BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2588, 9 October 1915, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

AT. THE SIGN OF THE LYRE

Army, 0; My Army,"- and other •' song?. By Henry . Lawson (Tyrell's,: Ltd., Sydney). '"Off .the- Blue Bush." By J. P. Bourke (Tyrell's, Ltd.j Sydney); ''The Fleet and Convoy, and Other Verses," by George Gordon M'Crae , (T. C. Lothian, Melbourne). ; - m : iSVar' Sqigs,'. .selected' ; by ' Christopher ■. introduction by ' General Sir lan .Hamilton (Humphrey . Milford, Oxford University Press).

Our good old friend, Henry. Lawson,' toay be, as he says, ;r" v. >; , Too old and too deaf to bo sent, to the Front. .'v '

but. the; stirring songs which are com-: prised in the . collection ; entitled "My Army, 0,; My Army!" prove that his muse is as fertile and kindly as ever, and that. he. can 1 still write Averse just as vigorous • and pleasant-of lilt as he did when he gave us "In the Days iWhen the World Was Wide." His War verse is, most of; it .at least;; far superior to much of what passes for such in the Old Country. The gallant deeds of his fellow countrymen at.the: Dardanelles have stirred his blood and inspired his pen with. excellent result. There is: all the old familiar and ever welcome Lawsonian ring in such lines as the following (from "The' Songs of the Dardanelles"): — :

They, .were shipped like shpep when the ■ dawn was,grey. (But their officers knew that no lambs •".. were; they). • .They squatted and i : perched,, where'er they could, • ■ And they blanky-ed for joy as we knew •• they, would; ';■■ ■ • ; Knew they would; ■ Knew they -would; ' ■■. . . They blanky-ed : for' joy 'as we. 'knew they would;

The sea. was', hell and the shore was hell iWith mine, entanglement, shrapnel and ■ shell, - -. ' : > But they stormed tho .hMghts: as Australians should, . ■;■.'-.■••' ■■ 'And \they"fonght and';; died as we knew 'they would, , Knew they, would—.'■) ''. Knew they would;■ : i They: fought'and' they : died as' we knew' "'r From 'the .Mutherni'Jills' and- the city lanes," r •. ... From : tneiaudwaste.lone,'and, l the Black-

.• :Mil .lUains; ; r>-.' ;^. Tho: youngest; of England's brood!— ■' ■•.•■' . ■ They'll win for the- Soutli as we knew thoy would; ,' . !.. •Knew they would—.. '< Knew they would: ! ~J '■ ■ !-"' . ; They " win ;,forthe Soiith' as l we' knew they would. . ■~!

■ In_ another, ballad,"in honour of :the fighting "Australasians," -.. "Fighting Hard," there is a reference to the New Zealaaders:— .

Fighting hard for gale and earthquake, and the innd-swept ports between; For the wild flax aiid manuka, and tho terraced hills'.of green. Fighting; hard for wooden homesteads, lv-here tho mighty kauris stand—:; Fighting hard-for. ferii:and :tussock-';--' Fighting hard for Maoriland! - , Fighting hard. There is an eloquent tribute, "Grey Wolves, Grey," to the splendid gallantry; of the Russian si, and' in other poems the heroic; sacrifices of the Belgians;, the entrain and; fine; strenuousness. of- the French, and the now worldfainous gay courage of the British Tommy each receives well;" [ deserved praise. : But the hook, k not entirely composed of war verse. It contains some "of -those "simply,; often, slangilyworded ballads in which the. poet sings g-s he has so often, sung . before, of the .'fascination of the bush, the rough virtues of 'his mates,' and the quaint humours of the shearing camp, or the wayside shanty. It is the same old Lawsonian rhyme,., unpolished, but in its own way ever delightful: A capital shilling; work is this book, with but one; fault—that .its pages . are wire senTi. The wise purchaser' will folio* "Liber's" example, namely, rip out the wire''and have the book sewn. It is worth it.

