VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 22159, 30 October 1933, Page 6

VAGRANT VERSE

THE ORETI ANTHOLOGY. 523.—Changeless. (Written for the Southland Times.) Davies is changeless, years do not Drive his muse into heavy thought, He sings to-day as first he did Before his work was ever bought. Before his name became a call To simple things, before he was Held up as one who rose to heights By merely claiming no great cause. But sticking to his fields and flowers, His beasts and birds. A humble tramp He walked right into busy hours, And suffered from a writer’s cramp. Quite changeless he, but others grew, And critics who were boys at school When he began, won’t have his brew, And write him down as half a fool. For these want growth, and something new, With fresh ground broken, shaking earth And heaven to satisfy a few , Highbrows, who wait a new poet s birth. —Southerner. Invercargill, October 30, 1933. Note: A recent book of Davies was shortly noticed in The Times (London) Books and Reprint columns. The reviewer was quite non-committal. Fifteen years ago Davies would have had half a column prominently displayed. So fashions change, even in verse.

Seven teeth, sin. long, and 3m. wide, still remain in the skull of an hitherto unknown prehistoric animal recently dug up in Portugal.