. . . Poetry Notes

Spring 2013 Volume 4, Issue 3

ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA

She was a notable horsewoman in her Inside this Issue Welcome young years and her poetry shows an intimacy with the natural world. Her Hello and welcome to issue 15 of poetry was written between the ages 61 Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, and 79, and seems to have been 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of triggered by WWI, notably Gallipoli. Niel Wright on Kate Aotearoa. Gerard (1855-1934) Poetry Notes will be published quarterly Kate Gerard’s Biography and and will include information about Family Background Classic New Zealand goings on at the Archive, articles on poetry by James H historical New Zealand poets of interest, An Obituary of Kate Gerard is given in 4 Sutherland occasional poems by invited poets and a [= Lyttelton] Times, record of recently received donations to November 30, 1934 (according to a Comment on Donald H the Archive. clipping stuck in the Turnbull copy of 6 Lea by Mark Pirie Articles and poems are copyright in the The Call of the Light, Volume 8, 1933, names of the individual authors. as follows: A tribute to S G August The newsletter will be available for free 9 download from the Poetry Archive’s LATE MISS K. GERARD. website: In the death of Miss Kate Gerard, Comment on William which occurred yesterday morning, 11 Taylor http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com the Fendalton district has lost one of its oldest and best known residents. Comment on H Farrington Miss Gerard, who lived with a 12 Niel Wright on younger sister, Miss Rose Gerard, at Comment on Chapbook Willowbrook, 173 Fendalton Road, Kate Gerard was a daughter of the late Mr and Mrs

William Gerard, of Snowden Vincent O’Sullivan Hororata. appointed NZ Poet Laureate 13 Wellington writer and publisher, She lived in the Fendalton parish for Niel Wright discusses the early 20th the last fifty-five years. Donate to PANZA through century Christchurch poet Kate Gerard. As a young girl, Miss Gerard was a PayPal wonderful horsewoman and was a This year, I spent a fortnight at the well-known figure at hunt meetings in Recently received National Library reading the poetry of Canterbury. donations Kate Gerard (1855-1934). St Barnabas Church and Sunday If she was a painter she would be called School at Fendalton owe much to her a primitive, but she is a poet, one might About the Poetry Archive generosity. Only within the last few think just a religious poet, but in fact years had she given up her class of she writes epic narrative, only one piece boys at the Sunday school. PANZA on a specific bible figure Jacob. The rest During the war years she did all in her PO Box 6637 is about historical figures or importantly power to help the men who enlisted Marion Square a family chronicle. from the Fendalton parish, and in later Wellington 6141

...... Spring 2013 years she was a frequent visitor to Jim McAloon’s analysis of the origins Kate Gerard’s Poetry Rannerdale Home. of the “southern gentry” reveals that Miss Gerard is survived by her sister, powerful Canterbury names could I return to the subject of her poetry now Miss Rose Gerard, and by a brother, belong to lower-middle-class that access with the completion of Mr George Gerard, the present owner individuals who, like many building alterations is again available to of Snowden Station. The late Mrs pastoralists, moved up in the colonies the Turnbull Library holdings of Kate George Rutherford and the late Mrs “with more talent than means”… Gerard’s books. Murray Aynesley were also her William Gerard was the son of a small The Turnbull Library has 12 of Kate sisters. farmer who [ambiguous but Gerard’s books plus a couple of apparently William] managed a duplicates, but the Turnbull does not So far no record of date of birth for Kate property [Cheviot Hills?] before have The Call of the Light, Volume III, Gerard has been found in New Zealand taking up Snowdon (the parent nor any other library. The Turnbull or English records, and records have yet property to Double Hill). copies have been hard bound by the to be turned up for the arrival of the Double Hill was offered for sale by library. The Macmillan Brown library William Gerard family in New Zealand auction in January 1874 but did not has three of her books, and Canterbury or from wherever. It is believed books reach its reserve price of pounds University Library a fourth. No other on Canterbury runholders should 26,000, and so Palmer sold Double libraries report holdings. illuminate (see below). Whether the Hill privately to William Gerard of The titles of Kate Gerard’s 12 books of Annie in the burial records is one of her Snowdon with 30,000 sheep and poetry suggest that she was religious but married sisters or a Rose by another 114,500 acres for pounds 20,000. interested in horses. In her long life name has yet to be determined. Gerard died in 1897 [sic] with 1855-1934 it appears her books were I told a friend my assessment that her ownership going to his son who held written and published in the last 18 father owned the Snowden Station when Double Hill country in its entirety till years of her life 1916-1934. rural landholdings in New Zealand were 1911 and 1912… The appearance is that Kate Gerard immense. I was able to validate this wrote her poetry between the ages of 61 statement by doing a Google search for On the evidence of these accounts Kate and 79. South Canterbury runholder William Gerard born in 1855 was not born at One has to say she is a demotic poet, Gerard which brought up a passage Snowden Station. Whether she was born her main reading or book knowledge from a 2007 book called Historic at Cheviot Hills or elsewhere, who doesn’t go beyond the Bible, but she is Heritage of High-Country Pastoralism: knows? not ill prepared or lacking in skill for Up to 1948, 4.2.6 Flocks, Christchurch founded in 1850 to exploit what she does which is compile a where a sentence read the sheep farming potential of the corpus of epic narrative poems often Canterbury plains, had a port at once at lyrical and dramatic in form. William Gerard had 30,000 sheep at Lyttelton, to which a rail tunnel was Most of Kate Gerard’s poems are Double Hill and 21,000 at Snowdon opened in 1867. Beginning in 1863 by individually dated at the end. In some of [sic]… 1879 railway lines were extensive in the Kate Gerard’s later books the text ends South Island, in effect providing railway with a colophon consisting of her name Another Google search for William sidings virtually to every farm gate, for and a date. A date of publication rarely Gerard at Double Hill brought up instance at Coalgate ten miles from appears, with the result that passages in a book called Calling the Hororata. I haven’t checked out specific bibliographical dates of publication can Station Home: Place and Identity in historical details, but in effect by 1880 vary perhaps without significance. The New Zealand High Country by Michèle rural runholders could build town colophon date seems the best to use, but D Dominy, 2001, from which I quote as residences (eventual mansions) in the records no doubt are too confused to following: Christchurch, say Fendalton, and get bother much. from their rural estates to their town Kate Gerard’s lyrics are short often William Gerard (1822-1898), residences by rail and buggy within an dramatic, with a strong focus, but read according to MacDonald and hour or two. I lived in this environment in bulk they are tedious in spite of many McAloon managed Cheviot Hills, and in my childhood and youth, when delicate touches. However the lyrics his home was the first to be built there however the motorcar provided ready both underlie and augment the – part cob and part wattle and daub, transport. narratives. Several of her longer poems with ten rooms and a veranda on three It is said that Kate Gerard lived in the are not narrative but discursive as a sides; Mrs Gerard kept three maids Fendalton parish for 55 years, ie 1880- series of lyrics. and many passers-through had to be 1934, so from the age of 25. But she Her narratives by contrast are decidedly attended to. Gerard’s holdings were could long thereafter have had access to long, usually dramatic, but they are extraordinary beginning with the Gerard runholdings readily enough. swift moving, with frequent shifts of Snowdon [sic] in 1866 and eventually focus by means of neat transitions as encompassing almost all of the she plays with imagery. Her narratives Rakaia’s north and south banks. are significantly readable.

