Fifty Years On

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 918, 15 March 1957, Page 20

Fifty Years On

R A. E. CURRIE is, I believe, the second half of the Alexander and Currie whose 1906 anthology, New Zealand Verse, enshrines as much as one needs to know about our early verse. Now, half a century later, he’s still at it: this time with two selections of New Zealand Ballads, from 2YC, The first included seven ballads by three writers more. contemporary with Mr, Currie than with most of his listeners. He began with two sea _ stories by Will Lawson. The second was written nearly forty years after the first, and was much the more vigorous, with fewer tired images. I could make little of the two by David Ross through their literary clothing; but I enjoyed the three unfamiliar pieces by David McKee Wright, although they weren’t as good as the best-known of his poetry. (It seems to be true, of older New Zealand verse, at least, that the most anthologised is the best.) The virtues of his writing, and of Will Lawson’s later ballad, were straightforward stories told with unpretentious and colloquial vigour; but I thought the manner of presentation did them a disservice. The rather solemn format as a

YC Literary Programme seemed to claim more for the verse than it could sustain, though Mr, Currie’s own words were modest enough. A lighter dress might have prepared listeners better to receive and enjoy the selection on its own level.