MORE NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 413, 23 January 1909, Page 9

MORE NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

CRITICISMS AND A FORECAST. Tho growing body .of. New Zealand verso has been increased by two new volumes, which wo are now able, to review, and one which conies too • late for present consideration; Mr. Hubert Church proffers an addition to his quiet meditations under tho title "Egmont," and Mr. Will Lawson revives his'strident song, of engino-rooms and rough waters in "Stokih' and other Verses;" Tho third volume, "New Poenis," by. Arnold Wall, will bo reviewed in a. later issue. .There could hardly be a greater contrast both of-manner and subject than exists between tho books of Mr. Church and Mr. Lawson. Mr. Lawson sings' - mainly of the sea and ships, Mr. Church sings' once of "The Enchantment of the Sea," and speaks of a chanting beneath the keel "that never mortal heard." That is the kind of chanting that.Mr. Lawson does not.try to hear. Ho revels in the unmistakable' sounds of singing tailrods, groaning steam-pumps', thudding cranks and drumming screws,-and he knows them liko an engine-room hand. He is the poet of loud sounds. His ocean does not chant'at ajl, or the orgy of tho engines overburdens its mero crooning./' He knows the chopping straits, and the rough Kaikoura coast, and he, sings the clamorous strain ho hears of -roaring surges/ and rockbound booming shores. His.muso is a stormy petrel of poetry, which wo can imagine screaming ■'round the Cygnet doing thirty miles in-ten hours against a roaring southerly. But it is the genuine voice of the sea in at least a frequent aspect.. It.is not the ' 'voice. of many waters," but it. is /the true voice of Waters near to Wellington.. And sounds delight:.the soul. of. Mr.: Lawson, as .vision delights- most: poets, and- meditation Sir. Church. .-He says.'of some troopers silently tracking ,a fugitive: ' ;'■ I hated: them Because they rode.like mutes, all dumb, ~ No jangling scabbards—tapping, drum. . It is a child's reason for hatred, but is not' the child a poet? Mr. Lawson has no mind for silences, which Mr. Church loves. In his ■ own: phras*' : he. • would "sooner 'bo hearin'. the German'band, In Oriental' Bay." _. There is no intention in these reflections to disparage Mr. Lawson's talent hi the least. His work is strong, virile, vivid, compressed, and it is artistic, because its manner; is exactly suited to the .kind.'of .life that it describes, and which is well -worthy of description. Who does mot see' and hear stoke-hole' hr the, ';.■■':/'■' '.\ . ; ■. Scrape, scrape, scrape of the shovels, And the snarlin', rollin' rattle.of the.coal? If the Lord had put a poet's soul into a trimmer/ as Mr. Lawson rather fantastically suggests,, might he not have sung of his fellow trimmers in these words: '• We are chaps whose lights, are hidden Bythe coal-dust-and the glooin . ' . ■Of the bunkers .: .■'"'■'. ■•', ■■'.:"'■" (Steamer's bunkers) . Near the humming engine-room.'■■ , . ~. ' Toil can hear.the.stokers toilin': '.. And the greasers as they go. To the testin'and the oilin' : , . , ' "Of the rods/that swing and throw; '"/' But few men e'er seethe glimmer, . . .In the blackness of .the coal ■-...• Of the slush-light/of .the'trimmer , ; ' / ■' 'As, it""'gutters'to her roll. - '■. ': .".,;'.; Mr. -Lawson's.' waves'are'/always ravening; he sings'pf .them as hunters,'wreckers, wolves, of the darkness,', corsairs/.- and. he does . so with something of- their own-,strength and swing. ' "When ho_k not describing engines afloat he is -generally 3 des t crißirig' u 'tingffles ashore; .'the' tiffe/rip;, tho locomotive liasi his heart.';' But;he v can' ! db good work in other fields: /; 'Shelling Peas" is - a small idyll.which keeps -a.