2 ...... Poetry Archive Kate Gerard uses formulaic phraseology There is only one Biblical character on append it at the end of this essay). repeatedly but not without intelligent whom Kate Gerard writes a long Gerard seems to have been motivated to variations. For people with an narrative poem. This is Jacob. poeticise in 1916 by war casualties. acquaintance with oral narrative poetry In the case of Jacob he is the Biblical Thereafter she issued annual booklets of her performance is interesting and figure she dreams about in short poems often lyrical for eight impressive as a comparable exercise by Jacob, The Destiny for All Nations issues, but progressively including a literate poet. For the appreciative (1932), for which there is no named narrative poems of length. reader her poetry is outstandingly presenter to the Turnbull Library. 35 attractive. She certainly knows some pages = 41 quatrains, plus 1 extra Conclusion significant things about epic narrative. couplet rhyming with a quatrain ie as a Gerard’s prosody is fairly simple. She sestet page 22. Gerard is probably the most definitive writes consistently in rhymed couplets My godmother Lillian Harris read me poet of her time world wide for an laid out on the page as quatrains. But the Bible version of the Jacob story understanding of sociological she still achieves considerable variety when I was a child. Gerard’s is a psychology. between poems and as she proceeds. considerably improved version. She All Kate Gerard’s poetry is full of As for total output of verse, according dreams and presents the story of Jacob delicate touches, simple but very to my count which should be checked in her own terms, which are often very effective ways of making words work Kate Gerard’s output in her 12 down to earth and natural. Many of her poetically. accessible known books comes to 9066 rhymes have identical wording. She is The fact is a competent reader like lines on the basis of 4533 rhyming pairs less lyrical and more purely narrative myself can recognise Kate Gerard as an printed as quatrains. Over all in than otherwise she is. Like Milton she extraordinary poet of world class in her individual length her lines would be closely paraphrases the Bible at times, way that any literate society would take comparable with mine, so her poetry and is then not at her best. She sees pride in. In terms of New Zealand amounts to about a quarter of my epic Christ in the angel Jacob wrestles with. history her background is prestigious poem The Alexandrians and somewhat She sees Jacob and Laban as equally not just by reason of her family’s role less than half of Domett’s epic Ranolf deceitful. She sees Jacob as the but also by reason of the role of the and Amohia. However her corpus is prototype of nation creating leaders. whole southern gentry society to which certainly in the long epic class by She uses the name Joshua for a long they belonged in south Canterbury. A length, by content and by style. These poem in Behold the Light, but it is not leading figure from 1852 was Sir John three New Zealand epics may count as about the Bible Joshua in any detail at Hall (1824-1907) politician and premier the chief examples by New Zealanders. all and it is not primarily narrative. 1879-1882. My own family from 1840 That is the class Kate Gerard deservedly Similarly St Paul in The Call of the at Akaroa was closely involved in south enters, and in central respects she may Light, Volume IV. Canterbury all till well within my be the best of the three poets in that However she does write narrative lifetime (born 1933). genre. poems at length on known subjects such Here is her shorter poem ‘Gallipoli’: Kate Gerard’s poems frequently use the as St George and the Dragon and Joan Medieval convention of opening with or of Arc. The last of such narrative poems involving a dream which is then maybe the 1927 poem on Oates which GALLIPOLI by Kate Gerard narrated. only exists in typescript. And she Kate Gerard has an apocalyptic already has miscellaneous narrative “Greater love hath no man than this, that he viewpoint as I do, but she is a secularist poems on fictitious figures down to lay down his life for his friends.” – John xv, in practice as I am. Her concern is 1925. 13. national leadership, not surprisingly Gerard writes of a real person in given her high southern gentry Captain Oates of Scott’s Last Suddenly, like a lion leaping background, characterised above. Expedition to the Pole (1927) in 42 Upon his prey— The theme of all Kate Gerard’s poetry is quatrains dated April 1927, typescript In the dark they leaped together— doing the impossible, the nature of what foolscap. There in one word illegible Behold, a new day. is to be done and the cost of doing it. beyond guessing. This is the essence of Futurism. She also deals with Robert Scott in The Leaping, man, man, man, together, One might expect that religious writing Call of the Light, Volume VI, but That all might see, about characters called Peter, Paul, discursively without narrative. Thousands of miles o’er the water— Elizabeth, Nicodemus, Jacob, Martha, Her religious thinking is focused on the Gallipoli. Mary, Joshua would deal with Biblical Christ Man whose experience she sees characters. Such is the case only with people since 1916 as sharing and having It was love, love, all together, Jacob, but it is not at all the case with to share in terms of God’s plan. Making harmony; the rest. She has a retrospective poem on Not counting the pain and sacrifice, Gallipoli (in Behold the Light), short Making history. enough to be reprinted (and I will

...... 3 Spring 2013 Like the voice of many waters, Then a hand—Like a man’s hand— Making melody; came Classic New Zealand Reaching to the Heights away, With nail marks through, poetry Resplendently. And gathered them in a very tenderly—

Behold, he knew. This issue’s classic New Zealand poetry Soul to soul, and heart to heart together, is by James H (Hector) Sutherland The new dawn to see; Then I heard a sound like weeping, (1925-1994). He was one of the young Mysteriously, leading, ever leading, Saying, “God is there; writers (along with ) “The Isles of the Sea.” He has prepared a place ready”— associated with the small magazine Behold, a prayer. Chapbook edited by Ronald B Castle I climbed the steeps of Gallipoli, 1945-50. Where the fight lay; Then on the soft wind, like music, Sutherland contributed to Chapbook I saw the battleships at anchor, Came a voice, from Auckland. He also wrote essays Far in the bay. Saying, “I am Alpha and Omega— and fiction and was a contributor to Rejoice! Rejoice!!” Noel Farr Hoggard’s Arena. Then I saw four men together, dead, Sutherland has 11 titles in the National Beside their gun; Saying they have climbed the Heights, Library catalogue, mostly fiction. They had climbed the Heights And drank the cup, Sutherland was born in Te Puke in together— Unafraid of pain and sacrifice, 1925. He is the descendant of Nova They had won. And followed me up. Scotians of Waipu and the Danes of

