A Tribute to a New Zealand Woman Poet.

White Ribbon, Volume 12, Issue 141, 13 February 1907, Page 10

A Tribute to a New Zealand Woman Poet.

rhe Editor of This Whitk Rihiion feels assured that readers will be interested in the subjoined poem, written by Miss Jessie Mackay, and tin* critique thereon which appeared in The fiuokfelloii' of January l()th :

1 cairn* to your town, my love, And you wore away, away! 1 said “ She is with the Queen’s maidens : I’hev tarry lung at their play. They are stringing her words like pearls To throw to the dukes and earls ” But O, the pity ! 1 had hut a morn of windy red To come to the town where you weie bred, And you were away, away '

I came to your town, my love, And you were away, away ! 1 said “ She is with the mountain elves, And misty and fair as they. They are spinning a diamond net To cover tier curls of jet.” But 0, the pity ! I had but a noon of searing heat To come to your town, my love, my sweet, And you were away, away !

1 came to your town, my love, And you were away, away ! 1 said. “ She is with the pale white saints. And they tarry long to pray They give her a white lily Town And l fear she will never come down.” But 0, the pity ! I had but an even grey and wan To come to your town and plead as a mar. And you were away, away '

“That is the lincst poem that has come out of New Zealand : it is line essentially. Not Hawless; not to be praised beyond its desert. Hut the thrill of it is Sappho’s, with whatever modern attenuation : there is the same cry, the same vibration through ascending and extending circles of emotion lost at last in tingling ecstasy. And accompanying and following come the undertones of the verse itself, the specific form of the verse, a mortal wedded to an adumbration of divinitv. How naturally it is said-! how easily it is sung! and how hardly one may match it. The author herself has never matched it. never will match Its quality is discernible in other of her poems, but no other of them is so free from dross, goes so spontaneously soaring.”