"Off the Bluebush. Verses for Australians West and East," by J. P. Bourke. "Bluebush" is an. attractively produced volume which comes to us with ail editorial "introduction. by Mr. A.' G. : Stephens, who gives some'biographical details concerning theauthor. VBourke, who died at Boulder;' W. A., in Jan u ary, * 1914, : was one- ;of a .little band. of. West Australian rhymesters,. poets, verse-maker&—call them •• what you" like,' —:who wrote for various ' Western. 'Aiik- 1 tralian journals, especially the Kalgoor-; • lie "Sun" and Perth "Sunday : Times." He was a New South Wales man by birth/ and; "went > mining" while stijl a mere youth." Later on, for seventeen years, he - was a\ school teacher, and in 1894 went West and "roughed it on the mining track." When he died the . Kalgoorlie. ."Sun" said: "Bourke was the whitest and most lovable of men:straight as a gun-barrel, ;<nd unfaltering in his denunciation of all' that savoured of the mean, the paltry, : • or the unjust." His poetry is desperately: uneven in quality, at;times-ris-ing to a high lovel, at others sinking perilously near to mere- doggerel. Much that Bourke wrote would not, 1 am afraid, please - a rigid moralist. Not' that his verse is unclean. On the contrary, it is absolutely free from that morbid eroticism and 'affectation of decadence in which so many writers of the "Bulletin" havo been pleased to indulge. But your rigid moralist would hardly approve of verses which sing the rudo delights of fighting hard and drinking deep, and which mock gaily at thrift and othor approved virtues.'.'.Bourke sang the joy of life:. What is a purse? A thing to scatter free. What is talent but a gift for joy? . What is life's le*sson? To live heartily To man's utmost, liko a happy boy. As Mr. Stephens'rightly says:- "It is a doctrine that .must be preached cautiously ; yet it is .tho best doctrine of all. So many miss life bv not grasping it: in 'saving, other things'; they spend life itself: and at tho end there is pity for those who cannot say Vixi." Personally, I like best Mr. Bourko's songs of the mine, which may recall, perhaps, memories of those, on similar subjects, in the late Edward Dvson's "Rhymes from the Mines," but yrhioh have, a swing and a verve which .is all their own. Even Calverley. whoso V.Ods to once „ga famous,

might have found Bourko's praises of that b'everago a ■ trifle exuberant, but Bourke can. please tlie prohibitionist just as much as the man who "likes bis, pint." Not even Lamb,. in Lis moments ,of debauch-caused nausea and deepest repentance, could more forcibly depict l the drunkard's degradation than does Bourke in his "No More Verses in Praise of Wine"

Shirking the fight that a man should fight, Dodging the joys' that a man should know, Scorning the breath of a plumed thought's flight, > Down with the swine and the husks below. • . 'Tis thus we reap from the seed we sow! . Hearts grow withered and locks grow white, Dodging the joys that a man should know, Shirking the fight that a. man should . fight. :

Somo of tho poems might perhaps havo been, left uncollected in volume form, but Bourke is decidedly worth « Elace on the shelves which hold Henry awson, Barcroft ';Boake, and Edward Dyson. The book contains a number of illustrations by : Ned Wothered,'a .Western Australian designer and! illustrator, who, Mr.' Stephens tells us, is "almost wholly self-taught;" and is only twenty. Some of, the drawings are very cruao, but on the whole they may he accepted as depicting tho lifj, character, and Ecenery- of the Golden ' West/ with, as Mr.: Stephens puts it, a "gusto that preserves faithfully the spirit of the verses." (Price, 3s. 6d.) ■'.