Dannevirke. Beautiful they lay around their gun, They have lifted the soul of the nation His early education was at Morrinsville Waiting for the dawn, up, District High School. With their faces turned to the East— Unconsciously, As a young man, he worked as a Behold, a new morn. Into love’s wondrous fellowship— temporary lighthouse keeper at Moko Mysteriously. Hinau Lighthouse from November 1949 Then I heard the sound of the great guns (with his cousin E D N (Norm) Miller Firing a salute; Behold, they have climbed the Heights as Principal Keeper). Then a wonderful silence came; The dawn to see, He also worked as a farmhand and Then all was mute. To meet the face, like a man’s face— schoolteacher and had a variety of other Mysteriously. work experience before attending the Then trembling from the far Heights New Zealand Library School in 1973 Came a new note; To find a hand like a man’s hand, ready and training to be a librarian. From the silence, like a mighty sob, To welcome His own; Based in Auckland and Hamilton, he Away to float. For in the dark they leaped to follow was a Field Librarian with the Country Him alone. Library Service. Far away to the “Isles of the Sea,” During his lifetime, he lived mainly Making melody, Behold, a Presence ever leading around Morrinsville, Auckland, and Like the voice of many waters To see a new day, Hamilton. He married (Dorothy E R Making harmony. Leading the soul of the Nations up Sutherland) but divorced. To see God’s way. In later years, he spent his time visiting Then I looked away at the Heights, libraries in the North Island until, in Where the light lay; Leading up the Heights to understand 1990, a breakdown in health forced his Then into the great depths below, When their sight is dim; retirement from the library profession. Into the bay. Leading to take away their blindness— Throughout his life, he contributed Behold to love Him. articles and reviews to a number of Then from the depths, mysteriously publications like The Journal of Came a hush; January 15th, 1924 Agriculture, New Zealand Books, Then the sound of many wings arising Historical Record and the New Zealand With a rush. Editor’s Note: This essay is abridged Libraries journal. from Niel Wright’s A Reading of the His realist stories appeared in NZ Home Then I saw the vision glorious— Aotearoa Epic Poet Kate Gerard Magazine, Arena, Pacific Moana Behold He knew, (1855-1934), published 2013; for Quarterly, The School Journal, The Saying, “I am Alpha and Omega; further background and a list of Weekly News (Auckland) and the I make all things new.” publications by Gerard see Niel . The New Zealand Wright’s essay on Gerard in Poetry Broadcasting Service (from 1955) aired Notes, Winter 2011. around thirty of them on radio.

4 ...... Poetry Archive After retirement, he was also a guest of have attempted most of the shorter In a far valley a train whistle blew PEN at the Frank Sargeson flat in forms. Some poems and stories may And over the pines rose a puff of smoke. Auckland. still be read, without enjoyment, in A sheep strayed near, not seeing me there, There’s a short article on him ‘J H collections of N.Z. work of his time. too, Sutherland’s honest picture of New His essays are of no importance. And slowly grazed away. I dozed. I woke. Zealand’ by J S Gully in Pacific Moana (Chapbook, No. 23, 1949) I lay for hours on that friendly hill. Quarterly 5:2 (April 1980), p. 132. I think my happy Youth lies there still. He was working on a biography of Sutherland would enjoy the irony of his E D N Miller at the time of his death work being picked up in Poetry Notes (Chapbook, No. 26) aged 68 in January 1994. His burial was twenty years after his death. He did not cremation. believe his work would be read in a His poems are of interest to the 1940s hundred years’ time. FARM HAND generation of New Zealand writers and give us an Auckland poet of the period Poems by James H Sutherland He drives the cows through a muddy outside the usual emerging group of creek. Keith Sinclair, et FULL MOON His coat is torn and his gum-boots leak. al. Water drips from his hair and stings his Sutherland writes a brand of Georgian I turn moon-blinded eyes to the tawdry eyes. realism in his verse, raw but lyrical glory He calls his dogs with cursing cries. often philosophic. Of the lights upon the town, Sutherland’s books (privately published Turn from the gold-hazed east to the The cows stand in muck to the knees, from Morrinsville) are: Driftwood and colder north, The boss-cows under the boxthorn trees. Other Stories (1976), The Earth and Turn from the summit and walk down. The yard drains are all a-flood Other Stories (1977), The Elver (novel, Choked with sticks and stinking mud. 1978), Green and Golden Island; and The moon blesses the houses with silver A Lighthouse Dog Named Prince (two pity, Most teats are mud-chaped and raw. biographical stories based on diary Makes their outlines beautiful; The cow-pox on his hands is itching entries and letters, with E D N Miller, Cabbages are as wet with dew as roses sore. 1979), Sunrise on Hikurangi are; The skim pipe is blocked again. (biography, with William Taylor, 1981), And little creeks brim full, He carries the pig food down in the rain. Rundle’s Hill (novel, 1984), So Shines a Good Deed (short stories, 1992), Camell Brim full as the sea of magic and He reads the paper, talks and smokes. Milk the Terrible and Other Stories mystery; His tea is hot. He splutters and chokes. (1993) and Cruel River (a remake of The smoke-blighted poplar tree He sits at the fire, feels good to be alive. The Elver, novel, 1994). Stands serenely as her sisters by He’s up next morning at half-past five. He also wrote a Select Bibliography of meadows stand; Wanganui and District From 1960-1970 The moon shines also on me. (Chapbook, No. 26) (1973) and edited a personal account of the First World War, The Twilight Hour And the dreary songs I sing, my pride, by William Taylor (1978). anger, BOY Sutherland receives a mention in the The silly words I say Oxford History of New Zealand Are hushed in the stillness and kindness His eye is clear, pathetically sure of life, Literature in English for his depression of moonlight, His brow untroubled, yet I long to take era novel The Elver. He is not Hushed, hushed away. his hand, mentioned in the Oxford Companion to Guide his feet where my own once New Zealand Literature, while Fresh (Chapbook, No. 25) stumbled – Fields: More Writing from Out of Town What use? He would not understand. (2001), edited by John Gordon, appears to be the only anthology to feature him. HILLSIDE His voice rings sad autumn yearnings in In Chapbook, however, he humorously my heart wrote in an early essay, ‘A Word of High on the hill in soft grass I lay. And I suddenly see that his youth is my Advice to Young Writers’, his own The autumn sun caressed the ground; youth! mention for an exhaustive anthology of Thistles grew and bracken; fresh-cut hay What he holds carelessly, I squandered I literature of the Georgian Age: Was near enough to smell; there was a know how; sound But I have no words with which to Another obscure writer who can Of bees working in the clover flowers, phrase for him the truth. hardly be said to survive is James I watched the thistledown in the sky for Sutherland (1925-19--). He seems to hours.

