UNKNOWN

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 113, 26 November 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

UNKNOWN

ly J. L. R. in the "Scotsman".)

POETRY OF TO-DAY.

ifI&CAL o long that nerves a nation's heart is in itself a deed."

> war that stirs the heart of a na- , more especially a war that insults honour and menaces its 'ndepemlii Hi usually accompanied or fol- *. by an outburst of lyrical emo- , to the enrichment of the nationterature. It is only necessary to ey tor n brief moment or two tne >ry of these islands to realise that is so. Two famous periods—one English, the other in Scottish his—give ready evidence to the fact. defeat of the invincible Amadn vnrrantably so called) was marked ihe glorious literature, essentially a!, of what has come to be known the Elizabethan Age; and tho ibito Risings, but chiefly that of e Forty-F.ve," wero productive, ediately or ultimately, of a wealth [acobite song scarcely inferior in ical value to iac ananymous ballad ctions which arc our inheritance

an indefinite past. Then, in the t recent history of the United ;doms, there was the great outs of literary force, mainly in ■y of a new kind, that succeeded French Revolution, and nccompan:he long wars that led on to the ifall of Napoleon.

| EFFECT OF THE PRESENI' fa WAR.

e present war has not yet, fwa very magnitude of its astounding ice, greatly changed our current iturc, but it has arrested it, and revolutionised many of our ideas; the inevitably vast result is certo become more and more disce.n

n the course of the next few years, i now, with only one year of the •y has already been put forth u behind us, such a body of lyrical y has already been put forth as Ives at least respectful attention. I, indeed mosj, of it is lost —as it )t to be, >n the grave stress of \ eventful days, and in the eager ind for news from the many seals »r, and from the varied methods jirfare operating around us. |e naturally looks to the accredit*

loets of the country—men whose s aro already establ'shed in the s of our contemporary literature some expression of the national g and attitude which the present ms evoked, and though nothing of anding merit, of sufficient force to the acclaim of the entire nation Campbell's "Mariners of Eng- ) or üßattle u ßattle of the Baltic"), has ppeared, the survey is not wholly pointing. It may be that as time. s—and it is passing with a rush ' before experienced in human his--naw names at present unknown lestined to be famous, new voices et heard but sure of an audience, Iwcome recognised as the special distinctive outcome of the great ition upon which we have entered there is not altogether wanting evidence that these harbingers of rat new literary period are now ring on the hor'zon-edge. \i NEW STARS. I names of Robert Bridges (the Laureate), Rndyard Kipling, "WilRVatson, Sir Henry Newbolt, and a Noyes are already well known, neir very different styles well disjshed; but there are also Binyon, [ Grenfell, Nicholls, Maitlana. Brodribb, of whom only a fow ns ago the English-speaking world [little or nothing at all. lew weeks ago a short collection pms born of the present war was [broadcast over the country as .*» pf supplement to one of the le<jdpndon newspapers. It constitute* bd as fair a collection of specimen [ as one would desire to have to? urpose of gauging the depths of e and general character and qualIthe new poetical output. To the 11 pieces are appended names old lonouiable and names new and ■known, the names of those that I them The whole collection, Iring sixteen poems in all, is capIt classification accord : ng to tfi« lents they breathe, and perhaps Iccording to the normal or preL mood of mind of the severu |s, into songs of warning and Istranee, songs of fixed purposelass decidedly prominent—songs If, »nd songs of rejoicing. fcive honour where it is due, the Ktc's lyric must first be noticed—li it is neither the best as a pro|f the poetical art, nor likely to le at all popular with the masses, [istinctly a song of warning, eomIg with the l'nes (which have Jarried everywhere by frequent lion rather than by adoption)—

I 'Thou, careless, awake! 'hi i, peacemaker, fight 1" ling 011 to admonish England to Ue her mirth, her cavil, and 'Tho foe is upon thee, knd grave u the day."

verses, though mainly admoni•onclude with nn expression of n the ultimate triumph of Engt is always England with Mr. 1, the word being probably more it to his ear than Britain.) ch suffering shall cleans thee; t thou through the flood i win to tnlvation, beauty through blood."

UIDY'S SERENE FAITH. las Hardy the veteran novelist's f the Soidiers expresses no less a faith, »nd comes beautifully ie mouth of an old man : our heart of hearts believing tors crowns the just, j that braggarts must ely bite the dust—- , we to the held ungneving, r heart ot hearts believing, tory crowns the just." ig is always melodious; his secsie can be trusted for sound anl lit the force is often weakened ones of signification. His war full of warning:— No easy hope or lies Shall bring us to our goal, ut iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul.' 10 derided."the flannelled fool' P muddled oaf" 111 the fields of does not forbear a l*d"™« if scoru ut the world that hi* n ,vnv, iii wantonness o er- '■' His cull is lor other fields. - M ~11 we have, and are, * mIIouC children's fate, id forth and meet the war; lie Hun in at the gate!' reassuring to know, however, inte of the Germans— they are ~d" and will soon become ' « , e -" but it ic> not British power

1 alone that will drive them, it is a civilised world's resentful resistance to the old pagan doctrine of Might over-rid- - • - < .......