-, delightful /mean' between the humorous' and.grave. • Most of the poems.in his present .volume, are. reprinted;, they deserve, hot -to go out of-print. Mr. Church'has ventured his sail upon a deeper ocean than .Mr. Lawson knows. With, Mr.' Johannes Andersen he is endeavouring to skim,:tho dark of/ metaphysical thought:... He .does 'not ship v su'ch heavy seas as to swamp 'entirely .'Miv Andersen's latest barque, but the passage perilous leads! to no port pleasant—at least, to no port that is worth the voyage. : Mr. Churoh always has the manner and sound of poetry, but his images!are.sometimes sadly,'strained; and.at other times-it'is not clear 'what he | means. He.is too fond of a "cloudy music,", if we mayhorrow, his own phrase ."Tho sound that is the ivy of tho beach" is not a na'tural image; -The mind declines to make comparison' between ■ two . things so remote. 1 So when Mr..Church says: Let the breeze How about me all the prime Of the unthreaded years, untold '■'•■-. Upan : the rosary of Time. ' '. .-..■■ One is tempted to - : remark with Gilbert's Edwin, "It sounded v.ery clever, but I didn't understand it." Beads on, or off, a rosary can have no prime, nor can they be blown about to any effect. Pour lines further on in, the same poem ("Ode' on Metaphysical Thought") Mr. Church speaks of '■-..-■ -. , Island and sea and gulf yet unforlorn With the uriknelled,' the castaway, and sails For, ever ruffled by the wind. .' : \ . But surely'tha sea- is not- made more forlorn by sails?-•-. In "The Temple of the Mind" the poet promises. .-' -,- You shallhave Bible in the rocking flower That holds one dewdrop; and its tenderness .Shall flow like softness of the Libyan sand. And be your breath of morning. Where,is the connection between Libyan sand and tenderness, or these and breath? Yet Mr. Church has also fine lines and fine thoughts, as when he says to the sea-gull— v ' Never, is the cloud .'..'.■' All darkness'/where at night thy, head is ; bowed., , ' , . Many of his verses are pleasing, if they were not so involved; and his longest, poem, "Do Bracciano," which describes, 1 in a Browning mannorY. an old Italian crime, is. vivid, poetical, and sustained. '■' . , When' Mr.. Church published, only six years ago,, a selection of about forty poems, "The West Wind," including some-almost perfect lyrics, it was stated by, his editors that these represented almost the whole of his poetical work.,,Sincethen ho has published two larger, volumes, which add little to his reputation. Mr. Church's best verse stands easily among the host New Zealand verse that lias been written; lately he.has become too introspectivo _in, his: subjects, and possibly he -.-. has published too much. Yet, though he does not often/repeat his first simplicity and sweetness, he can.still wrjtq fine, expressive' poetry upon occasion, as the following sonnet from, his new volume shows: THE FRIGATE. . Thou wast a ~plendour, dawn upon thy sails Like to a rosy bosom; whither gleam Thy royals now, what shadowy gulf stream 'Floats thee, where never tropic cloud prevails, Nor any torment of meridian gales Vexes thy bulwark? They that love thee dream .'''.' • . That thou are folded ill the sunset beam, Glorified where : imagination fails. WM'-thee that England slumbers who awoke ■With'- thunder-'towers beside the broad Gironde, J;2'm du , 11 f s abo , nt tlle Trael - and'the shore Ot irafalgar; let her not sleep beyond the hour when honour calls that shall evoke fight,, or humiliation evermore! . ' For this and other poems, Mr. Church's latest book deserves a ' welcome. ; ■ . The question of the present and future position of New Zealand verse is suggested by these volumes. They are important, be- ; cause'the total output is not large. Though New, Zealand, verse in general stands on a higher, plane than tho exaggerated, morbid outcome of, the "Bulletin" : school in Australia, and though its authors, to tho best of their ability, have wrought seriously and responsibly , disdaining cheap ' flippancy and license of; ah imported' kind; there is not much indication of even the beginnings of a