...... 5 Spring 2013 He walks in sunshine and birds sing for a number of mentions in news reports him Comment on nationwide of the publication of his And all the green mysteries of the fields Donald H Lea soldier verse Stand Down! illustrating its he knows. prominence at the time. Sir Thomas His winsomeness touches me as he MacKenzie aided the book’s publicity. passes by AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST As then High Commissioner for New And a flock of my wistful thoughts WORLD WAR POET DONALD H Zealand in London, he contributed the follows where he goes. LEA by Mark Pirie brief foreword. Lea distributed his journal Verse in (Chapbook, No. 27) Donald H (Henry) Lea (1879?-1960) is England and New Zealand inviting a significant New Zealand poet of the subscribers and not looking for First World War. He is in fact the closest Government subsidy. It’s mentioned in THE POOL thing Kiwis have to a Rupert Brooke in the , 13 July 1935 (a New Zealand poetry. brief write-up). During his time as editor, Here is a gutter-pool, rainbow-smeared I first came across his name looking up a Lea was in contact with other with oil, poetry journal called Verse that he edited newspapers and magazine editors in the Covering with green slime cigarette tin- from 1935-38 in Ötaki (not to be UK (Grouse) and in New Zealand (Noel foil, confused with the journal Verse from Farr Hoggard’s Spilt Ink). Orange peel and glass – but reflecting Temuka in the same period). Further Lea is also mentioned in Niel Wright’s the sky, searches at the National Library revealed Notes on Some Outlets for Demotic and Cold-blue, with clouds wind-driven and that he had several collections of poetry Georgian Poetry in the 1930s in high. published in England between 1917 and Aotearoa (2002) and Stevan Eldred- 1919 and gained some prestige at the Grigg’s bibliography to The Great Because the present is too difficult for time for his war verse hitherto forgotten. Wrong War (2010), the only me to control, As with some other poets profiled contemporary mentions I’ve seen of I try to bring the past and future into a recently in Poetry Notes, Lea does not Lea’s work. Lea does not appear in unity, a whole. appear in any New Zealand anthology official literary histories of the 1990s or I relate the soul-sadness that now up- that I’m aware of, but he is listed with the regional history of Otaki by Francis springs other New Zealand poets of this period in Selwyn Simcox published in 1952. With re-called and preseen images the New Zealand Literature Authors’ Week water brings… 1936: Annals of New Zealand Literature: Lea’s Publications being a List of New Zealand Authors and The quick glinting wind-fretted willow their works with introductory essays and Lea’s poetry publications, all leaves verses, page 68: “Lea, Donald H. Stand handsomely printed including the journal And stream with tossed pennies of Down! (v) 1917; A number of things (v) Verse being hand-printed for the author, sunlight and breeze, 1919; and Dionè, a spring medley (v) are as follows: The moonlight bay with piper leaping 1919.” 1. Stand Down!; with a foreword by Sir flashing white, The name Donald H Lea does not appear Thomas MacKenzie, 79 pages; 17cm, 17 And the wash of sea heard from my bed in New Zealand Biographies at the poems. London: Elkin Mathews, 1917. at night… National Library, and I’ve not found any 2. A Number of Things viii, 91 pages; Obituary for him. 20cm. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers I note how the green moss grows in the A Tapuhi search shows correspondence Ltd [for the University], 1919. Turnbull pavement cracks nearby, from Lea for J C Andersen’s Author’s copy inscribed by the author. I smell the air-tang and hear the harsh Week 1936 bibliography, along with a 3. Dionè: A Spring Medley ix, 34 pages; seagull cry, music score (‘Free I was as mountain air; 20cm, one poem sequence in 25 parts. I see even here a sun-and-water gleam – for high voice and piano / words by D H Birmingham: Cornish Brothers Ltd [for I take away today’s pool and Lea; music by J M Turpin; Oct 1947’) the University], 1919. tomorrow’s dream. contributed to Ernie Asher’s sheet music 4. Verse Vols. 1-12; 22-23cm. Otaki archive. There is also a letter by Lea to [N.Z.: D.H. Lea, 1935-1938]. Vol. 8 is (Chapbook, No. 28) the Turnbull Library relating ‘to books signed ‘Prof J Shelley’ [then Director of by Lea for the Churchill auction’ in 1942 Broadcasting] inside the copy, Poems © J H Sutherland along with inward correspondence from suggesting they were Shelley’s own Lea in William Hugh Field’s papers. copies that he had bound and given to the There’s more about Lea in Papers Past National Library of New Zealand. searches, including book reviews in The Otago Daily Times, New Zealand Free Lance and the Wanganui Chronicle, and

6 ...... Poetry Archive Lea’s Library Holdings the Beekeepers’ Conference in June his repertoire. This sequence Dionè is a 1913. Also in 1913, he was involved as a competent effort on his behalf and an International library holdings are as director with the Lickall Inflator unusual addition to classical verse. follows, showing Lea’s prominence Company (N.Z.) Ltd, registering to sell a Stand Down!, Lea’s first book, is his most overseas at the time of his publication: patented pump for inflating rubber tyres. successful collection and contains a Stand Down! is in 27 libraries on An article in the Free Lance, 25 July number of his key poems like ‘My Son’, WorldCat: Library of Congress; 1918, gives some biographical detail: ‘Entreaty’, Stand Down!’, and ‘Stand- HathiTrust Digital Library; Simpson To!’. Some are in Scots dialect as soldier University; Wisconsin; Southern Illinois Mr. Lea, is of Highland descent, but monologues. University; Princeton; University of was born and bred in the Midlands. Stand Down! gives a first-hand account Michigan; Bay Path College; Clark Equipped with a first-rate education of his experience in the trenches of University; SUNY at Buffalo; Texas and the training of an engineer, he left France and general commentaries on A&M University, San Antonio; Harvard the Home Country some years ago to soldier-life and is not out-of-place in and Wheaton College, Buswell, USA; seek health in the colonies, and after comparisons with a number of the First Toronto and Alberta, Canada; National considerable wanderings he settled World poets like Sassoon and Brooke. Library of Scotland; the British Library down at Westmere, where he Lea’s poems had previously appeared in and Cambridge, UK; University of Cape surrounded himself with bees, fruit and Chronicles of the New Zealand Town, South Africa; Alexander Turnbull flowers. His property had just been Expeditionary Force and Pearson’s and National Library of New Zealand brought past the first stages of Magazine. Sir Thomas MacKenzie wrote [Wellington], University of Canterbury, discomfort when the war broke out and in his foreword: ‘[Lea] is a not unworthy Dunedin Public Libraries and Hocken he went into camp [Corporal 5th member of that small body of poets and [Dunedin]; State Library of New South Reinforcements, 1915]. His health writers who number among them Rupert Wales; National Library of Australia and broke down in camp and he was Brooke, Donald Hankey, “Ian Hay”, and State Library of Victoria, Australia. discharged, but after a short interval he others who have offered their services to A Number of Things is in 12 libraries: again volunteered and sailed with a the Empire, some of whom have made Harvard; SUNY at Buffalo and Union later Reinforcement. He was gassed at the Great Sacrifice.’ College, USA; Alberta, Canada; Trinity the battle of the Somme and since then Lea’s second book contains general verse College, Dublin; National Library of has been an invalid in military hospitals possibly dating back to before the war Scotland; National Library of Wales; the and among relatives. along with a section of war verse. A British Library and Cambridge, UK; Number of Things includes fishing, the art University of Cape Town, South Africa; Afterwards he became a farmer in Ötaki, of rhyme, personal poems, English and Alexander Turnbull [Wellington] and living first at Golf Links Road and later at New Zealand poems, light verse and Adelaide, Australia. Old Coach Road. Lea married Mary polemic. Poems had previously appeared Dionè is held in eight libraries: Emory Montgomerie Anderson in 1923 and the in the Birmingham Post, the Fishing University and Harvard, USA; National couple had a son (according to Lea’s Gazette, Chronicles of the New Zealand Library of Scotland; National Library of 1930s poem in Verse). Expeditionary Force and Pearson’s Wales; the British Library and Besides farming, his interests included Magazine. One of the poems, ‘Forgotten Cambridge, UK; Alexander Turnbull politics, fishing, and active tennis and Birthright’, addresses land reform in [Wellington] and Adelaide, Australia. golf (before the war). He was a member England (for the small man) citing his Verse is held in five libraries: Harvard, of the Wanganui Golf Club 1914-15 Colonial experience in New Zealand as USA; Hocken [Dunedin]; Alexander playing in the 1915 Imlay Cup positive example. Lea’s foreword to this Turnbull [Wellington]; Victoria tournament, and his name comes up in poem originally appeared in Captain University and the State Library of New numerous tennis tournaments in Byron’s pamphlet The Land for Fighting South Wales, Australia. Wanganui 1909-1911. Men (1918). Archives New Zealand holds his NZEF Dionè is his most ambitious work and not Biography personnel file, not yet available online. entirely successful. It’s what I’d describe Lea, interred at the Ötaki cemetery, died as a commendable poem and not to be Lea was born in the UK [Edgbaston, in 1960. despised. It’s a meditation in narrative Warwickshire, England] around 1878/79 form concerning Dionè (Venus) as the of Scots family origin. It is not known Literary Style Goddess of Pure Beauty in ‘music, exactly when he settled in New Zealand flowers, and so on’. This somewhat but in 1908 he was a visitor to Wanganui Lea’s verse is mostly popular. He writes departs from classical historian’s views of from Auckland and by the 1911 Electoral mainly public verse satire sharing Dionè (Venus) as the Goddess of Love Roll, he was a farmer and businessman in similarities with other New Zealand poets and Beauty. Westmere, near Wanganui. of the Thirties like Whim Wham and The journal Verse (1935-38) is all verse Advertisements in the Wanganui Robert J Pope. He can also write serious by Lea, and is mostly (unsigned) popular Chronicle show Lea advertising his lyric poems, elegies and sonnets, and political satire and rural verse, with some Westmere honey for sale. He addressed does feature a 25-part poem sequence in material reprinted from Lee’s English

