,
Knobby and nebulous.

Fashioned for fight
In the Pit Acherontic:
Many have grappled me,
Poised me and thrust me
Into the glowing,
The flashing and furious
Heart of the fire.
Raked with me, prized with me,
Till on a sudden
Besparked and encircled
With Welsh or with Wallsend,
Shattering, battering
They drew me away.
Others in rivalry,
Thinking to better
The previous performance,
Seized me again;
Pushed with a leverage
Hard on the haft of me,
Till with the shocks
Sank the red fire,
Shivered and sank
Subdued into blackness.
That is my Toil;
I am the Poker.

Oh, and the burglar's head
Often hath felt me,
Hard, undesirable
Cracker of craniums.
I have drunk of the blood,
The red blood, the life-blood
Of the wife of the drunkard.
Hoh! then, the glory.
The joyous, ineffable
Cup of fulfilment,
When the policeman,
Tall with a bull's-eye,
Took me and shook me,
Produced me in evidence,
There in the dim
Unappeasable grisliness
Of the Police-Court.
Women to shrink at me,
Men to be cursed with me,
Bloodstained, contemptuous,
Laid on the table.
I am the Minister,
Azrael's Minister.
I am the Poker.

* * * * *

[Illustration: VENUS (ANNO DOMINI 1892) RISES FROM THE SEA!!]

* * * * *

OPERATIC NOTES.

_Wednesday_.--Great German Night. Third Part of the Festival Play for
Four Nights by RICHARD WAGNER, with (thank goodness just to lighten
it) an English translation by the Messrs. CORDER.

"_Sursum Corder!_" A light and airy work as everyone knows is _Der
Ring des Nibelungen_, or _The Nibelung's Ring_, requiring all the
power of lungs to get the true ring out of the work. Hard work for
singers, more so for orchestra, and most so for audience. As for the
"Ring," there are a lot of animals in the Opera, but no horse, so the
Circus entertainment is not complete until _Bruennhilde_ shall appear
in the next part of the tetralogy, with her highly-trained steed.
Odd! Throughout two long (and, ahem! somewhat weary, eh?) Acts, not