THE POEMS OF WILL LAWSON.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2378, 6 February 1915, Page 4

THE POEMS OF WILL LAWSON.

Mr. Will Lawson, the author of ''The Three Kings, and Other Verse" (Angus and Robertson), is well known in the Dominion, where he has a host of friends, who will join me in welcomes » volume of his collected verso. Whilst there are not a few sets of verses in the volume which can scarcely claim to be considered poetry, thero are others in which thoughts of much virility and depth are enshrined in I truly graceful lines, well worthy to be classed as belonging to the highest form of verse. The title poem, for instance, "The Three Kings," perhaps Mr. Lawson's best known and most popular effort, and tho stately, dignified "Tasman's Ships," are very little short of tho Alfred Noyes and Henry Nowbolfc standard of sea-verse, and one or two of tho latter poems have a fine lyrical touch. It is, however, in his songs of steamers and locomotives that | Mr. _ Lawson is, so the majority of his admirers will consider, at his best. CorI tainly there is something very fascinating in the easy lilt of such verses as those entitled "On the Hill,"- -with their catchy refrain: A-stamping up the Paikok with thirty wagons on; A-tramping up the Paikok when air and daylight's gone. And just the roaring funnel A-thrashing in tho tunnel, A-singing up the Paikok with just your trousers on. . . . Or, in contrast with later railway days, the lines entitled "The Old Ngahauranga Koad," the last Btanza of which runs: The big boys' hoofs are ringing dear— They're pulling all they know; Old Dan can just hang on and etear, And let the beggars go. No frettin? thong is on their hides, No rough hand on the rein; They'll pull, and pull, with foaming sides, And pull and pull again. Song mingles with the sound of wheels, Ascending to the stars, The high coach pitches, sways and reels With clashing swingle-bars, " Who cares for debts unpaid, and owed— If wool be high or low? We're on the old Ngahauranga Road— \ Ho! Let the beauties go! Some of the later verses have an Australian 1 setting, and Mr. Lawson is, I notice, so determinedly up to date that he gives us a "Song of the Air," deserting his once much-beloved "bull Yank" engines and fast liners to chant the wonders of an airship service. As thus: The liner drives with her head to sea, And her wild screws kicking high ; Tho fast express was a thing to sco At night, in the years gone by. But these be slow and tardy things. And scorned by men who fly On ships that rise on poised wings, And beat their hearts in the 6ky. . Lifting up on the planes that moan with the strain of the awful speed; We are the lords of the h'gher zone— Oh, men of the earth, take heed. This new edition of Mr. Lawson's verses 6hould, and I trust, will have a large sale. A photogravure portrait of the author is welcome. (Price 3s. 6d.)