SOME NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 17

SOME NEW ZEALAND VERSE.

By B. E. Bauchan.

"Poems from the Port ffilla." By B. E. Baughan ChristiWh : Whitcombe and Tombs. Miss Baughan'» graceful writings and, at time, .forceful verse are well known to New Zealand readers. In this' little volume she has revealed her somewhat mystical tendencies,. and the whole of her work is intensely interesting and intimate. She is very simple, easy for any readers to understand. In some of her verse m this collection there i s a note of sadness, but if it begins in the minor, of these. It Ullf of * young a» a who

has made ajalse step in life. He does not whine, he does not attempt to palhate his offence, but he very naturally accepts the tender sympathy of his mother. He understands that she can fully realise his position, for she confesses ; .

"Son! Herj are two of us, sinn-rs! You know, for I have not conceal'd it— Sama, or. ring, I nover. have had. But now, I must toll, and you listen! My friend I robb'd of her mate; to his lust . I dellver'd my love; And you I hrought into the world, unfather'd. and by me mother'd— '

Crippled before the race. 0 boy I have bien through it all-all. '

Then the poor woman opens her soul to her son, and he,' on reflection, comes to himself, determines to play the man Rising up from the grass by the rock where he has been brooding on his sorrow, he exclaims with a new tone in his voice:

. - . "Mother! Your way is mine. Please God. I'll be better for sinning!" he said.

Then, as she sprang to him swiftly, " But 0 Mother! 0 Mother! ' If you'd not been down in the depths, I could have neyer come up!" Now the snows were a march of kings, and the sea was a glass of glory Halo'd with rose was the plain, and robed in royalest purplej The biU-top glow'd, and rays from the deepdown city windows ,

Flash'd through the shining mist like triumph from tear-flll'd eyes.

Miss Baughan has a keen eye for the beautiful in the sea, the mountains, and the land of her beloved Canterbury, and she is observant too, mixing her words and sentences to express herself in the terms of the conscientious and capable artist. Thus, in •"Beauty for Ashes," she meditates upon the beauty of the land and sea and their meaning to her:

O Master-Arti6l! when Wilt Thou enlarge Thy poor man-creature's kea? When i wilt Thou judge him worthy, ripe to teach,

And useful to be taught, The truth of Thine emblazon'd Naturespeech, And through Thy Painting to perceive Thy Thought? . • J Ah, not more light—abundant here Thy light!— But, I beseech Thee, lord, more sight, more sight! ■

The verse of Miss Baughan possesses many desirable qualities, and she draws her inspiration from the land she loves so well, and of which she sings so sweet*y- .. .. .