...... 7 Spring 2013 collections. Each volume contains an His elegy ‘Entreaty’ is also moving: They come to hazard life upon a main original epigram on the front cover/title With Death, whose dice are loaded for page. It’s entertaining and lively verse ENTREATY the game— and not without some skill. Yet that White Flame men call th’ The banes of his thoughts in Verse are For the “Wounded and Missing” immortal soul Michael Joseph Savage and the Labour Burns bright and clear with steady Party of the Thirties along with Hitler, If they have stayed one single tear, gleam, and warms Mussolini and Lenin. He writes using Or eased one heart of pain; Their hearts to high resolve; they, direct speech and modern dialect and If they have held one flower dear, steadfast, come colloquial expressions of the day. Counted one gift as gain; To stand to arms and carry on. “Stand- Verse includes several longer sequences If they have slaked one parchèd tongue, to!” Or comforted one child— serialized throughout the 12 volumes: Oh Thou, who on the cross hast hung ‘Songs of a Dairy Farmer’, ‘Songs of And wast by man reviled, Another of his more interesting later Exile’ and ‘Fairy Farming’ (an epic Still, now, their anguished, sobbing breath, works is his poem to Jean Batten, the narrative work). The final volume 12 Send, of Thy Mercy, swift-winged Death; aviator, in Verse Vol. 7 (1936): announces the winding-up of Verse with Of Thy great mercy, grant them death, no reasons given but I suspect he must’ve Who suffer all alone. NEW ZEALAND LASS WITH A found it hard-going to come up with work HIELAN’ NAME of quality in each issue and his original A fine example of his soldier verse is intention of inviting contributions other ‘Stand-To!’, more in line with Sassoon (TO JEAN BATTEN) than his own didn’t eventuate. The than Brooke: Who flew solo from England to Australia in five days 21 hours—London to Darwin— subscription list grew slowly, didn’t provide the finances to pay contributors, and Sydney to New Plymouth in nine and-a- STAND-TO! half hours, thus breaking all previous and perhaps didn’t reward his effort. He records. Oct. 16, ’36. closed Verse down, vowing ‘some day to “STAND-TO!” try again’. And twilight creeps o’er No-man’s Out, over the curving blue you came, I will now provide brief examples of his dreary land, Our lass with the Hielan’ eyes and verse. As down and up the trench, from man to name, As with Apirana Taylor’s first collection, man Up-borne on the hueless, ambient air, Eyes of the Ruru (1979), Lea’s first book The word is passed; the trench? a (One with all Cosmic Things) contains a single poem that could well sodden ditch Cool, reticent, gay and debonair. stand as a lone anthology piece for years That writhes and twists in torture as it White Lass of The Silvery Wings, after. runs And never in all the world, I ween*, The short lyric ‘My Son’ is perhaps not Close set on either side, with fetid walls Is a prouder, or better lov’d lass than bettered in Lea’s earlier or later work, as In which the shallow-buried dead Jean. also noted by Sir Thomas MacKenzie. decay! Where nameless horrors lie, and cast O Nerve high-strung and Spirit aflame, MY SON their spells Our Lass with the wistful eyes and To chain the limbs and root men to the name— BOYHOOD’s days— ground. O Spirit that steadies the flinching flesh A face sun-kist; And out of air-weariness wrings And all my world was glad; The sentries go to rouse and waken men When sleep came on like a moorland mist. Victory, breaking Sleep’s drowsy mesh, Unwashed and foul, unkempt and Tir’d Lass of the Silvery Wings, On my dear, laughing lad. hollow-eyed; And none was gladder than I, I ween, Men unrefreshed by broken, bastard Manhood’s days— To know you had made your land-fall, Red lips he kist, sleep Jean. And all his world was glad; Woo’d in the lairs they share with And life was wrapped in a golden mist, vermin vile; So much you have won that is fairer And I, a little sad. Men who resent, with sullen curse and than ‘fame,’ mutter’d oath, Brave Lass, who has banner’d “PRO PATRIA,” Th’ awakening to Reality far worse New Zealand’s name— For him, I wist, Than any dreams such cuckold sleep A Gossamer Web—an aerial wake— Held fragrance, like spikenard— could bring. You have spun between two And if Death came like a moorland mist, Hemispheres; Why—death was not so hard! Stumbling from partial safety An Imperial Love is the guerdon you underground, take— All weary unto death, and leaden- And love liveth longer than ‘Cheers.’ limbed, 8 ...... Poetry Archive Love loop you and guard you—a Mark Pirie, author of this article, is a especially well up in the study of ‘laurel,’ I ween, New Zealand poet, editor, publisher and modern poetry, and he had the rare gift Can only ‘pancake’ on your hair, my archivist for PANZA. of being able to share his passion and jimp* Jean. create in others a desire for culture. He was one of the founders of the W.E.A. *a Scots expression A tribute to S G in Invercargill, and from its inception, *Slender, graceful, slight, neat. besides being secretary, he conducted August the classes for English and Literature, I’ll end with the following sonnet from and thus was able to meet those to the last volume of Verse in 1938, whom his wide reading and experience illustrating his skill as a sonneteer: S. G. AUGUST—POET, would be most beneficial. BOOKMAN, FRIEND by Samuel Gottlieb August was born in IN WHISPERING HOURS Alex Robertson Invercargill in 1880, his father was a German and his mother a Scotswoman, When hatred of all evil is the measure of The work of S G August does not fill a both of them representing the finest love for good, man will have attained large or important niche in the literature types of their respective nationalities. Wisdom. – D.H.L. After leaving school he was employed of New Zealand, nor is it well known for some time in his father’s furniture Today has been a blue Ming Vase, safe- outside of his home county of factory, but feeling that this was not his held Southland, but he was a poet and a vocation he became a school teacher, Between my hands—fill’d with the bookman in the truest sense. He was, and was for some years located at Sun’s flame-flowers, however, so unassuming and modest of country schools in Southland. He Glaz’d like the hyaline Sea. The his attainments, that most of his became possessed of a quiet, sober- whispering hours, productions were printed under a minded horse and rode from and to the Under cool skies of Spring, flow’d pseudonym and he was also quite aware city everyday, and he and Rosinante down and swell’d of his limitations. became well-known characters on the In long, clean curves to shape the highway. Teaching was not a very whole—stay’d, quell’d Now if in humble verse I speak my lucrative profession in those days, so he The frothy hate man’s foolish heart mind, again changed and became manager of outpours; And you will say, ’Tis only good in the furniture department of Bray Bros. And sweeten’d Love, weak wanton- parts, He had early developed a taste for loving sours. It does not mean that I am poesy literature and this was to become his Yet, moony Night day’s beauty far blind. passion in life, occupying his leisure excell’d. Nor a mere dabbler with the higher time in reading, studying and writing. arts, One of his earliest successes was an The eastern steeps of Kapiti were lit But that full utterance is beyond my essay on Sir George Grey, for which he By th’ un-umber’d moon. The slow- voice. got the prize in the Young Men’s curving bay Magazine in 1908, and from then on he Was silver to the sand. By Beauty’s The verse was conventional; he had no began to contribute poems and articles Writ, vital message to deliver nor original to different magazines, and thus he Such island-loveliness did this convey: idea to expound; but he sang from the started on his literary career. At the The hates and loves of men will wisdom heart of everyday thoughts and Jubilee Competitions in Christchurch he reach emotions, so that careless critics will won both the first and second prizes for When hate and love are measure each dismiss his poems as just another book poems, the judge being Professor for each. of verse. His poems and other writings Macmillan Brown. It is interesting to are scattered over a large number of New Zealand and Australian note that about this time another now publications; some of the best have been well-known New Zealand author, Miss collected in a few slim booklets, and a Edith Howes, was a near neighbour in very few have been singled out for the same street in Invercargill. inclusion in New Zealand anthologies, His first collected book of poems, A but the measure of his life’s work Trinket of Rhyme, by L V Kaulbach was cannot be judged by these. What he will published in Melbourne in 1913; be remembered for most was his kindly Stewart Island Verses, by Southerner, personality and the far-reaching came out in 1923; The Oreti Anthology, influence he was able to exercise on by Southerner, in 1933; and The Song of others, by his enthusiasm for what was Children of Leda, by S G August, in best in literature. He had an intense love 1935. Quentin Pope’s anthology Don H Lea, 1918 of books and reading, and was Kowhai Gold reprints one of his lyrics ...... 9 Spring 2013 ‘I would have song’ and in the Late’, about a poor old author whose cherished ambition and opened the Centennial Treasury of Otago Verse masterpiece had been rejected time after Georgian Bookshop, and this became there are five of his poems, including time, and he and his daughter were the Mecca of all book lovers. Old ladies that quaint conceit ‘And there was Yang starving—there wasn’t even a bone in who wanted a nice book to read on Chow’. the cupboard. The daughter decided to Sunday, children for their school books try once again with the MS, and this or adventure stories, subjects for At ninety years of age, blind, deaf and time she was successful and received a technical works, and ardent collectors senile, bag of gold in payment; and set off for hoping to find an over-looked rarity on Yang still kept poetising. home with the glad news. In the the shilling shelves, all were catered for, meantime the privations had been too and received the benefit of Sam’s expert For seventeen years he contributed a much for the poor old dad; he had fallen knowledge. I confess that I was one of poem every week to the Southland from his chair and lay stretched out on the above collectors, but alas, I made no Times, and as might be expected, the the floor dead when the daughter finds. Sam knew too much about books. quality was uneven. Much of it was joyfully rushed into the room. In the small back room of the shop an topical verse and is now of little Overwhelmed with grief she was informal literary club of book lovers interest, but in other lyrics he displayed supposed to throw herself on his breast, were usually gathered, and there were a rare gift of invention and fancy that is but miscalculated the distance and endless discussions and arguments on very charming. He wrote no long slumped down on the more sensitive books and their writers, and very candid poems, but at his best he excelled in part lower down, which caused the dead were the criticisms of the latest best those little lyrics that reveal his love of man to double up and roll over. There sellers. Sam, like his greater namesake, the idea in all things. was a roar of laughter from the presided and delivered judgment; but He was also a supporter and occasional audience, who wanted an encore, but unfortunately there was no Boswell contributor to Aussie during the lifetime the curtain was hastily rung down. present, so a record of the talks and of that ambitious Australian monthly. Sooner or later, all good bookmen say weighty decisions has not been He had a great admiration for the work to themselves: ‘Let’s start a magazine,’ preserved for posterity. of W H Davies, and some of his poems and Sam was of the number. Milton Sam died suddenly on April 29, 1941, at are dedicated to him. began it with his Mercurius Politicus in the age of 60 years. He was not married, His interests were not all in business 1645 (a complete set of this rare paper but he left many sincere friends to regret and literature, however, and he worked is in the Melbourne Library) and down his comparatively early death. He was with tireless energy at any scheme he the years what brilliant company of very generous with his books and many had on hand. He was not interested in writers have launched their sheets upon will cherish his gifts he made of well organised sport, but was fond of outdoor a critical world—Addison and Steel (the selected volumes, inscribed with his life, and was an enthusiastic swimmer. Spectator and Tatler); Johnson (the kindly greeting. The Georgian He was a prime mover in an effort to Rambler and the Idler); Defoe and Bookshop was closed after his death convert part of the waterfront at Wilkes, and last, but by no means least, and his immense stock of books were Invercargill into a pleasure resort, but C R Allen (the Wooden Horse). Sam’s sold and scattered, and Invercargill is owing to its unsavoury neighbourhood excursions into journalism were short- now a benighted place with nowhere for Pleasure Bay proved a failure. He then lived, but he had the satisfaction of a bookworm to browse at leisure. As a transferred his enthusiasm to Oreti knowing that he had achieved his citizen, a bookman, and a good friend Beach, about six miles from the city, ambition. The Stewart Island Chronicle, and companion Sam will be long and this splendid beach is now the most an unpretentious journal of topical remembered by all who knew him, and popular seaside resort for the people of interest, came out in 1920 and was sold as for the future may his contribution to Invercargill. He had not travelled to for 1d weekly, and, as might be New Zealand letters not be forgotten. other lands, so his knowledge of them is expected from the name, was not very derived from books, but he was a loyal serious. The Kiwi, 1923, was a more We shall remember you in days to Southlander, and his poems are of the ambitious effort, sold for 1s. It had a come plains and mountains, the sea and the character sketches and clever And take new heart and think of times islands of the southern province. The caricatures of local celebrities. There long gone, quiet beauty of Stewart Island attracted were poems and articles including And death shall hold you in no silent him, and he spent many holidays there contributions by Shaun O’Sullivan (J J land. and put into verse the charms of the W Pollard), a poem by the Rev. Robert ‘island of the fadeless heavenly glow’. Francis, of Bluff, and a travel sketch by (First published in C R Allen’s He was also interested in amateur W Quinn. In an editorial he refers to magazine, The Wooden Horse, Vol. 2, theatricals, and an embarrassing , who had died No. 3, 1951) contretemps happened once, when he earlier in the year. ‘A literary genius, was acting a story without words at the undoubtedly our best prose writer.’ Invercargill Competitions. It was a very About 1933, having accumulated a vast touching story, ‘Success Came Too collection of books, he realised a long-

