ROYALTY IN NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10998, 22 June 1901, Page 6

ROYALTY IN NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

A New Zealand anthologist, if following the subject arrangement of "One Thousand English Poems," migJxt give the heading ''Loyalty," and show a very fair expression of colonial feeling towards the throne. New Zealand has no poet. So at least is said with a rather irritating frequency by visitors who, extolling our natural wonders and our social progress, must lay some flattering unction to their souls of the old world supremacy in mental gifts. But thougjh New Zealand has no poet in the sense that implies a Swinburne, a Tennyson, or a rhymer of the "Seven Seas," she has had from the first artistic versifiers, both Home and colonial bom, whose song, though but as "the earliest pipe of half-awakened birds," gave often a tuneful form to €he sentiment of the time.

Loyalty in New Zealand verse has the characteristic of being a loyalty very consciously Antipodean. A Chrietchurch rhymer in "The Queen's Birthday Wishes," has preserved a child fancy on that head from the early days, when on the 24th of May it was a practice of young colonials to make search,

"Till they came at length where the clayey land A glorious crack displayed: "Than half kr trittmpb and half dismay, At tine thought of her robe and crown, '0 Queeai! many happy returns of the day! , . Was solemnly whispered down." In, grown-up exiles, the sense of distance was sometimes mournfully, sometimes cheerily, evident. An "Ode on the Prince of Wales's Marriage," printed during the ceiebration in Ohristchurch, on July 9th, 1863, tells how

'Good! news from Home is wafted Across tite ocean, wide, That England's heir, Prince Edward, Has wed a Danish bride. A sea-kmg's peerless daughter, Sw-eet 'Rose of Denmark fair,' Tbs darkest caves of ocean . Hkia not a pearl so rare. , '

and ends, in colonist strain, "Far from the homes of childhood _'rom country and from Queen, The loyal sons of England Have memonea etrer green.

