REVIEW.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2279, 12 November 1891, Page 2

REVIEW.

We have received a modest publication entitled " The Sitter on the Rail and Other Poems," by Miss Jessie Mackay, of Raincliff, and published by Messrs Simpson and Williams, Ohristchurch. The printers are the Lyttelton Times Company, and though only in paper cover the publication is very nicely got up. The book contains a large number of very interesting poems, some of which breathe the true spirit of poetry. Poets from the earliest times have flung heart and soul into denunciation of " man's inhumanity to man," and the best of Miss Mackay's pieces breathe the same spirit in very vigorous verse. For " The Sitter on the Rail" she apparently has the greatest contempt, for she says to him, after ridiculing him a good deal, " You've clogged the world's wheels enough, yourself and such as you— We know that you can talk; it's another thing to do."

From her contempt for railsitters or persons who will not take a side, we gather that Miss Mackay is a strong partisan, her sympathies evidently being on the side of the people. Her veneration for the smug doctrine of " The Poor shall be always with you," does not seem to be very " great, for she says The clouds of eighteen hundred years Had grown about the truth, until They preached—the smug false modern. seers With oily glozing,—T'is His will The rich should hold their birthright due Of Tyrian purple and of wine ; And God's own poor still meekly sue For crumbs amidst the husks of swine. # # * * * * * God's image in your brother man Ye have defaced and turned to shame Have marred His high created plan And worse—ye lay on Him,the blame. The bias of the authoress's mind can be gathered from these three verses selected out of 26 verses in the poem. The last one is particularly powerful, and gives a direct slap in the face to the accepted creed that it is God's will that some should die of starvation while others live in profligate luxury. Poetry consiste in high-souled noble sentiments expressed in elegant language, and here we have it. There are altogether about 40 poems in the book, but we have not space to criticise them all. We may, however, say that Miss Mackay displays great versatility, inasmuch as that her subjects are chosen from many lands. We get from her glimpses of what we may call Maori mythology, Irish folk lore, and the quaint and expressive dialect of the Scot,as well as well-drawn pictures of New Zealand and Australian scenes. One of the pieces which attracted our attention, most is " Eileen O'More," which bears a resemblance to Edward Walsh's translations from the Gaelic language. More successful still is Miss Mackay in her Scotch songs, but one of her best pieces is her, we believe, first attempt at blank verse, "Dreamer and Doer." This is really clever, and very powerfully written. The figures of speech are apt, and the illustrations good, and its fault is that it aims at too high a style. However, this may not be altogether a fault; it may be that we set too high a value on simplicity. The poet Herbert says somewhere that he who levels at a star, shoots higher than he who aims at a tree. That, may be, but we like to see where the bolt hits and. feel sure it strikes the m -irk. When the shot is llred too far overhead, it is not always possible to be sure of the result. We commend Miss Mackay's new work to the public, and hope it will have a wide circle of readers.