TWO" AUSTRALIAN BOOKS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1108, 22 April 1911, Page 9

TWO" AUSTRALIAN BOOKS.

J "The Pearl and the Octopus; and Other Exercises in Prose and Verse." By '_ A. G. Stephens. Melbourne: Geo. , Robertson and Co. 3s. 6d. I Mr. Stephens is well known to the ; Australasian reading public for his lite- • rary criticisms. His" judgments 911 ■ poetry are deservedly esteemed by the ; discriminating amateur. Ho is less wel I known as a light humourist, of thai , deft and capable class of satirists who, ■ bursting with energy, and blessed with ; a considerable mastery of technique, put out those bravura pieces which are ■ in literature what the drawings of Morrow, of "Punch," are in black-and-white • work. AVhilo we may object, therefore, , to his decision to call this new book 0: i his by the name of tho poorest prose item in it, wo commend it heartily to : everybody who loves good work, as a splash'of colour in that endless web of drab mediocrity that flows from the loom of Australian, literature. Tho quality of the very varied contents of . tho volume, which is a selection from the author's free-lance work of the pa si few. years, is not at all even, but the best is very good. "Babylon," for instance ; (although there is more than ah echo in it of Viola Taylor's verses of the samo name). Hero is Mr.-Stephens's first verse: Babylon has fallen! Ay; but Babylon .endures Wherever human wisdom shines or human folly lures; Whose lovers' lingering walk beside, and happy children play, Is Babylon! Babylon! for ever and for aye. The plan is rudely fashioned, the dream is unfulfilled, Yet all is in the - archetype, if but a builder willed; And Babylon is calling us, the microcosm of men, ' To range her walls in harmony and lift her spires again; The sternest walls, the proudest spires, that ever sun shone on, Halting a space his burning race to gaze on Babylon. "A Farewell" is very goo'd, too; but it is in his frivolous verso that Mr. Stephens is at his best. AVe must quote his diabolic perversion of Dante Rossotti: Wheat, for- the anguish of tho starving :— nay, The market opens steadily,—but lean And hark how at its verge cables sigh in .Determined. Ea! then buoyantly away; For shorts are covered at the brink of day, And export shipments tug upon the string ■' That sobs, while operators rise to sing The Price Report is bullish! Do not stray: On realising, prices downward creep; There's sympathy in corn—all corn is grass, • And cool again tho export side. Let be:—. Say nothing unto bulls for fear they weep • One. to three-eighths cent, fall—Close easy was; '. Spot easy. (So is immortality.) . . This is a sonnetification of.a commercial cable message. No better ballades have boon written in Australia than those upon tho birth-rate—"But why don't statisticians' marry?"—" Purple Pimples," "Queries," and "The Scat cf Love" (which is the liver). Some of the verses are old favourites; it is pleasant to moot l again with the great Ode to Woolloomoqjflp, and "Salvation 'Emigration, •'• and tho clever parodies of Australian poetasters ,in "The Crown of Gum-Leaves" (reprinted from.an earlier book of .the author's). -'There are even better. parodies in the extravaganza "The Poetelopath," the excellence of which has been emphasised by the bungling of those who havo stolen the central idea of it. If Mr.. Stephens would realise that humour and satire make his true vocation, ho might perhaps do - work that would do for him with the larger public of Britain sonicthing like what- "Literary Lapses" has done-for Professor Leaeock. "Australia." By William H. Elsum. Melourne: George Robertson ' and Co. 3s. 6d.' "We're tli' boshtcr comin' nation 0' lh' earth, 'tween you V nic," mars. William H. Elriim on page 42. And the present need of the "boshter comin' nation," as set forth in this volume of delirious rhymes, is a high state ol fever concerning the impending Japanese invasion of Australia. William H. Elsum is quite convinced that Japan is on-the point of rushing into the great island continent; he knows it as well as ho knows that Andrew Fisher is the wisest of statesmen; and so ho turns into rhyme tho leading articles of. tho Sydney "Bulletin," and hurls tho product, by permission of George Robcrtso:> and Co., at what wc feel will bo a flabbergasted public. Rough and ready enough, often careless of syntax and always of the less coarse shades of meaning that English words still contain, William H. Elsum -is yet a skilful I rhymer with a strong sense of rhythm. When he is not writing uproarious incitements to Australia to stem tho flood of Japanese instead of backing the wrong horse in the Melbourne Cup, he is flat. Ho is overpowered by his fooling that in ten minutes, unless his glorious native land wakes up, Ruin will arrive with a Japanese accent and a horrid smell. His verses, to say it all in a word, aro fine ringing rubbish. But one can forgive almost anything to his fiery patriotism.