Mr. George Gordon M'Crae, the author .of . "The' Fleet and Convoy and Other Verses," is the solo survivor of a little circle of literary meri, prominent in Melbourne:in the 'sixties;: a :circle which included '• Adam Lindsay Gordon,' Marcus Clarke, and " Henry, .Clarence Kendall. Mr. M'Crae is stiil easily.; in the front rank of Australian poets.- ;■ There is little m his verse that is distinctively Australian. It is essentially scholarly _ and, pliilosc phic, rather than topographical 'and.realistic, studiously polished;' poetry which reflects wide reading and true' culture. The opening.- poem, "The Fleet, and Convoy," sets forth the feelings of an Australian father who watches the transports and. the protecting warships as they pass outside, the Heads, but as a' sample of Mr. M'Crae's quality, I preferl. to quote 'from his,charming picture of Sydney Harbour. "Sydney":—

Up, for the Orient sun smiles throngh the Gate: Without, two white-winged 'cruisers wheel and wait, , As from the North Head's rugged profile flung,. . See, jets-of flying spume•• as pale as Hate. The towering wave flings high her fringe of snow. Up . .. '.'gainst the sombre' rock and to and fro, Sends loops of seething foam athwart thf / : blue, ■ Which, circling,.: shade the • emerald : undertow j Isles, harbour isles, ;Tose-saffroa .the

snn- ::..; - ;■'■''' ,i: - .• : And. niany a'jutting be- '• gun l '\ ' With joyous smiles beams fondly on the .. bay. And all the rills and rivers as they run Fair cove (whero once a,, farm) with.

.crescent .beach.- . . / ■ . V;,. .Of, gracious contour, gently'curving reach, Dark woods that seaward dip,- with dap-' . pied shade ' ■ . And - sandstone ledges; in the sun that ■-'. bleach,: At anchor here in conscious majesty., - A saucy , frigates-masts that, pierce ... the

sSy.' •■; - , :■ .- ■;'' With-grinning guns in'tiers, and nettings white, And flags and pennants,- wrinkling as. they ... flj"..■■• The price of Mr. M'Crae's book, very dainty, printed,, in Ted and black, is 2s.

The war has brought forth a Ticli crop of anthologies, but there was I still room and a warm welcome for a' n'ew'ieditioh of- Mr. . Christopher. 'Stone's'■''excellent, compilation of war verse, "War first published in 1908. '. Mr. Stone has gone far back in English literature, for his. songs .of fighting and 'fighting men, for his'first ballad tells of the gallant deeds of certain

Skottesoutof Berwick and of. Abirdone, who fought at Bannockburn. From the Border Ballads he " makes his way through the ■ chronicles of British valour at Agincourt.to,, those of the Com--mcnwealtli .; wars, and ■so on to the Jacobite ballads, and. to the time of Queen Ann's "Kecruiting Officer, or The Merry Volunteers," the first stanza of which reads:

Hark! now the : Drums beat up again, For all true soldiera gentlemen. Then let us list, and march, I say, Over the, hills and far away; : - Over the'hills and o'er the main

To ilanders, Portugal, and Spain, Queen Ann commands and we'll obey, Over the hills and far away.

. Ma'ny old favourites are included in the collection, which closes with Sir Francis Hastings Doyle's ."Bed Thread of Honour." I General Sir. Lan Hamilton, himself no mean trifler ivith the Museas I: showed a week or two ago—contributes an interesting introduction, iu which he says—he was writing this in 1908! —that our men, "although ■ lukewarm, as compared tfith German or RusBian: troops, about singing themselves, are always glad—eager, .indeed, would ,bo' the better word—to' listen to the singing of others."-'But the British Army 'of; -1914t1915 has learnt_;how' to sing itself. . It' may bo; that its songs may offend, the highly aesthetic and "Kultured literary tastes of' the Professcren," who have alternately wondered and sneered' 'at' the tuneful; "Epperary."- But it matters little what our [ads sing, so long as it is a good marching song, and, after all, "Tipperary," for all its banality, has filled the bill remarkably well. This latest Oxford I'ross_ reprint is beautifully presented, and is wonderfully : cheap at a shilling (N.Z., Is. 3d.). ...