HT ': 'itiVim shall tdftti Hritor^|j! k- . '*»* prayer -"AjgS •Qod>blese the., Jb%spy t . ph&r t» •♦ Mlf * With the Duke of Edinburgh's 1869, something of. over eeK-«oßeck»tw^^ sl soeous to have set iju, . °- "Prince Alfred! we her subjects dar*'*lß it trust '* ~''^**7§p jg That the expression of our lovatty, '■ c /« Sincere and genuine aa the hofteefc tine 'vfll =11 Of purest metal, may evoke a senee r e grateful satisfaction to our Queea^- :, 1 S writes tfhe -poet of the period, who pn»«£ $ & tommtiao, te "The vast results of starting ! '. z *> Oitjaotio efforts to eubdue the eartS. , r*- »• Which in your couroe have riseo to V ■h view, ' • ■ ■**$•'--. - . Present but the b&gmawng of a tiiat ,^--"1 '" The opening of en embryonjo 86^7%%'-'"• it (Jerma of a mighty Jtfnipsre. Kb«MiA-&i£V yearo -3??i rr Of labour end pronation we have » Our hearts to the great battle of amJtiMfihy And trusted 4>y folfiliinif maafully vWi4i-v j Our duty to our God and to th* tawisM-'"-'!. ■ To swell the lustre of the British Che^*"/-?-. * Thia ia "pompmwear," cc Miss Julfe \ ° would cay, <bu* hardily more 90 the poetic exclamatoriness of Wa^^'"' - " Maoris, a "On thi» oocaasoa we see a nsoowaed iv sonage—the heart's desire, the brisKi 2;'•"'•'" light. Welcome, guest! WtfiSJ fin' of many nations! Come, see thalCfc'J- and the white men of this islandf T" l - "Oome like the white crane, rexiiv <*•£■*"'' i- Come like the WJiaurawio (bird' of o&aaart * * . harbinger of spring. Welcome,, lafcTSwi ; - '» sunshine! Welcome, son and mooU Wa it come, bright mamam «tar, to thfe WTrf ie Kehua and 1" - y By the year of the Golden Jtibilee, ho* d ever, tihsre was much creditable loyal vase.' j ranging in style from the fine "Hymn/ , by ' - } the late Dean Jacobs, to a cheerful rtryme n recording H "Pariianientary orations, Resounding detonations, w World-wide illuminations ■ •- . • t Ttas year of Jubilee.' ' ' j . " r With cartloads of addresses, Pull of loyal word-caresses r, a To a greater than Quean Besa is - " : [1 .Her Gracious Majestic." ''";. -' s Dean Jacobs touched gravely and well tlfc. t personal as well as the Imperial note i . c "For fifty years of widening trade, .'* *; And flag in every port unfurled, „ :"" ' Fair colonies—foundations laid '"V'\ t Of daughter States in all lie world " ' Their grateful ihymafThy people rais*;.-'. • \r Thy iholy Name wo bkes and praise. 1 , -M*V "For fifty years of blameless life— '■£', T A throned example—beaming bright}?^?" Yet gently—pattern mother, wife, ' - i" '■;• To every home a beaaotn-Jight; ■- j .-'•;" J Their grateful ixynrn Thy people rab&f k'4 & Thy iholy Name wti bless and ".-1 i When on this Empire, bound still obeßrVj. j by the Diamond; Jubilee, there fell the iatf' J ''S j of last January, again New Zealaaid Yvrsi l told well of the sorrow through lands *jl- -> "Where many a. daisky race that " -^i Never lier face iha.<i seen, v - *~t§ BOad learned to speak with a lovinjr-prilie tha - ; f i Name of "The Great White Queen.'? , ..^| I But here, as was natural, the personal aoto"i; : j ■ mos* prevailed. '*~}'J "No need to scan the spreading lae«diV That touched her hands ,'■,> Beneath one orown; —what other ' ,v'^ To all !her sons and daughteas, she ->~i\ But verily One great Queen and great Mother! 'fi No Queen is dead; a woman, say, * '- X C- t Haa passed away;— " 1 ,-2 Ah; and the thoughts upspringingl - ~~J No need! for words; all feel as on»: -? T4« day is done, - ,S^ Night comes wifcb holy singing"— .;* wrote Mr J. 0. Amdersen, in a poem called ' ~1~ "One Voice in MiMdons." Miss Dora WH« '-' i cox has a fine sonnet under the title, "Are ;': Cassar":— . . "'^ "Long live the Kingl for, Ipl the , Quee- J;\ ia dead. ' jj|\\ Bring her in. .state, that all the world %Jl may know "•"' Tlhis was tihe Queea.who sm>w lies iera , : so low. , t , !• , Wrap her in samite, and soft flowen, and ■ ' shed Incense and odours round her quiet head. , /. - Bring her in state, and let the city show ".'..' A last long reverence, a splendid woe , ■- For this f rail dtisfe whom Death heath van- , ; : quished. x ' ' Aye, thou, 0 Death, «*e oomqueror and • - King! - ' '■- T!hou clajmest fvcan th© humblest cottage door "'>! Thy Jiomag© due, and thott demandeeb. 3 more, ~ L And Taiast no mercy on the arms that oliag } _ • :, For at thy word the haughty Empeww • , ;;, Lays <Lown his sceptre, and the T?ope Siis- • i ring. ' - -y There were some graceful stanzas, t00,..'-. which appeared in the "Ot&go Witness/- \ l signeii with initials only: — A mournful sign we placed to-day , -; Wliere roses once had' been, , ,' To the sombre grief we felt .. For our departed Queen. t - 1'- \ Like to a shadow dark it lay . \J At Sanrow's deer* behest ,'' Tiiis sign of grief—but, oh, *lw shade, ':. C Wae darker in our breast! - "'; We hid the mournful «gfl away ''' -. Within its nigh/t—and then , , ~' For Love had whispered ch*enftil worf^r: We placed the flowers ageaitt. ■ \':, . Oh, fadedi flowers! oh, tireS Queen! sTet both supremely blest; These kept for Lev©,, and sihe asleep ' v< ■:*' Xj"pon tie Sea-Queen's breast." ' '""'"._ _ Sdnoe, the brightness of a Royal visit i«& f set ihappier strains "echoing from '• to furthest ahore of all the loyal iaatfl ' : and octes of welcome have iietumed v«jr much to tlh© "Rose of Denmark" W«fc Th 9 son of Alexandra is "the Vdking"; tto» poet?* greeting is "Skoal I" and even 4h« OpWr / . { is itramsform«d by an Aucklamd. liepOMer w -; ••-, a veseel certainly not co eqtapped w^' - - modern conveniences. • , "Brave OJaf's galleys, fully manned, Their snaky prowe dasofose i f To fancy—and o'«r the ewan'e bath rfwwp •; j With Viking and White Rose. ' : And etill as south, .and ever eooth, Jy „• The long blue billow flows. -"•• , It beareth safe to sunny shores The Viking and White Rose. 0 yellow, is the wattles' gold, And golden love she owes, , j Who pays her dtebt with larges» «<* To Viking and Whdte Rose. - f The lone, remote, and loyal isle g That turned to friends her foes n Zf Hath but one heart; she offer* it •_ To Viking aawl White Rose." - & Bot for an especial greeting to the "WhiM - . Rose" ome couldi not do better than W»ll < | a Canterbury ode of July, 1893, in «*><* J Sara Harper jwidressed the "most graewW t| Lady, fairest English flower": - .%- ---"0, may that heart no private sorrow xaw*t■■ So avmpathetic with oil forms of woe; - -v, !In thy "sweet presence long may EnglaJW .% -see. # '..'* The guMng spirit of her charity; So moving 'mddet iher poor, her ekk, her Tlu - frail, ~J;> To raise, redeem, refine, till every wail _;;.-« Of misery neglected dies away ( \ f^Before t3ie foUowing of Priaiceas Mayl" v»