10 ...... Poetry Archive and her three children moved to I know a place where golden sand Comment on Auckland, a port of call for Mr Lies burning ’tween the sea and land William Taylor Taylor’s ship. Bill’s two younger Grey sand dunes clad with marram grass sisters were born in Auckland. O’er which the fleeting shadows pass. THE TWILIGHT HOUR takes up the story from here, and through the war I know a place where hills stoop low William Taylor (1894-1991) is a little th known New Zealand poet. It’s fair to years [Bill served with the NZEF, 12 Pohutukawa in beauty grow say that there are a paucity of his poetry Reinforcements]. Bill is now writing By a river flowing silently texts now surviving in New Zealand recollections of the years he spent on Down to meet the restless sea. libraries, so any information on this the East Coast, immediately before the author is highly desirable. war and after his return. Bill married I know a place where launches ride PANZA member Mark Pirie first came in 1922, and soon after took up land in Swing slowly with the changing tide across his name in relation to two works the Waikato and spent the next thirty While flocks of quarrelsome noisy gulls of biography edited by James H years developing it. During this time Swoop and soar around their hulls. Sutherland: The Twilight Hour (an he spent fifteen years with the W.E.A. account of William Taylor’s A breakdown in health in 1949 forced I know of a place where salt winds play experiences on the Western Front him to give up farming, but when he Upon the waters of a bay during World War I) and Sunrise on recovered he became a partner in a Small dinghies to a jetty tied Hikurangi (an account of Taylor’s hardware business in Whangamata. Tug at their tie-ropes side by side. experience as a farmhand on the East He retired from this in 1968, and since Cape of the North Island 1912-13). his wife’s death in 1973 he has lived I know a place where islands sleep Sunrise on Hikurangi lists two poetry at Whangamata. He has a family of Their lullaby the crooning deep collections published by Taylor: four, eleven grandchildren and Around their feet the waters break seventeen great-grandchildren. A I do not think they will ever wake. The Wandering Hand, 1963 daughter died when she was only Where Nature Smiles: Whangamata, twenty-three. Bill’s hobbies are shell- I know a place where tall pines grow 1965 collecting and writing verse. He has Covering the ridges row on row previously published two booklets of Among them like broad ribbons white The latter collection ran in to two poems. Fire-breaks wander out of sight. editions. The Turnbull Library in Wellington holds a copy of the 1979 2nd It doesn’t state when his verse writing I know of a place where sharp saws edition as does University of Waikato began, but the booklet on Whangamata whine and Auckland Libraries. Two other clearly dates from the 1950s/1960s. A Through slender trunks of fallen pine. libraries in the North Island also hold description of Taylor’s verse in Where I still can smell the fragrance where earlier editions of this title (Thames and Nature Smiles: Whangamata would be The heart of pine lies white and bare. University of Waikato), including the pleasant rhymes celebrating a place, first edition of 1965. comparable to George E Dewar’s works I know a road that winds and turns No library in New Zealand, however, on Nelson and Otago. I know a heart that often yearns holds Taylor’s first collection of 1963. The booklet features 11 poems on Like that road to travel far We may be the worse for this yet it is aspects of Whangamata and focuses And rest, at last, at Whangamata. not uncommon for some New Zealand specifically on the ocean, sailing, poets not to have comprehensive seaside and land features, e.g. its holdings in the National Library of New pohutukawa and pine trees and its Zealand. Another case is the Tauranga natural beauty. poet Kathleen Hawkins, who has A good example of Taylor’s style is the produced more booklets than her following lyric: holdings show in the National Library. The Twilight Hour includes the WHANGAMATA following biography: I know a place where sunlit waves WILLIAM TAYLOR was born in Come pounding in through summer Wellington on 11th February, 1894. He days was the only boy in a family of five. Break with an unceasing roar And creaming, surge along the shore. His father was a marine engineer with Bill Taylor the Union Steamship Company. About a year after Bill was born Mrs Taylor

