AUSTRALIAN WRITERS AND BLANK VERSE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 45

AUSTRALIAN WRITERS AND BLANK VERSE.

"The Bookfellow," an admirable little brochure, printed in Sydney, and published monthly, has tho following reference to a young New Zealander: — Very few of the many Australian writers try blank verse ; and considerable interest attaches to the poems in that metre which will bo included in Arthur Adams's forthcoming" book. One. piece, entitled," " The BraveDays to Be," looks forward to the triumph of Maoriland in the far future — . • The culminating noon, the crown Of Time, to which oui leadero rudely' husked 4 But kernel led with a rich humanity, Had won their way. By this time the greatness of Britain was s| mere memory. Spent with mighty pasts her coil. And sodden with a hundred histories, Her old frame enervated with the pangs Of bearing progenies of giant men Who shackled the careering centuries To one small island's nanie. The poet dilates on the contrasting greatness of Maoriland, saddened only by the decadence of tho race which gave it name. The fine closing lines rise to the height of the subject. But alas, Over the isles a whispered story went — A memory of vague laughter and of life Irrevocably mute, for ever mourned. From his high place the Maori, the untamed Brown, sturdy efflorescence of the isles, Had fallen.

Nevermore the warriors Superb in pride of kingly thews, with spear And murdering mere through the shrinking land, Imperiously strode; or with the tune Of even-plashing paddles woke to life The silent reaches of the calm fiord-seas. Ancl nevermore through nights perfumed witK love Lay Hinemoa hidden, listening, Amid the prattle of the troubled reeds, » And heard across the lake the flute-song'^ swell — The token that Tutanekai was true. 4t£is race had lapsed, the Maori withering In too luxurious a land of peace, And pining, like a frail transplanted flower, For those strong, bracing winds of lust and war That were his life. Stifled in summer calm, He should have died in harness, fighting still j Hurling against the changing tide o£ things A word for endless war: like Itewi, when Erect amid the remnants of his tribe, Looming titanic o'er his ruined world, He stood, and to his white foes' proffered peacel His last defiant challenge proudly flung — "We shall fight on; tlyfere shall -no peace be, made For ever and for evex and for wee I*