Musings AND Meditations

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 7, 12 August 1908, Page 2

Musings AND Meditations

By

Dog Toby

AUSTRALIAN VERSE.

I HAVE before me two anthologies, the one of Australian and the other of New Zealand verse. In many respects they are. alike, and yet there is a subtle difference eminently characteristic of the genius of th<i two countries. They are both deficient in the highest graces of language and versification; both are wofully prosaic at times; and there are few lines that linger in the memory and eharm alike the ear-and the mind. Nor is there much originality of thought. Most of the poems are descriptive, sometimes very pretty, and occasionally showing signs of vigour; but there is little of sentiment or reflection in either volume. The poems belong almost entirely to the class known as minor poetry. <S> <•> <£> But it is ungracious and ungenerous to look for faults in the literature of young and growing countries; rather would one seek to trace signs of a beginning of a national literature. The Australian Anthology is small, and one misses many pieces one would willingly have seen included. It is a pity the compiler did not aim at making it representative of poetry exclusively Australian in spirit, instead of selecting so many pieces obviously' moulded on English lines. For the real Australian verse is the - verse of the bush, the ringing ballads that describe the humour, the" daring, the loneliness and the pathos of a life as lived iii the wilds of the “Ncve'r-' never.” If it is not poetry, in the highest sense of the is strong and'virile’ ballad worth a dozen of the sentimental pieces included under that name in many latter-day' English publications. Pat-, erson’s “Man from Snowy River,” and “Pardon the Son of Reprieve” are eminently worthy of inclusion in any representative collection of Australian verse,' and his poem “Only a Jockey,” strikes' the true note of invective pathos. ’ The dosing lines—- “ Knew he God’s name? In his brutal profanity' That name was an oath —out of many but’one—• What did he get from Our famed Christianity? ’ Where has his soul —if he had any—•’ gone ?’ “Fourteen years old. and what was he taught of it? What did he know’ of God's infinite grace ? Draw the dark curtain of shame o'er the thought of it. Draw the shroud over the jockey boy's’ face.” compare not unfavourably, both in sentiment and language, with Hood's poem, “The Bridge of Sighs.” s►s><?>. Lawson's.poetry is so unequal that lip, needs careful selection to bring out and rescue his best wprk from the amount of very' indifferent stuff in whielf it lies buried. His ballads cannot be compared to Gordon's or Paterson’s. His would-be humorous pieces are like most of such .efforts; they’ move us to sadness at the thought of effort misapplied rather than to laughter by their wit. For jf it be true'that -brevity -is -the-, soul, of wit, it is obvious that long poems can seldom be made a good vehicle for humour. But Lawson'has written a few really good pieces, and these stated almost alone of their kind in Australian literature. There are two poems especially which have always seemed to me peculiarly worthy of preservation in the best anthologies of our national poetry ■ —the lines “To Hannah” and “Tb 4 Reparation.” They are both truly lyrio in tone, and the lyric touch is sadly missing in most Australian verse. Short as they are, space forbids my giving more

than one verse from each.- The poem “To Hannah” concludes with these lines: Spirit girl, the good is in me, But the flesh, you know, is weak, And with no pure soul to win me, I might miss the path I seek; Lead me by the love you bore me, When yon trod the earth with me, Till the light- is clear before me,' And my spirit, too, is free. © © © The following lines occur in the piece entitled “The Separation”: But still when all seems lost on earth, Then Heaven sets a sign—Kneel down beside your lonely bed, And I will kneel by mine; And let us pray for happy days, Like those of long ago, Ah! had we knelt together then, We had not parted so. With these two pieces one is tempted, to class the same writer’s “The Christ of the Nover Land,” the “Rough Link 'TwiXt the Bushman and God.” © © © These and many others one misses from Mr.. Bertram Stevens’, other wise excellent little anthology’. Many of the poems included exhibit considerable skill in versification, eveh when there is not much poetic sentiment.' ' A good example of this may be footed in Ethel Tur-' ner’s: lines' to a Rainbow: Oh, if that rainbow up there, Just for a moment would reach, Through the wet slope of the air, Here where I stand on the beach. Here where the waves wash the strand, Swing itself lovingly low 1 , Lpt. me .catch, fast with one hand, Climb . its frail rigging . and go. Two sonnets by Bernard O’Dowd recall something ofl Rossetti’s style and language, and not a little of,his. slightly unintelligible mysticism. Indeed, one may say that most of the shorter pieces have been suggested by others written by English poets. The ballads are the most purely Australian. It is difficult, however, to believe that this form of verse’ represents the ultimate trend of Australian poetry. It is the necessary beginning of literature ■in most young nations, but one looks for something better to follow. What will that something” better be? This question I feel I can best leave till next time, when I hope to say a few words on our New Zealand poems,’ and to explain why it seems to me that New Zealand has' struck a more lasting - note than Australia. ” .