"LILTS AND LYRICS OF NEW ZEALAND."

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9024, 9 February 1895, Page 9

" LILTS AND LYRICS OF NEW ZEALAND."

Although tbo little book which hears this titlo is well known in Or ago its fame baa hardly yet spread to Canterbury, and this being so the attention of all lovers of simple, true poetry in the northern provinces may well be drawn to it. The poems are the work of Mrs Handle, better known to southern readers as " Wych Elm," and the volume contains a portrait of the poetess. Full of refinement of word and thought and dealing With simple subjects of interest to every reader in the colony, Mrs Handle's poems cannot fail to delight. Here is her picture of the southern New Year found on her opening page :— Bat this New Tear ia foil-grown stron? and merry No froata to chill her and no storms to fret, Staining oar lipe with strawberry and oherry. Souitiog our p&tha with «o*« and mignonette ; Smiling more biijhtly than the bright December Promising naught, bat giring a» eho cotsKay, thia is not the New Tear I remember, Bom in the wintw night amid the ano wa 1 Very fine, too, Is the blank vereo picture of the Southern Alps, which closes with the lines:— All fad* and ar* forgot, whan fall enr ores On the weird glory ot thit phantom range, . That riiee ghostly-beautiful alar. Like aome faint vision of another world. "A Song of the Spring" opens with an exquisite description of a scene wo all know well:— - Hlfih in liesvan'a intentost bloo A happy lark is tiogin?, While aolUy green npoa the dopes The fresh yonng gxaaa Iα springing j tike walla of gold throughout tho land The goreo is blooming brightly, Loading with heavy teens the breeze That elro would flit so lightly; There Ilea a apell from ahore to afcoro, ■- itiripxlngUßprltig the wise world o'er* Mrs Handle Is also a mistress ot the language of Burns; so much ho indeed that I am tempted to Rive ono of her poems In fall. They redo mo wed for wad's ge» Anft be a oanny lai>, They tajr that lnire'a a kittle thing And nnco anne Trill paa*. That B»b has land an' aillar baitb, Altha* he'a said aa' lame, Au* aillet'fl gnde-bnt atill I lo'e My Jamie»' the same I ' . . Thoy say that nab'a aa trig a moa As Jamie o* tke days . When he has gotten on hiabr&<ra (Bat then he'a aowfc bat olaoa) j And gif h» hirplea in hla gait. The pnir iDon'e no to blamo— . :Eedidnam»k*hUlegS) bat yet He hirples a.' the same I They 8»y that Eab gangs ay* to Mr*, An* veetita at tho nuue; While Janilfl ia • godleaa ohiol. An* dearly lo'ae a daaoe. They lay thit Bab ne'er tuto3s drop. White Jamio'e aft to blame r this re«p«ok—»weel \-i>ie lad, He'e Jamie a> , the a&iue 1 - They say that gif I tak'the lad I'll come ta miokle dool, -- That sio a dsidlla' coot to trel A l&ts mean be a, f ale I Thtt a'old he gar mc mo the day I'll ha* myielf to blame; Theirolaahea weary mc, i'faithl 111 wed him*, , the same I Where all is of evenly high merit it Is rather difficult to select that which will trive the reader a fair estimate of Mrs Randlo'e grace and versatility. Crudities thero none, the choice of words in

cood and the versea aro very eitnplo and true to nature Perhaps tbe finest poems Iα the collection, other than those already mentioned, ate:—An " Ode to Hope," " The Lark and the Lover," " The Coming of Spring," " A Retreat," "A Winter Rhyme," " Woman's Cycle " and." Herdin* the Mje. n Plenty of humorous verses are also Mattered through the book, and in these the authoress is of'cn very happy. Perhaps the foil 'wing stanzas are almost unique cf their kind. Ti»o hippy cotv is lolling ia tho meadow, No j*rei>iration daapa her idle brow; Her botlno mind ia botherM with notoajewori; 1 wish I wero a cow! The CxC.X potato in the grurad ii sleeping, ladiCereat alike to suu and mud; With. "oy«s" thit nerer aclio. that kaow ao weepinp, I tilth I -were a. "epai !** Say! what is tbis that tne cry " Pccciti," SmeUinj so rarely on tbe signing dell? My dinser I—liot roast bed, potasoes, jr*Ty 8 I'd rtth?r be myself! The book is dedicated to the memory of tho late John BaUance. who, had he lived, would hare written the preface ; and ono after reading the poems cannot help wishing thac such had been the case, for the introduction by Mr W. P. Reeves is the one jarring vote in the volume. Mr Rep.yes, in a laboured and clumsy piece of writing, endeavours to stamp the poetry as distinctly "minor," and in support: of his contention selects for special mention two or threo of tbe slightest poems in the book. It is a One oxample of what Pope calls " damning with faint praise," but I think ib will be admitted by most readers that Mrs Handle's work rises to a very high level of literary art. CLEGG3.