distinctive national literature. Perhaps such is not needed, whilo there remain high and noble tracks of tho past to tread, hut 0110 would expect a distinctive colour and a new vigour in tho songs of a young, blithe, and robust land. Mr. M'Keo Wright has noted that "Our cities face the sea," and Mr. Lawson has pointed out that the imagination always travels on tho longest trail, and while our land vistas are soon bounded, our sea distances are unending. In the New Zealand poetry of the future wo shall expect to hear tho song of the sea,.. tho wind's sweep ovor plains of- manuka and tussock, tho sound of rivers ramping over stony courses, and to feel a zest and beauty and sense of freedom that are akiirto these.. Not much is being dono just now, though Miss Baughan has seized the very tone,and spirit of bush and farm and hamlet, and Miss Jessie Mackay, in a new selection all too -small, lifts a lyric note as sweet as it is rare. Mr. D. M. Ross, who promised well, scorns to be writing little of late, and Messrs. Wall and Church belong to tho wider order of poets who are largely independent of place and time. But Mr. Lawson is doin" natural work witlr his live sea sketches, and there will be others. fJlr. Lawson's book is published by Gordon and'Gotch at 2s. Gd. "Egmont" comes from Thomas C.. Lothian, Melbourne, at the same price.] NEW BOOKS AND REVIEWS. Poems of Hope: By E. L. Perkins. John Francis, Bath. ' From the point of view of their religious subject matters theso are "poems of hope," but as poetry, or even verse, they are very far from, hopeful. , The sentiments and aspirations 'breathed forth are admirable, but they rise on very, tattered wings of metre. The best "poems" in. the book fall just below the standard of Mr. Charles Alexander's hymns, and it seems hardly necessary to add to that collection. . "The Phoenix and the Carpet," by E. Nes- . *.bit. Unwin's Colonial Library. 2s. 6d. , and;3s. 6d. . ' . ■ Mrs. Nesbit .excels as a writer of fantastic stories for children, and this book, which comes in anew colonial edition, will be welcomed by many children, especially by those who have already made the acquaintance of the Phoenix and its friends in the pages of an English magazine. Taking the old idea of a magic carpet that can transport its possessor to any part' of the world at a moment's notice, and making it in a way the 'sleeping partner > of. a Phoenix, Mrs. Nesbit narrates the amazing adventures that befell the four children in .whose: nursery the magic carpet was placed. The children are. delightfully natural, and the little descriptions :of their middle-class London home give an air of. truthfulness to the most,absurd, narratives. All the adventures' aTe. good, perhaps .the best being those wliere;the : 'chil'dreri transport a disagreeablo' cook to': a tropical' island, leaving her .there to, become queen of .the savages, and where they rescue an amiable burglar from' gaol and take-him to the same island, following him up with a clergyman, who marries tho Cockney couple; The clergyman unfortunately stood half on- the wishing carpet and half, on tho plain Scotch heather mixture, with which it had: been darned, and so he was only half there, and sadly thought he was in,a sort of ilisano fit, while*"the cook said she would rather have had a clergyman you couldn't see through quite so plain." , The pictures—there are forty-eight of. them—ar'o as good as the stories, and altogether tho book,.is one to he heartily commended ,to children, and their friends. - Tli6.Kea. A Now/Zealand problem;',,/By: ,Gvß...Marriner.,Published by/Marriner.' ■.:■::■ .Bros, and Co., Chri'stchurch. Welling- '-. tohagonts, Messrs..S. and W. Mackay../ : , V" Mr. ; Marriner "may claim in this hook, to have cleared up the mystery of the kea's carnivorous habits to the satisfaction of all reasonable persons. -Tho belief that, the kea attacked sheep and tore the kidney fat or kidneys from their living bodies!