The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1908. A NEW ZEALAND POETESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13685, 29 August 1908, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1908. A NEW ZEALAND POETESS.

We received sumo while ago a volume of versa, entitled "Shingle Shod-, and Other Poem*," by B- E. Baughan, .in authoress 'already well known us a- contributor to several English magazines, and to Uio recently published anthology uf New Zealand! verse edited by A. E. (Jams and W. F. Alexander. This volume is one which places tlic conscientious critic in a difficult position. Destructive criticism of ithe works of even the very greatest writers, the literary giants of our time, is fatally easy,' even though the fame and genius of the criticised should far transcend and long outlive the effect of the port buzzing and irritating sting of that literary gadfly, the press critic. Kasy, too, though not so easy as destructive criticism, is the task of the man who sets out with the idea of making « flattering appreciation of meaiocnty or even of that which falls below mediocrity. Fashion, personal taste or prejudice, over-minuteness orovcrvaguenass of view, all combine to; determine the critic's standpoint/; and the critic who is possessed of absolute abstract fairness, may bo classed with the Lost Chord, the Missing Link, and the Fourth Dimension, in, the category of things and! persons undiscovered 1 . But criticism is invited', courted, and' sometimes vtalued, so the poor critic must do his best. The difficult position, referred! to above, is brought about by this: that B. E. Baughan's verses give the critic very few chances for enthusiastic praise or marked blame. There are no "purple patches " to ii>so iv well-worn great and striking beauty, such. as ', are found; ; very often in the lines of : far anterior writes,; and there are none of those lapses into utter trash of which even greater -writers have been guilty. The main faults, if fault must be found', in the writer, are a want of compression, of condensation, especially in the drawing of word-pictures. She is too verbose, too- fond of elaborating and piling wordl on word; iu addition to 'this there is an overdoing of; local colour, which, however, is a fault which the writer lias in common with many of our New Zealand writers. An example will suffice:

"O Malai, O Maire, Totara, Kimu, Mossrhiing, fern-footfed Leaning towards me your burdens of kie-kie." Tire occurs in thepeem "Burnt Bush"— a, poeni which.must needs invite unfavourable comparison with, the simple dignity and eloquent pathos of William Peinber Reeves's "The Passing of the Forest." Another fault .which the- captious critia may perhaps find! is one which is the cuicio of the present: age—namely, the forsaking of simplicity of expression and diction in the struggle for originality. An example or two may be quoted:— .■Peopled' the air,was'. Pulsing the gloom! Presences alien, undescried, flitting-. Farut'd lue with hosts of impaloxiile pinions, Knock'd at the gates of my sense, but not enter'd. Up from the darkness, clear came his meaning, •••' And, ■listening',' the heart of mo heard. But tile authoress has undoubted, ability. "Shingle Short" itself is ■. reminiscent of Browning—it has, indeed, been compared with his "Caliban upon. Setebos," and such a comparison is high praise, although one is templed to warn all • followers of! Browning, that his style is a dangerous one for any f minor poet to attempt. In ".Gathering- Peachui," too, there is much homely pathos, without .my ti'ace 6f the morbid'. But alas! the authoress lias' contributed to our New Zealand Parnassus the customary quota of '"Bush Meditations." ..One. does read so many enthusiastically sententious poems of this kind, overburdened with Maori names ■and (epithets, until one realty "cannot 1 see the forest for this trees." " The Paddock,": too, is over), long, though it contains; iniuny. betiiUlifuM fpasstigcs.. "The Eternal Childreii," 'though marred by .'too great an exuberance of diction by over alliteration, and by « certain restless enthusiasm almost amounting to "gush," has many little word-pictures, which give promise of Uelltor tilings. This is, of necessity, but ;».' scanty patchwork, criticism, bub enough .lias been s«.id! to put before our readers 'the chief characteristics of, the work of one of our latest, writers. One cannot expect supreme excellence in it—we live in an ago of world-wide literary mediocrity, and no ' mighty sun has yet arisen on our night, to pale the multitudes of little ,sta(rs .hi whose light we walk, hoping for better things. But-we can say, at ; the, least; that the poeoi.b before us ha.ve a definite place, if not the highest, at: all events very "far from the lowest,, in Australasian literature, "and. that, witli greater, atten-. tion to artistic a-estraint ond dignity, ..the authoress may yet produce work which will bring Qier into the firSli rank;