"The Slow Years Pass"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 667, 18 April 1952, Page 7

"The Slow Years Pass"

ton is on the bank of ‘the Waikato River. Every tree in the park has a metal plate with the name of a serviceman who died in the wars. And here, at the turn of the year-when the last leaves are drifting to the ground-is held the Anzac Day Memorial Service. Memorial Park at: HamilThese things were remembered by the Wellington poet Ruth Gilbert (Mrs. J. B. Mackay) when she was invited by the NZBS to write a sequence of poems for Anzac Day. As a child she had attended the services in Hamilton, often when they» were taken by her father, the Rev. H. G. Gilbert, who had been a padre in France during World War I. When Mrs. Mackay thought about her subject she began to see how these early impressions could become its background. And so-slowly, and by no means easily-the poems were written. The Slow Years Pass became the title of a work which will be broadcast from 1YC, 2YC, 3YC and 4YA on the evening of Anzac Day. There are nine poems. "You That Sit Down With Grief" is introductory, reminding us that love and grief are inseparable, and that throughout history they have been tested and sharpened in war. "There is a City Beautiful With Trees" explains the idea of the’ Memorial. Park. "Not sapless stone," ‘wisé-hearted elders said, "But living trees, bright hosts of wind and sun, a Shall guard the memory of these young dead Whose only season was a winter one.’’ In the third poem the rhythm quickens to express the moods of childhood. A young girl, playing light-heartedly in "the place of grief," is brought to a pause by the fancy ; That softly, as sole Winds. ss : Was tree in love and, sorrow m4, ispered a dead boy's name. "This leads in the fourth poem to a consideration of those who mourn; and | here, too, the imagery of the trees comes natufally into the theme. The symbolism of autumn, suggested earlier, _ feaches.its full’ and clear ‘statement . in * the fifth i ge 3 Now ev tree; its set, As’ Tobed and | rightly: ‘Garlanded * The setting has bee spared for an Anzac ervice, ¢ i Next poem opens with a line a: : les ‘the scene: eT Nes These trees and flowers, this, Legit and solemn crowd The arguinent now . passes to a mother, standing among those who remember and mourn.. She thinks of her son, lost in young manhood, and sees him again in vigorous youth. Also in the crowd is a man who remembers his friend; and for him (in the seventh poem) the wind in the trees becomes the sound of the sea: | ; And I think once more upon those ' Who’ went down to the sea in ships, And the: ‘trees are loud, amd a taste . Like | salt is on my., lips. ~Grief may have its source in distent years, or of may be sharp with recent loss. In the eighth poem the theme is

taken up by a girl who mourns a lover lost in Korea. There is no name for him yet in the park. I have no tree for you so lately dead Save in my heart, where, grieving branches spread, The tree of sorrow cleaves the sunless air. In this way, against the background of trees in autumn-the leaves symbolising, in their gentler fall, the passing of the young men-the poems bring together the thoughts and feelings of sacrifice which are shared by the silent crowd, and beyond it by the nation, and indeed by all peoples that have known war. The pain is softened by the rustling of trees, a threnody heard in most of the poems, suggesting always that the mourners shall. be comforted. And in the last stanza of the final poem comes an affirmation of hope: "Earth to its earth again," Said the bugle, ‘and who shall save it?" "But the spirit,’ Heart comforted, "Back to the God who gave it."