BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2914, 28 October 1916, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

'"The Australian" and Other Verses. Of'all the numerous band of clever verse-makers commonly known as "The Bulletin School," Mr. Will H. Ogilvie, whose "Fair Girls and Gray Horses" and "Hearts of Gold" have found so many admirers\in New Zealand, is easily my favourite. Mr. 'Ogilvie's miuso is so gay, so debonnair, so laudably free from that curious pessimism morbidity—by which so many Australian poets have been affected—so eminently wholesome,.alike of mind and language, that his verse cannot fail to .fascinate those who, like "Liber," prefer the bright colour of life to its occasional drabs and dismal grays'. He is such a ■cheerful poet! Of lato'years.Mr. Ogilvie has lived in his native Scotland, and has had his verses accepted by Jiome magazines and journals of high Jiterary .reputation. In his latest book of poems, "The Australian and Utner Verses" (Angus and Itobertson ; B r J- P- Shand, Limited. Cuba Street, i\\ elhngton), Mr. Ogilvie gives us a selection from his best work of these date years.' Many of the verses deal •mth tho war, others with English and boots life and scenery, and there is .also a welcome besprinkling of purely .Australian themes. All the poems are roploto with the same metrical charm ynicn the author displayed in his earner productions.'. _ The title poem, "llie Australian," lirst appeared in "Punch," and attracted much attention, being widely reproduced in the English Press. It was suggested by a sentence taken trom.n British officer's letter from the irtat in which the Australian, soldier Vas hailed as "The bravest thins God fever made." We in New ZeaW/who iknow only too well,that men from this country shared in the bravery which "won the Australians their fame, might ESf er . that the .poem nad been, headed ihe Australasian," but let that pass. 1 quote the first, and two final verses of Mr. Ogilvie's eloquent and stirring poem m honour of his—and our—fel-Jow-countrymen

fThe skies that arched his land were blue, . ■ ■ His bush-bo'rri winds were warrn and sweet, A nl 7 ?. A OOI earliest hours he know the, tides of victory and defeat. irom fierce floods thundering at. his birth," ••--.. ■ Prom fed droughts ravening while he played, : He learned to fear no foes on earth,' ' The bravest thing: God .over made." ■ iWo know—it is our deathless pride!— The splendour of his first fierce blow; How, reckless, glorious, umdenied, He stormed those steel-lined cliffs we know! - .- . : And none' who saw him scale the height Behind his reeking bayonet-blade, Would rob him of his title-right— "The bravest thing God ever made!" Bravest, where half a world of men Are bravo beyond all earth's rewards, So stontly none shall charge again Till the last breaking of the sword ; , • Wounded or hale, won herefrom war, . Or yonder by tho Lonb Pine laid, Give him- his due for eyermore, 'The bravest thing God ever made!"

Amongst the many poems dealing with war,subjects, "Remounts,"—Ogilvie is always ;at his best'when he sings of horses—and , "Tho, Ladios From Hell"' seem to me the most effective. The ourious title of tho last-mentioned poem was. suggested by tho German Jiicknamo for tho Highlanders, the "ladies from hell." Hero are two sample verses:

The battle sways backward and forward In .wedges and hollows and curves A hard-pressed battalion is /yielding, A. loader has called for rciserves. Hark! Drone of pipes in the distance. That grows to a soul-stirring 6well! Brown-skirled, with bonnets a-bobbing, Come up the gay Ladies from Hell!

Our foes have made war upon women By dastardly choice ojf their own. The daughters of Belgium are weeping, The mothers of Flanders make moan. Ho! Slayers of maids and of mothers, Do your bayonets servo you as well When you're called to stand in the open ; And face'the grim Ladies fromHoll?

Living, though, as, he has now done these many years in his native Scotland, the poet retains all his old passionate affection for that "Sunny Country," wherein he spent so many happy years. of- youth and "earlier manhood...--Nothing.-...- -has ; dimmed, that intense- fascination - in- which the . mysterious' " charm of the Bush , holds - - spellbound .all who know it. intimately.-One of the most ■beautiful poems in -the book, to 'my mind at least, is that, in which he depicts the varied emotion caused by his finding- a gum leaf in a letter: . "A Leaf From Macquarie'is the titleA gum leaf from Waneh, all withered and brown, < Fluttered out from.a letter to-day, 'And my heart has'gone back whero Macquarie winds down By dusty red stock-route and sleepy grey town, Between banks the river oaks sway.