" Once more we hear the word That bicken'd Earth of old—> No law except the sword Unsheathed and uncontroll'd. Once more it knits mankind, Once more the nations go To meet and break and bipd A crazed and driven foe."

Kipling's oracular vagueness appears in the last line of the couplet, and more particularly m the last line of his fine poem: — "Who stands if freedom fall?

Who dies if Lnglana live f" The answers to his questions will puzzle some of my readers, I venture to eayj from my own experience.

BLACKWOOD'S DISCOVERY. Alfred -ioyes, whom Blackwood discovered to the world a few years ago, has Hardy's laith in the final triumph of .right. Bernhardi had declared Unit there J s no person above the" State," and therefore expediency in politics takes tue place ot morality in the individual. But Mr. Noyes believes tht't truth and justice draw from founts of everlasting law. (

"Therefore a Power above the State, The unconquerable Power, returns; The fire, the lire that made us great, Once more upon the altar burns." Sir Henry Newbolt, known to us all for "Drake's Drum," and other stirring lays of glorious Devon, is the most optimistic ot all our poets. No one has a more firmly founded faith in Britain's supremacy on the sea; is ft not "the King's Highway?" His is tho joyous faith of the sailor—heard in the mid-watch song of the larboard berth, in th ecareless laugh of young middies toasting the King's highway and the sailor King who owns it. "In a dandy frigate or a well-found

brig, In a sloop or a seventy-four, In a great first-rate with an admiral's flag. And a hundred guns or more; ' In a fair light air, in a dead foul wind r At midnight or mid-day, Till the good ship sink, her raids, shall drink To the King and the King's highway !"

One would have liked to notice the fiuo sonnet—breathing a calm confidence greater than faith —of F. E. Maitland; the trumpet song of the Indian poet, Tagore, with its wealth of Oriental imagery; and the heroic determination of the invocation-poem of Robert Nicols, R.F.A. :

" Daily I strive to make my w'll The soldier of my earnest thought."

THE JOY OF BATTLE

There is also the noble feeling of joy in battle in a just cause, whicn Julian Grenfell brings out in right noble verse—

"When the burning moment breaks, And all things else are out of ruind, And only joy of battle takes Me by the throat and •nakes n;e blind; Through joy and blindness I shall know (Not caring much to know) that st'll Nor lead nor steel shall reach me, so That it be not the destined will";

and the song of rejoicing over the naval victory in the Bight of Heligoland, sung by William Watson. But 1 pass on to notice the one song of grief in the collection —a noble grief, blend'ng with pride, in our uncomplaining dead, who went with 6ongs to the battle and fell with their faces to the foe. Their requiem is sang by Laurence Binyon, in a sublime strain of measured and muffled mourn'ng which recalls the solemn pomp of a soldier's funeral^

"Solemn the drums thrill Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into the immortal spheres; There is music in the midst of desolation, And a glory that shines upon our tears." THE AUTHORS CHOICE.

T have left to the last the poem which I consider to be the most striking, the most haunting, and the most original—well deserving the popularity it has attained in the south of England It might have been written by Newbolt, but tiie author is Dudley Clark. It takes the form of a dramatic dialogue between the spirits of Sir Francis Drake and Lord Nefeon, and com* mences with the elder of these old ocean warriors calling on the latter to "tumble up," to "show .1 leg," for "the Brit'sh Fleet's a-looming and the guns they are a-oooming, - ' and a new and formidable danger seems to be threatening the country. " Tig a longish line of battle, such as we did never see; Ann ; tis not the same old round-shot as was lired by you and me." NcLpn asks Sir Francis what he sees nnd ™iat he heare; and the reply is "Strange thin<js, strange sounds. They are fighting in the heavens and beneath the sea; there are great lights searching the water surface, and th'n wires are speaking and hollow fejrils are flying to a mark miles from the gtin't mouth."

"Three leagues t'-at-shot hath carried' God, that such could be! There's no mortal doubt, Lord Nelson, thejf ha' done wi' you and me!"

T'.u'ir countrymen, however, have not done with Drake and Nelson, as the poem goes on—to the great delight of the old heroes—to show. Here '8 how the dialogue satisfactorily make* ending:—

"Look thou nga'n, Sir Franc's! "I see the flags a-flappingl" "Hearken once more, Sir Francis!" "I hear the sticks a-tapping!" " 'Tis a s ; glit that calls me thither! - ' " 'Tis a sound that bids me come!" " 'Tifl the old Trafalgar signal!" " 'Tits the beating of my drum!" "Art thou ready, good Sir Francis? See, they wait us on the quay!" "Praise he to God, Lord Nelson, they 11 a' thought of you and me!"

And so the spirits of their fathers start from the waves, and from honoured sleeping-places prepared for the mighty dead, and enter into kittle W'tli the brave nen and l>ny« up.in whom has fallen the duty of defend')!:* these sacred shores—J. I(. 11.