VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 20012, 28 October 1926, Page 6

VAGRANT VERSE

THE ORETI ANTHOLOGY. (Written for the Southland Tunes.) 49.—1. M. (Sir James Carroll.) Part IV. Does the man matter at all beside the race Which goes on and on into the centuries With any individual no more than a rippie On the tideless ocean of humanity? But when the man is magnificent Lifting his mountain-like personality Beyond the trodden slopes of everyday; When he expresses his race nobly, Finding truth in all of its uncertainties, And poetry in every line of its prose, Whispering beauty to its careless ear, What then should be his heroic place? Should it be poet ? No, not at all, Because the poet Is always an idler Who plays carelessly with words, Like a child rolling balls on a floor Captivated by their colour and sound. Should it be seer? No, no such one, Because a seer often makes mistakes. And regards himself too seriously, Always lacking a sense of humour. But let your great man Be first of all an ornament, And nothing else afterwards, Then his decorative qualities Shall prove interpretative, And glow grandly into the prophetic. Standing on his tall pedestal He becomes a national mirror Where each man sees himself Raised to a height of dignity, And can say: “Look, he was of my nee, We,, after all, are the chosen people!” And so a chief’s death is not loas, It means something significant, A fixed starting point Down the long road of immortal fame, Adding a new picture to the gallery Of the conquering race; Raising a white monument At the busy street comer; Placing another book on the shelves, And giving a rare legend to the country, And to a particular age; His face must be sculptured in marble, And painted on canvas, As often as artists wish to pay tribute; His life muM be written about By historians and journalists, And his name sung by the poets, While his personality, his appeal, Shall be analysed by a vendibrist. No end of work for considered interpreter*— A great man, our own great man, Our most symmetrical and i>eraonable ornament, Ourselves as we would like to be, Out of the drab and dreary centuries, A picturesque person of our own blood That still appeals to the English. —■Southerner. Invercargill October 27.