JESSIE MACKAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

JESSIE MACKAY.

NEW VOLUME OF VERSE. A year ago Miss Jessie Mackay was the centre of a demonstration of admiration and affection without parallel in the literary history of this country. She continues to write, and she lias dedicated her latest volume " 'Vigil' and other Poems" (Whiteombe and Tombs) to those who paid her that tribute. The title of this little book is significant; "Vigil" is a poem written on the eve of the first prohibition noil in New Zealand. Mies Mackay has always been a crusader as well as a poet, and prohibition is one of the causes dearest to her. The poetry in this welcome collection exhibits the mysticism and the use of out-of-the-way words and allusions that one associates with lier work. Indeed as the years have passed Miss Mackay has grown rather, more mystical and difficult to follow. But the force is still there, and the flood of beauty, which flashes out again and again in a phrase. It is noteworthy that but few of the poems have a New Zealand subject; Miss Mackay has written some of the best poetry about New Zealand, but her heart is still drawn to the lands and speech and legends of the Celt. Perhaps the simplest and most direct poem in the collection is the one in which she compares the maker of cages for birds with the maker of crosses in Jerusalem. This poem has the cutting edge of Blake's and Ralph Hodgson's anger on the same subject.