-w.as-,yirtuaHy i /taken for granted from the' 60's' until; 1905; : when Dr. L. Cockayno and others pointed out that the actual recorded evidence iii support: of.,;the belief, was quite, inadequate' i or tho bird's conviction. Mr.';'Marriner -then..'sot' himself, by actual explorations'and. a careful correspondence'with all the persons ho could /find who had watched.the kea's habits, to ascertain the facts of the position, 'and'tho result is embodied ill this book, which he dedicates to the late Captain Hutton; F. 11.5. The. conclusions > of, the book . are that the kea dpes attack-sheep,-that if strikes above the kidney fat, probably because 'that is the most , accessible point of attack when the sheep is walking or running, and that it eats this fat, but, not,, as a rule, the .kidneys.' The fat would be not very different 'from-tlib Jargo plump grubs which-form part'of; the kea's natural diet, and lack of ordinary food in. times of snow and heavy frost has probably encouraged the habit. The taste for animal food was probably acquired by picking at sheep carcasses on the meat gallows of,country stations, and later on by picking at dead, and later, living sheep. The kidney fat is not the main attraction; the birds .ap-pear'-in many, cases to eat' whatever part comes first. ■ . The kea is.found on all the mpufttainous parts of the South Island, with ,the'exception of the Eaikouras. Its depredations have been so serious in some localities that station-holders have paid as much as 10s. each for heads; . '■ ;,Mr. Maj'riner's work is not limited to the investigation .of. the'carnivorous habits of the: .kea.' He.describw at length the kea'country,the haunts : ,and'habits of the bird,- the history 1 of previous, observation,, jand, every other "aspect of the kea's interesting-existence.'.He collects and Ayeighs his evidence in a, thoroughly scientific fashion, and at the same time ho has planned and written his work in a popular literary manner. The determination to bo literary causes Mr. Marriner ; to bo unintentionally, humorous at times,- when ho insists on heading each of his chapters with a quotation of New Zealand verse. The. lines of Mr. Arthur H. Adams on To Rauparaha sound odd as applied to the kea:—; Like a black hawk swooping; ,'. L shall whirl upon the .Southern Island—eto. And Mr. J. L. Kelly is sufficiently punished when his prophecy of the .Tarawera eruption is placed above'a chapter called "Tho Sheep Killer":— .. In sin and shame o'ertaken, , -.'.-•' Thy glory shall sink in gloom. Worse than this, Alfred Domett's lines descriptive of-the thermal regions ... How o'er the fascinating features flit The genuine passions of the nether pit!' ' are ingeniously.made to illustrate "the kidney theory.". But Mr: "Marriner may be forgiven for these curious excursions into a foreign province for the sake of the real sin-' e'erity, interest, and value of his hook, which is also well bound and profusely illustrated. • "A Daughter of France," by Constance: Elizabeth 'Maud. '.' Methuen's Colonial . .Library. 2s. 6d..and 3s. Gd. - The idoa # of this pretty simple tale is not new, but it is worked out with a 'certain freshness and conviction that are attractive. Jeanno de Clairvaux, a daughter of France, young, gay, and lovable,, marries a middleaged Scotchman, and goes to live in his castle with his two sisters and his rather improbably domineering mother,, who insists from the first'on calling -her.Jane and trying to model her on severe Scottish lines. Tho story concerns .the inability of theso ladies to. understand the little bride's -gaiety and point of view, the. misunderstandings that -arise, and'her flight before the "birth' of her child from the grey old homo to a corner in France, where she remains hidden for several years, in spite'of tho incessant search made for her by tho husband,' who grows mora penitent tho longer she remains undiscovered.' Tho: story ends happily with her return to her home, and tho conquest of the old mother-in-law by the*little grandson., Somo of the minor characters are very well drawn, .tho most interesting of them being Kirstio Jeanne's elder sister-in-law, who has a quite uncommon and' charmingly-described love affair of her own. The Rod City. By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., LL.D. Macmillan's Colonial Library, , 2s. Gd. and 3s. Gd. Tho second administration of President Washington, when the infant cities'of the now United States Ban's tho. "Marsoilluiso" iii

