OF N.Z. POETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 577, 1 February 1929, Page 14

OF N.Z. POETS

SOME NOTES AND COMMENTS NO. 9 MISS UNA CURRIE LTHOUGH the classical tradition has given poetry philosophic concern 3, there is a presentday tendency for writers to come close to earth in preference to speculating on subjects as remote from common interest as the stars. It is really a healthy tendency, and has done much toward removing the prevalent mistrust of all writing in verse form. When people read of the things they have seen and experienced themselves, uncertain, lagging steps grow surer, and although many of the poets of to-day have to endure the condemnation of the traditionalists, there is no that they have done great

service in making poetry more popular. There are examples enough of modern writers who, sometimes with excessive realism, have been interpreters of common experience. Sassoon is one who has used poetry as his medium for voicing detestations of war’s horrors by describing with rending min uteness, experience in the war-life of every campaigner. The same principle applies in ordinary life sheared of the spectacular miseries of war. There is scarcely any theme or incident that may not wear the cloak of poetry. Among (he young New Zealand writers. Miss Una Currie, consciously or unconsciously, has adopted this principle with success. There is always a suggestion of realism in her work, yet she does not cloud her themes through irksome insistence upon details. She. in fact, tends rather to sketch, leaving the full development of the subject to the imagination of the reader. To do this effectively, a certain intellectual subtlety and resource is necessary, and her success proves possession of these qualities. Although concerned primarily with the common round of things. Miss Currie's mind is original enough to save her from the perils of triviality. It is her originality of outlook that endows her poetry with the unique quality tl at it possesses so far as New Zealand is concerned. None of our younger

writers have a mind quite .like hers, and she seems to respond to an inspiration that passes by all the others. She discerns beauty to which most people are blind. From the peculiar character of her verse, it is inevitable that there should be few traces in it of the country of its origin; but nevertheless there is this compensation: there is no suggestion that it owes anything to influences outside New Zealand. Through close observation of the happenings and scenes about her, she has been able to obtain glimpses of some universal truths, and that, after all, is a fine achievement. “The Mother,” a little vignette, illustrates her sensitiveness to unpromising inspiration: He dragged beside her in the crowd With hanging mouth and idiot eyes, Dead to the wind’s soft clouded gold And the birds pointing down the skies. Dowdy and stooped, with work-worn hands. She held him gently, close the while: Unknown, unnoticed, though there stood A very Christ within her eyes. In “Rebellion” she writes with great imaginative sympathy on a theme of which many New Zealanders are painfully aware: Give me the lights and the crowd, the eager tramp of feet. The nervous roar of the traffic down the echoing street, Faces pale through the half-light, painted and strained and white, And the restless eyes of the hundreds hurrying through the night. I am sick of the empty hills, the sullen brown earth that takes The work of the hands of a man till the very soul of him breaks: The stony peaks and the silence, terrible, empty and still. The staring rocks and the parched earth that have stolen my man’s will. God, 1 am sick of the silence! Give me the shops and the beat. The restless beat, of the hundreds jostling in the street! Give me the sight of the faces hungry and pie a sure-blind. The lights and the roar and the, laughter—the laughter of my kindl Miss Currie’s ability to describe a scene is shown in “From a Train”; Suddenly, after wastes of wild Grey and sullen brown, Wc came upon a quiet field Where the sheep lay down. Snow-white sheep on a wet, dark field. With a still tree beyond. • And the fat bodies of four ducks Ruffling a golden pond. All suddenly, out of the hushed Thick darkness of night. A carrillon of bells we heard In a gleaming flight, Shaking their rhythm down the sky In a bright cloud of sound, Like the soft beat of breasting doves Over the muffled ground. And suddenly all else was gone Save Beauty aching on and on. An experiment resulting in picturesque success is, “In the Manner of Li Po”: I have seen The naked, knotted limbs of trees inked in against the sky. And suddenly they held the whole Unquiet restless soul Of sunset. Between the thin black lips of t wigs colour ran like fire. And two still boughs held all the sky. held all the sunset. And I have seen Within the slow pools of your eyes the goblin moon, the gleaming moon, Softly swinging on those shadowy mirroring waters. And I know that as one tree can hold the sunset, And your eyes the quietness of the moon. So can my one heart Hold the miracles of the universe. Finally, “Glimpse” is a thoughtful trifle suggesting a great deal: Two benf grey horses sweating And straining up a hill To drag a load of barrels For red-necked men to swill. A young girl through a window Bent to a dark machine And birds somewhere are tilting Above a field of green. In all the verse there is the same original thinking, and the same ability to cage in permanent form the scurrying thought of the moment. lAN DONNELLY.

NOTE Most of Miss Currie’s poetry has appeared in The Sun, but she has also contributed to Australian periodicals. Much of her work has appeared over the pseudonym Nora Stacey.

Books Reviewed

GERMANY’S ACHIEVEMENT The establishment of the new German State in a brief 10 years, and the economic recovery of the nation despite the great hurdles of a lost war s after-cost, constitute one of the most remarkable achievements of modern times. In their work, “Republican Germany,” Messrs. Hugh Quigley and Robert T. Clark present the most exhaustive survey of this recovery that has appeared. They analyse, discuss thoroughly, and draw well-reasoned conclusions from the changes that are in progress or that have taken place, and they revie w minutely the complex causes and factors in Germany’s “come-back.”

