NINETEEN ODES TO A TUATARA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26887, 13 November 1952, Page 9

NINETEEN ODES TO A TUATARA

N.Z. Reptile Attracts Versifiers (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 12. The “New York Times” last Friday described the arrangements made by the Bronx Zoo for the public display of the first tuatara to be shown in the United States. The report suggested that the name would fit into the title of a poem, “Ode to a Tuatara.” but added that such a poem probably would never be written about the pygmy dinosaur. The newspaper said today that that statemenrt was wrong. Nineteen poems had been received on the reptile that last Thursday was only a biological curiosity, and the outpourings of poetry might make the tuatara one of the most lauded beasts in the animal kingdom. The newspaper published one ode by an advertising copy writer It followed earlier styles of Jonn Milton and William Wordsworth. The “New York Times’’ said that the other poems did not follow any of the Greek or English ode styles. Most were irregular in metre or rhyme. No local poet was able to discover a rhyme for “Tuatara.” Two suggested “Theda Bara.” and one that the stranger be named “O’Hara.” The ode by a copy writer, Philio Young, read: ODE TO A TUATARA O Milton. Thou shouldst be living at this hour To eulogise this pygmy dinosaur This unsung eft, this spinose newt So long of tail, so blunt of snoot Hath need of ode, of panegyric Encomium, laud, and praiseful lyric Hapless tuatara, in thy conditioned air Odeless thou must remain—for who s to care? Thou const do naught but contemplate thy i plight Until some minstrel comes to set things right. Hotel Manager Acquitted.— Clifford lan Cutler, formerly manager of th*» Bnyai Hayma Hotel, Barrier Reef, has teen acquitted on a charge of unlawfully killing Thomas Manders May or Hayman Island on June 21. when ther* was an altercation between the hotel management and visitors from a neighbouring island. —Brisbane, November 12.