welcome'to French Jacobins, and gave cold refuge to tho emigres, and when the seas wore dangerous with attacks of English privateers, makes tho attractive sotting for this story. Dr. Mitchell is as familiar with Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and tho other striking men of that bravo era as if he had walked and talked with them, and it is a pleasure to meet them in his pages. The talo concerns a young French emigre, whoso father has been killed by tho revolutionists, and who finds a home, with his aristocratic and reserved mother, among a Quaker family in the States. Dr. Mitchell has a pleasant style, and there is nothing slovenly about his workmanship, but ho lacks tho dramatic instinct which might have made his story throb with interest. We respect Bene, the excellent but somewhat colourless young noble, and wo like Pearl, the pretty Quaker girl to whom ho loses his heart, but WO do not lose our heart to Pearl. Indeed, we. are scarcoley persuaded that Reno's pas-', sion goes so far as that. It is disappointing, also, when wo have followed through half the book Rene's natural feud against tho murderer of his father, and our nerves are thrilled with expectation of out, oxciting duel, to find .the encounter dismissed in half a page. There is. another mooting between tho Jacobin and Beno which is less •unsatisfactory, but Dr. Mitchell does not nearly make the best use of his opportunities. Still, in a time of slip-shod, hurried fiction about nothing, it is much to have a story which faithfully and accurately deals', no. doubt, with a most interesting folk and inr.-!. aii'l with events which interest if they do not thrill. "Fcivnell's Tower," by Louis Tracy. Ward's Colonial Library. 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d. Mr. Tracy could teach Dr. Mitchell admirably how to describe a duel; tho reader's breath is held for seven pages, while Philip Warren and the Squire clash swords. The author of "Fennell's Tower" never fails to i makotho most of a sensational effect; apart from this, his qualities as a writer are distressing. There - is nothing priggish or superior about his characters; in fact, the. vulgarity of most of them is quite startling.. When, Hannah Neyland tells the Squire's cousin that she fell.in lovo with him the first time she saw him the commercial room, sitting at the table with a newspaper," he replies quite naturally, "Who would have guessed such a turmoil was going on inside the female mechanism!" Janet is a jealous, vixen whose baseness we can hardly credit. Afraid that her pretty sister Marjorie will marry tho Squire, and thus disappoint his cousin James of an expected early inheritance, she participates in a villainous scheme to compromise her sister with the amiable Philip Warren. .She' does not. flinch at worse crime after that, and Warren is suspected of the murder ; of the Squire, found dead after the duel,. with a sword stuck through his heart. Marjorie preserves her faith in the'distressed hero, but tho new squire is in love'with Marjorie, and exciting complications ensue. Of course, all works out right in the end, and an: attractive little detective a good deal to do with tho satisfactory conclusion. ■. "Tho Spirit'of Revolt." By Philip Gibbs. Methune and Co., London. - Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington. 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d. This is a story of a rathor conceited young Labour M.P., who. enters the House with lofty ideas of Labour and a hatred of the '-'classes.". He becomes a leader in the women's suffrage movement, ' marries an actress, and makes an. intimate friend of a young Conservative M.P. of good family, whose homo he'visits. His views, change somewhat ;as a result of this acquaintance, and : fuxth.er.