...... 11 Spring 2013 Until … I chanced upon their virgin appearance in the interests of our Comment on retreat: literature, and the New Zealand H Farrington Like slim nymphs they scuttled among reading public have, to their the bushes, everlasting shame, allowed them to White and gold among the russet leaves, fade into oblivion. Several literary In the 1930s, a poet by the name of Leaving a stark blue lapping pool, journals today are endeavouring to ‘H Farrington’ appeared in the Rippling, rippling in the silence. keep afloat, but with a very apathetic Wellington small magazine, The New support from the public. The sooner Zealand Mercury, and became involved (The New Zealand Mercury, November our reading public (if we have one) with the local literary scene. 1935, Vol. 3, No. 8, p. 2) take note of journals issued in the His contributions show an artist’s interests of literature in the Dominion appreciation of form and beauty in the ‘H Farrington’ author of these poems the sooner will be laid the foundation classical Greek sense. The poems imply appears to be Hastings McLeod of a national literature and a reading an interest in sculpture and female Farrington (NZ Electoral Rolls, public. The work of such writers as nudes. Wellington North, 1928, 1935 and C. R. Allen, Edith Howes, James They seem to have appealed to Helen 1938). Farrington was born in 1907. He Cowan, G. B. Lancaster, Isobel M. Longford, the woman editor, who had a is the son of Agnes and Malcolm Peacocke, and many others, most of well-known enthusiasm for atmosphere Farrington. whom made their reputation overseas, and beauty in art. A few biographical details are traceable is mainly confined to the columns of on this author in Papers Past. newspapers, for the simple reason that BEAUTY He first attended Croydon Preparatory magazines that endeavour to support School and later at Wellesley College them are in their turn not supported by “Beauty is only skin deep,” it is said received a swimming prize and was the public. Such a condition is Yet … the most beautiful sight I have involved in swimming sports and life deplorable in a country with nearly a ever seen saving 1921-24. After school, he turns hundred years’ heritage, and the few Was a slim young girl, sun-tanned, with up again fined for traffic offences 1927- that really have the foundation of a firm hips and breasts, 29, attending a Wellington wedding national literature in their hearts are to Splashing in the blue waters of some (Joan Wright-Russell Pope) in 1932, be heartily commended for the vital golden bay. visiting London in April 1933, and suggestion of a New Zealand Authors’ contributing letters to the editor at The Week.—I am, etc., God can make or mar; he moulds with Evening Post (one letter over H. FARRINGTON. His own hands Wellington street names, 23 August Beauty and ugliness; yet on that golden 1933 and a further letter about New D. McLaren replied (The Evening Post, beach Zealand writers and a proposed New 20 August 1935) disagreeing with “John His work personified in that slim young Zealand Authors’ Week, 16 August Dene” and concurring with Farrington’s girl 1935). view of local writers and literature. Whose sun-kissed body gleamed and I will reproduce the letter below Farrington later wrote book reviews flashed in the bright sun… replying to other letters noting the lack (sent from overseas?) for the literary of support for local authors and magazine Arena No. 15 (1947) and No. (The New Zealand Mercury, January publishing outlets and the need for a 19 (1948), including a review of a North 1935, Vol. 2, No. 10, p. 4) New Zealand Authors’ Week. American poetry anthology. Farrington gives an interesting view on After which he seems to have faded RETREAT the fate of New Zealand’s literary from sight. He may have returned magazines during this period, including overseas to serve in the armed forces I chanced upon an Eden; Longford’s New Zealand Mercury: during World War II and live in the UK Beautiful girls splashing in blue water, [London]. Nude and lissom in the noon-day sun, Sir,—I noted with interest recent Slim, white bodies, small pointed comments on New Zealand literature Article by Mark Pirie breasts, by your correspondents “John Dene” Laughing eyes, and golden locks and D. McLaren. That the New agleam; Zealand reading public has ever been Comment on Like children they frolicked apathetic towards our literature and Splashing and cleaving their way the work of our authors is exemplified Chapbook Through the transparent limpid water in the poor support given to our Through which could be seen literary magazines (the few that Their beautiful bodies, pearly limbs… remain in existence, that is). During Chapbook is mentioned in the Oxford the past thirty or forty years many Companion to New Zealand Literature gallant journals have made their

