MATURE VERSE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 23

MATURE VERSE

Professor Arnold Wall And Mr. Alan Mulgan “Theme and Variations,” by Arnold Wall (Ohristchurcb.: Whitcomb© and Tombs) ; “Aldebaran and Other Verses,” by Alan Mulgan Christchurch: Caxton Press). The manner of its presentation alone makes “Theme and Variations a valuable contribution to the Dominion’s literature. The decorations oy Valerie Gould have interpreted the theme and the moods of the variations in perfect harmony with the author’s literary expression. Mr. Mulgan’s book of verses makes pleasant reading, and “Aldebaran” is similar to Professor Wall’s work in its aspect, though the treatment is completely different. Mr. Mulgan gazes at the stars and writes a poem of wonder at the size and order of the external universe. Professdr Wall’s chromosomes are the opposite approach to the wonder of being. Both are effective and marked by maturity of thought and craftsmanship. Here is Professor Wall’s “Theme :

I lie at life's heart, > am in nerve and brain, I am the secret thing. I am whole. 1 am part. I am in beast and man, In cell, in plant and tree, In leaf, in limb, in wing. I am the pattern and the plan. All tliat has been and shall be Through me again, The breathing universe is mine. And what. I am I am by right divine. The page on which that is presented is decorated with cells, chromosomes, symbolic planetary systems, and the shape of man in a blaze of light, and the illustrations change as the variations develop the theme in the chronological order of evolution. I is first found “In primal ocean floating- free, "A point of sheer translucency, and Variation It leads to vegetable growth." This variation is the best from the point of view of verse, though it is hard to make a distinction as the sustained maturity of thought and expression in the whole work make the component parts a smooth progression. Variation II commences:— Her millions mist the woods and banks

of spring , ~ Outrunning far the laggard oak and thorn, While yet the black north-easters thrum and sing In the beech-branches barren and torloin,

and proceeds in a mood of timeless and wonderful intricacy of evolution, till Variation 111 changes mood and form to the surge of the blood.

His blood is a surge of glory, his eye a ball of flaine His running is smooth and swift as a cloud-shadow over the lawn, Supple as cane and strong as steel is his arrowy frame, As he leads his mares afield in the grey of the young dawn.

Then there is Man, “Shaggy, knuckled, and nailed like an ape, with jutting brow and jaw.” . Again the mood changes, the words are rough and brittle, and the action fast as the fifth variation reaches the complexity of modern civilisation and ends: —

Ages ago in the plains of Ind Buddah would find a master key. Christ and Plato and Socrates all had keys to the mystery, In vain they strove, strained and fought with currents of thoughts, eddies of will, They cast their plummets in soundless deeps the casket keeps my secret still.

Mr. Mulgan’s music in “Aldebaran” may be found in the concluding lines:

On to the road again Aldebaran; What’s over the hill we cannot scan, As we march, march, to a jumble — The thunderous rumble . Of Orion striding with sworded thigh Trailing his scabbard across the sky: Your own sharp note on drum of steel, The hum of Sirius’s fiery wheel: And the niuted strings of the fireside song, Wood-smoke beauty drifting along. Aldebaran, baran. baran; Meadows sweet, Primrose. Hebrides; Kowhai, Sirius. Moana, miro, Aldebaran, Wainui, riro, Riro .... riro .... riro; Aldebaran. Aldebaran, Do we march to your plan?

Of the other poems, “Preference,'’ “Success” and “Above the Town aie sensitive and reveal an achieved acceptance of life that does not cry out against “The Laws of God, the laws of Man.” They are all marked by significant emotion. An economy of utterance, reminiscent of A. E. Housman, is revealed in “Above the Town.”

When hearts are slow and hearths are warm, And we sit nodding by the blaze. Too old to challenge shine or storm With vigour of departed days. We shall remember, like a face Clear in the swirl of perished hours, The simple glory of that place The hills, the sea, the untilled flowers.