-i to -entangle' matters his L wii'e leaves : him; and he falls-in. lovo with : his ..wealthy friend V.cousin. Matters straighten themselves out just in time, and tho end is reached'satisfactorily. The story deals with London life, and is of more than average merit. Tho aims of Labour, and tho suffrage movement are cleverly woven in, and the tale is interesting.right through. ' : :,:-, ife'vj NOTES. '',- '>; The discovery by Mr. Hilairo Bolloc, M.P., of..a lineal-descendant of Shakespeare in a ■ Bismarckvillo (U.S.A.) corn merchant must be' rather- a rude shock to the genealogical experts who would.deny even a great-grand-child to tho'"bard of Avon." According to these experts Shakespeare had throe children—Hamnet, who died when a boy of twelve; Susanna, who became wife to John Hall, a Stratford doctor; and Judith, who married Thomas Quiney, a vintner. Mrs. Hall left air only child, Elizabeth, who, though twice:wedded, left up offspring; Mrs.. Quiney was moro fortunate in having three sons, all of whom died unmarried; and with theiri -the bard's issue expired. Shakespeare, however, had a sister wjio found: a husband in William Hart, a Stratford hatter; and it is helioved that some of her descendants still survive in "a humblo sphere of life. ... Mr. Thomas Hardy has issued a volume of "Selected Poems of William Barnes," which he .himself has chosen and edited. In this book he has somo interesting things to say about the disappearance of Old English words. He writes thus:—"l.have ■ been moved to undertake the selection by a thought that has overridden some immediate objections to such an attempt—that I chance to be (I believe) one of the few living persons having a practical acquaintance with letters who knew familiarly the Dorset dialect when, hV was spoken as Barnes'writes it, or perhaps know it as it is spoken'-now. Sihce : -his death, ■ education in the West of England, as.olsewhere, has gono on with its silent and inevitable eu'acements, reducing the speech of this country to uniformity, and obliterating every year many a fine old local word. The process is always the,same; the word is ridiculed by the newly taught; it gets into disgraco; it is hoard iiv holes and cornors only; it dies; and, worst of all, it leaves no synonym. In tho villages that one recognises to bo tho scenes of those pastorals, the poet's nouns, adjectives, and idioms daily cease to be understood by the younger generation." \ '■'-~. Mrs.. Flora Annie Steel, the " Bookman " says, is convinced that tho day of the novel, as a novel, is over. There will always be. a certain number of tho.trivial sort, written for tho amusement of the idle, hut she feels that tho general reader is, on the whole, nowadays, a thoughtful person,- and .wants something moro than a tale in his fiction. Mrs. Steel is busy on a new novel, 'which is ito bo called'" Tho Law of the Threshold." In a newly-published ! valuable commentary on tho text and sources of Edward'Fitz- ■ gcrald's Omar, or "'Ulnar," as he now declares that we ..ought to call him,. Mr. HeronAllen quotes the following stanzas of Omar's, which, Fitzgerald combined and transformed in one of his most famous quatrains. The first stanza runs:—"lf a loaf of wheaten bread be forthcoming,! a gourd of wine and a thigh-bone of muttoii,'_and then if thou and I'.ho sitting in the wilderness, ..that wero a joy not within tho power of any Sultan." And tho second: "I;desire a flask of ruby wine aud\ a book off.verses, just enough to keep mo alive, and :half a loaf is needful; and then, that thou (and'l should sit in tho wilderness is better jthan the kingdom of a Sultan." - Out of these rather matter-of-fact recipes for happiness! Fitzgerald fashioned his little',enchanted idyll:— Herb with a little Bread beneath the Bough : A Flask of .Wine, a!Bool; of Verse—and Thou ' ■ Besido mo singing /in the Wilderness— Oh,- Wilderness wore /Paradise, enowl ''. The romance of book-collecting was strikingly illustrated at the Amherst sale, when a copy of Frobishcr's Voyages, 1578, which was bought a century ago for a shilling, realised the largoj sum of £315 It is not easy to'find a parallel to this remarkable growth in value. /At tho sale not long ago of Mr. Gregory'.; Lewis Way's library, .Grower's "Coiifcssio Amaivtis," for which Mr. Way had originally, paid 55., was sold for £199; and Milton's "Comus," first edition, which ho had picked up for the same sum, was eagerly bought for £68. " The Tragodio. of Antonio," which had been bought, along with other books, at a country shop for 25., was sold a few years, ago at Sotheby's for £600.