12 ...... Poetry Archive (1998) but the write-up is too brief for the seriousness of the journal. Vincent O’Sullivan About the Poetry The journal was originally a private appointed NZ Archive magazine (Nos. 1-5) and the official journal of the Zillah Castle Chamber Poet Laureate Music Society and the Zillah Castle Poetry Archive of New Zealand String Quartet edited by Ronald B Aotearoa (PANZA) Castle, a Wellington poet and musical PANZA would like to congratulate instrument expert 1945-50. Vincent O’Sullivan on his recent PANZA contains Castle stated that Chapbook ‘exists for appointment as New Zealand’s Poet the encouragement of creative work’ Laureate. A unique Archive of NZ published and was an open door for New Zealand More information at the National poetry, with around five thousand titles writers. Library’s website: from the 19th century to the present Chapbook, a co-operative, was non- http://nzpoetlaureate.natlib.govt.nz/2013 day. profit and did not pay its contributors. /08/your-new-poet-laureate.html The Archive also contains photos and The journal featured literature, music paintings of NZ poets, publisher’s and art and published translations, catalogues, poetry ephemera, posters, poems, stories, sheet music and essays Donate to PANZA reproductions of book covers and other along with artworks/illustrations. memorabilia related to NZ poetry and The leading contributors were Betsy through PayPal poetry performance. Gerrin, D Mona Castle, Ronald B Castle, D M Phipps, Una D Scott, Beryl Wanted Golden, Powina Grey, Louis Johnson, You can now become a friend of NZ poetry books (old & new) James H Sutherland, K E S Gunn, PANZA or donate cash to help us Other NZ poetry items i.e. critical books T France, Kathleen Hawkins and T J continue our work by going to on NZ poetry, anthologies of NZ poetry, Chapman. Children like Jeanette Scott http://pukapukabooks.blogspot.com and poetry periodicals and , also appeared. accessing the donate button – any poetry event programmes, posters A frequent illustrator was Auckland’s donation will be acknowledged. and/or prints of NZ poets or their poetry Jim Beveridge. books. Although the first nine issues were very DONT THROW OUT OLD NZ small, the magazine grew in scope and Recently received POETRY! SEND IT TO PANZA seriousness, becoming international, and was around 40 pages an issue towards donations PANZA will offer: the end of its run. It concluded with • Copies of NZ poetry books for private issue No. 28 in 1950. research and reading purposes. Some of the later work featured was of Michael O’Leary – 13 titles plus Paneta • Historical information for poets, very high quality, particularly the Street by Michael O’Leary CD. writers, journalists, academics, overseas contributors from Canada, the researchers and independent scholars of UK, France and North America, e.g. Rowan Gibbs – around 250 titles (3 NZ poetry. Ignace M Ingianni (USA), the late M E boxes of books, newspapers and • Photocopying for private research Ballantyne (New York) and Lex periodicals). purposes. Anderson (Scotland). • Books on NZ poetry and literary Some of the New Zealand contributors Mark Pirie – 40 titles. history, and CD-ROMs of NZ poetry have substantial outputs, e.g. Powina and literature Grey [Evelyn Macdonald] b. 1870 has a Madeleine Marie Slavick – 16 [16 • CDs of NZ poets reading their work 300-page collected edition of his poetry. Wairarapa poets for Poetry Day 2013]. • Inspirational talks on NZ poets The articles of music criticism are • Video/DVD/film screenings of particularly notable for music scholars. PANZA kindly thanks these donators to documentaries on NZ poets The literature articles give a strong the archive. • Readings/book launches by NZ poets European focus of the UK, France and • Educational visits for primary schools, Spain. intermediates, colleges, universities and Castle certainly deserves credit for creative writing schools/classes. building this magazine up and providing • The Northland Writers’ Walk (in support for a promising new generation planning) of the ’40s that included James H Sutherland and some of Louis Johnson’s earliest uncollected efforts at poetry...... 13 Spring 2013 You can assist the preservation of NZ poetry by becoming one of the Friends of the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA ). If you’d like to become a friend or business sponsor of PANZA, please contact us.

Contact Details Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa (PANZA) 1 Woburn Road, Northland, Wellington PO Box 6637, Marion Square, Wellington Dr Niel Wright - Archivist (04) 475 8042 Dr Michael O’Leary - Archivist (04) 905 7978 email: [email protected]

Visits welcome by appointment

Current PANZA Members: Mark Pirie (HeadworX), Roger Steele (Steele Roberts Ltd), Michael O’Leary (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop) and Niel Wright (Original Books).

Current Friends of PANZA: Paul Thompson, Gerrard O’Leary, Vaughan Rapatahana and the New Zealand Poetry Society.

PANZA is a registered charitable trust

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