NEW ZEALAND PASTORAL POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 51, 23 November 1907, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND PASTORAL POETRY.

'A student' of New Zealand vorso must inevitably be struck by tho insistent call of the sea which permeates tho major portion of tho published work of New Zealand poets and vorse-writers. ~ . . Now Zealand awaits her pastoral poet;' will ho over ariso? ,_ Poetry lis inspired by a' longing for the things afar off; maybo tho things which may not be had. Tho sense of distance; the sense of mystery; theso arc tho physical agents :which act upon tho mental powers of the poet. In Now Zealand all illimitable distances stretch seaward, and tho mystery of the'ocean is tho'most alluring. In Australia tho conditions differ. There tho immense distances-stretch inland; the mystery of_ tho lono lands and desert: places calls most insistently. This is proved again and again-;in tho volumes of poetry and verso which Australian writers have'produced. With ono notablo exception and a few: lossor onos, tho poetry of Australia, treats of- the lives of the men on tho laud. E; J. Brady is tho excoption. His "Ways of Many Waters" is all strongly imbued with tho spirit, and lnnguago of tho deep-sea sailor. It' is good, strong verso, yet in Australia it has not nearly tho appreciation moted out to tho books of tho pastoral writers—another proof that tho imagination of tho Australian turns to,his own woird deserts, not seaward, as docs tho Now Zealander's. The pastoral pootry of Great Britain may bo pointed to, as boing the work of writers in a land np| larger than our own--for example, Wordsworth in England, Burns in Scotland. ■ But that was a hundred years ago. There is no such poetry •written in Britain now; or if thoro is, no one roads it. ... - ;

Tho inland portions of Now Zealand being for tho most part • mountainous, tho Bottled parts aro confined moro or loss to the lands bordering on tho sea. And naturally the children who grow up near tho ocean turn again to the illimitablo distances of it. This may be used as an 1 argument to explain tho presence of the ocean's song in almost all New Zealand .verso. Ybt thcro is a mystery about tho snow-capped, glaciered mountains. And no New Zealander can

avoid seeing tho mountains any moro than ho can avoid seeing the sea. Why, therefore, havo thoro not been good, stirring verses written of tho' mysterious mountains? Because tho Now Zealandor knows that if ho goes far enough across the ranges ho will reach tho sea in tho courso of a few days. Wcro thoro thousands of miles of mountains and desert lands stretching away westward, his imagination would bo fascinated, and, like tho Australian, his mind would bo forever following the tracks of romance.and adventure which lay across the lonoly places. The cattle drovor who traversed them would bo a bolted knight, the swearing bullocky a vory hero, and tho man who drovo tho mail coach would bo a demi-god. But it is not so Wo havo all seen tho mountains. Wo have nil seen tho sea. And tho sea calls loudest and always. . . . Now Zealand wants a pastoral poet. She needs him exceedingly. Pleasant songs ,if happy lives on the farms in tho Dominion would ho good to read and storo.away. Instead, we havo the crashing thunder of the surf, tho call of the wild winds and all the little sweetness of tho voices of tho world which draw our thoughts away, though near our-hearts, to whntcvsr our poets' may sing of the sobbing surges, our land will loom • over beautiful in the background trying to satisfy her yearning soul with a lino or a verso tossed lovingly toward her, when she cries out for a wholo poom, a wholo poet to sing her praises and tell of her happy homes.—Will Lawson in I "Tho Press." ■