Tho far-travelled sheep lio at rest in the bend, And the c;(mp-fire gleams red to tho _, sky. . - The shadows creep round us, and day's at an end, And the gum trees lean down to us friend unto friend, ! •"'..' As the night-winds go muirmuring by.

'Aye! And those of us holding lono watch in the night, Have we ever looked upward in vain, ao the magic brown branches that 'trellis the- blue IWhere the stars of our comfort look hopefully through, . Giving strength for tho battlo again.

Ik leaf from Macquario! My heart's on the road

With a mob'yarded out of the years! No higher-prized gift could a hand havo ~ bestowed ".".*" Than'this withered brown leaf, with its mystical load Of old laughter, old labour, and toars! But Mr. Ogilvio can write just as .well on a Scots or English theme as on a subject taken from tho land of his carlior love, I would fain quote from his "Sheep Country," a poom of the Scots moorland, but space forbids. I feel compeller, however, to givo two or three stanzas bom a singularly successful set of verses. "Tho Signpost," one of those mile posts which stand at the corners of so many English lanes: Onmy green grass plot I stand aloof Where the lour white roads have met, 'And I hear the tap of the coacher's hoof And the hum of the landaulette. I point the road with a stretching arm, _And the talo of the miles I tell Ho duke.and squire, and man of the farm, And tattered tramp as well.

, I am friend of the gipsies, maid and ■ man, And the horse with the broken knees, iAnd the lurcher dog,, and the caravan, And the camp fire under the trees; The children wild as a woodland fawn, The girl with the loose black hair— % have sped them all. at the grey of the dawn, Down the road to Lipcomb fair. She roads are white, and the roads are brown,

—James Thomson,

And tho roses .bloom and die; Tho oak-buds break and the leaves come down, '

But apart and aloof am I. The wheels may come and the wheelß may goj ■ . With the moods of the changing year, But white with the dustjjr white with snow, ' I stand at the cross roads here.

As for the refrain, Hilaire Belloc himself, with all his genius for investing English country-side nomenclature with poetical charm, has never bettered tho alluring lilt of lines like these: 111 snow ydu the way to Lythamstoke, I'll show you the'way to Sheen, the road that takes you to Burton's Oak, And tho Toadto Tyndal Green; And if you're looking for Foldingfleet, . Or Lipcomb or Lilfordlea, Ton have only to stand where the four roads meet

And ask of the way from me!

By all means let those who love good, stirring, wholesome toned verse, mako acquaintance with Mr. Ogilvie's latest poems. A colcicd. frontispiece and a title page drawing, also in colour, by •il ®j*' aTG itt admirable keeping with tho character of the,verse to which they serve as a pictorial prelude. (Price

The Voyages of tho Morning. Belated. ( though be its appearance, there shquld be many New zealanders who win welcome Captain Uerald fci. JJoorJe/8 book/ "The Voyages of,the Morning/ recently published in London, and. for the loan of a copy of which 1 am indebted to a friena. The Morning, it may bo remembered, was Che relief ship which made two voyages to carry aid to the first Antarctic expedition led by the late Captain Scott m the Discovery. * The scientiiic data secured during the stay in the south—on her first trip she was many, months ice-bound—has all been dealt with in detail in other books. Captain Dborley's narrative dwells mor* upon the human side of the ex-,' pedition, the personal experiences of the commander and Jiis officers in that grim and repelling region which they [ail aeem to have been so determined to consider as the most cheerful of places. Not the least interesting feature of the book is the series of nappily-drawn character sketches of Scott himself and such men as Shackleton and Seamen ivans and Lashby. Also, the book is rich in quiet but effective humour.

11 is evident therefrom that a' sojourn in the Antarctic makes for a genial and sincero camaraderie. It is at once a pleasantly readable and instructive narative whioh,Captain Doorley gives his readers. In addition to many excellent illustrations, the book contains the words and music of "South-

ward" and "The Ice King,".two stirring, songs written and composed by the author, who was a junior officer in the/expedition, the Morning being commanded by Captain William Colbeck, R.N. Captain Doorley's book well deserves a place in every library in which there is a: special shelf for books on Antarctic exploration. (N.Z. price 7s. 6d.) " •