Book Notice

Southland Times, Issue 18063, 5 February 1903, Page 3

Book Notice

Bio Grande'a last Bace, and other verses. By A. B. Paterson. Sydney, Angus and Robertson. Ail lovers of Australian poetry will be glad to welcome the second edition ol " Banjo " Paterson's last volume. Like its predecessors, it is full ot local colour —the sense ol the open-air, of wide horizons, of sun baked earth and shimmerV ing atmosphere, and the spicy scent of the blue gums. The verses are always mUsical, and sometimes riso to the dignity of true poetry. The first poem of the series is a fine example oi tho realism with which " Banjo" I\\*._rson can treat the world of the jockey nnd the race-course, at the same lime throwing i over It something of poetic glamour — " the light that never was on land or sea." For the reckless rider, Macpher- \ son has dreamed a dream by which he knows that he will never ride again. ' Yet he mounts undaunted for the last time : » " For I must ride the dead men's race And follow their command, J T'were worse than death, lhe foul j

disgrace, Tf I should fail to take my plac* Torday, on Rio Grande."

As he rides, the phantoms of the dead ride beside him, and at the great Stone Wall be meets his doom, as he had done in his dream ride on Rio Grande : '

■y-? He never flinched, he faced it V-" .'game ..'"■.■- - 77 He struck it with his chest.

Aiid; every stone burst out in (lame. And Rio Grande and I l-ecam* As phantoms with the rest." A very vivid picture of the drought is given us in " With the Cattle," the melancholy setting out to try to save the. stock— "For it's weary workl is droving when they're dying every day" — followed by the joyous return home aft«r the welcome fain. •"-

- In " The First Surveyor" we have the reflections of the widow of the early settler, at the time of the opening of the railway line, when the whole township, is ringing with the praises of the engineer who built the line. Perhaps

he does deserve some credit—

"For after all he took the track, the

"same my. husband blazed."

Of a different kind is the ballad of "Kattzo Makame, ' the div<fr, stury and small- Japanee.' '

"This was his formula always, ' All

men go dead by and bye S'ppsing time -come no can help it,— s'pose time nd come, then no die/ "

tfhe- *_ Song of the Federation" reaches . a high level, of : _vure poetry ; thoroughly characteristic is. "*The Old Australian Ways/,- V '

' "For- yalT our roads are rew on.ci ■ strange, " : -\- : v Andythrbugh our blood there runs love of change, : "-" : T Hat ' drovf*- us westward of the • grange, ;■■---■ - „-- -; And westward of the suns."'

Of the 'war pieces which form lhe last part df the volume, perhaps the most stirring is "With French to Kimberley." while the seamy side of veldt life is represented by "On the Trek" i>.nd "Fed Up."

"Jt 7 ain't a : timid man at all, I'm just as brave as most, I'll take my chance in open light, an«l die beside, my post ; But riding round the 'ole day long as target for a Krupp, , A-drawing .fire from Koppies— well I'm ■ -/air fed tip."