The first part of the book deals with the rise of the Republic, the consolidation and strengthening of the central executive. The second part has to do with the new economic State, the forces of production, finance, industry, and labour.

In their interesting study, the writers have taken the standpoint of Republicanism, “believing that a German Republic is more useful to the world than a German Umpire, and that democracy in the long run is the only form of government worthy of men with any claim to freedom of thought and action.”

The work naturally extends to the wider subject of international affairs, and here the expressed views of the writers are equally cogent and valuable.

"Republican Germany,” by Hugh Quigley and Robert T. Clark. Methven and Co., London. Our copy direct from the publishers.

JEFFERY FARNOL AT IT AGAIN. Master jeffery faenol, taking swift, clever pen in hand, hath writ a new tale of high adventure, wherein Sir Richard Gyfford, sower of wild oats, passes many desperate straits to the love of his fair lady. A brave tale It is, of the tobymen, of the Romany folk, of the gallows corpse, of the Haunted Mill, of horse-whippings, of pinkings, and, because of the love that Master Farnol has for the noble art, of shrew blow or two of naked English fist. Sir Richard—Gyfford of Weare he is —is a worthy fellow, but his enemies set many traps for him, into one of which he is bewrayed by the love of his lady. "Murderer,” they brand

him. Undenying, he flees; but Helen loves him despite all, and scorns periwigged train of followers from London town. Wicked Viscount Brocklehurst and Titus Oldcraft, catchpoll, lay crafty heads together to catch Sir Richard, that h e may be hanged at crossroads for the murder of his cousin Julian, and to carry off Helen —such are Richard’s foes and such his troubles. Natheless in the end his good name is cleared of smirch and he and Helen find that path of true love, while rough for long, has smooth finish. “Gyfford of Weare.” Jeffery Farnol. Sampson, Low, Marston and Co. Our copy from Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne. Strong. Strong meat —so strong that towards the end it is occasionally revolting—is served up by Georgina Garry in her first novel, “Pigsties with Spires,” published by Jonathan Cape. Miss Garry has tackled a ticklish subject with success, despite its awkwardness. She treats of the mistress who has a child of her own, and the struggle between her love for the youngster and her love (true, in this case) for the man who supports her. Cold shudders of disgust chase themselves around one’s spine towards the end, when the story strains towards this development, that the girl will take her mother’s place as the man’s toy; for he is lust incarnate. Words cannot be minced. The heroine is Josephine Demayne, widow, who emerges from the drab chrysalis life of a nurse-governess into the butterfly existence of “lady” of the master of the house. She is haunted by the thought of growing old, and of displeasing her master. She does grow old, and is cast aside, only for the man, Robert Burnett, to return in the hope of gaining her daughter. The end of the story is inevitable and tragic, relieved only by the daughter’s escape from the hands of Burnett. Miss Garry writes well; but one would rather see her use upon some less distasteful theme lier ability to characterise and describe. “Pigsties With Spires.” Georgina Garry. ionathan Cape, London, Our copy from a. publisher. A Happy Wanderer. Clerk in the Natal Civil Service, soldier in the Boer War, tramp wrongly arrested as a deserter, soldier again, trooper in the British South Africa Police—Sydney Walter Powell had varied adventures in various parts of South Africa. Then lie tramped through parts of Australia in search of work, and for a time he slept in the Sydney Domain. He joined the Queensland Garrison Artillery, and was stationed at Thursday Island. Between whiles, he was having adventures and writing for the Sydney “Bulletin.” A gumdigger in North Auckland; a rabbit poisoner on St. Helens Station, near Hanmer, Powell then went to Tahiti, where he worked for the French Administration. Illness sent him back to New Zealand, and to Hanmer again. The Great War took him back to the Old World. "Smacked up” on Gallipoli, he spent a year in England, and then, unfit forJurther service, he crossed the world to Tahiti again, and became a trader there and in the Paumotus, until trouble with his war injuries helped to drive him back to “civilisation.” Sinc e then he has become known as a novelist. But he has written nothing more absorbingly Interesting that the tale of his travels and adventures by land and sea. “The Adventures of a Wanderer,” making its first appearance in The Travellers’ Library, ig crammed with good stuff.

“The Adventures of a Wanderer,” Sydney Walter Powell. The Travellers’ Library: Jonathan Cape, London. Our copy rom the publisher. Foot It Featly

Aii earnest desire to wean dancers from the shuffling walk so often seen in the ball-room jjf to-day has prompted Mr. H. St. John Rumsey to write his “Ball-room Dancing Explained.” Mr. Rumsey, one of England’s foremost teachers, finds in his dancing the true and ecstatic poetry of motion and has endeavoured to impart that knowledge to his readers in a most attractive manner. It is not the author’s style to describe a step in numbered detail —on such a beat the feet should be in this or that position. He goes further than a bald explanation of modern steps and has been successful in infusing into his work something of the spirit of the dance. As Mr. Rumsey says: “The teacher whose instruction is limited to steps only, does not

possess the knowledge which justifies the acceptance of fees for instructing the public in the art of modern ballroom dancing.” A novel feature of Mr. Rumsey’s book is the inclusion of 27 “movement plates.” The illustrations are stills from motion pictures and afford a much more illuminating image of the moving dancer than could any posed photograph. “Ball-room Dancing- Explained,” Alethuen and Co., Ltd., London. Our copy from the publishers.