Roderic Quinn many years ago forsook the study of law and the practice of school teaching for the flowery paths of literature, and since then has poured forth a stream of verse, much of which contains the pure gold of poetry. He is now near his grand climacteric, and as is fitting has issued a volume, of his collected poetry. All his best-known and most appreciated efforts are included.
Here in this book are to be found A Grey Day and The Camp Within the West, which date back to the last century, but have retained, their interest for all amateurs of Australian verse. The Lotus Flower and The Seeker also have long been widely known. They have a quality that seems likely to ensure their permanence. But, for many, Quinn's poems of the free life of the West will have the stronger appeal. The toast of the men in the Out-east camps -
Last with this-may their hearts discover,
On every track that the outcast tramps,
A friend in need and at need a lover,
Green grass round them and kind stars over
And dreams of peace in their western camps.
A virile roughness in the verse that would have been condemned by the Victorians is counted a virtue now, and grandsires and grandsons, will have to settle the question on the heights of Olympus. A fine volume closes with a noble poem, The Soul of the Anzac. Our copies of both publications come to us from Mr, W. H. Hurd, bookseller and news agent, Wilson street, Burnie.
First published in The Advocate, 24 December 1920
[Thanks to the National Library of Australia's newspaper digitisation project for this piece.]
Here in this book are to be found A Grey Day and The Camp Within the West, which date back to the last century, but have retained, their interest for all amateurs of Australian verse. The Lotus Flower and The Seeker also have long been widely known. They have a quality that seems likely to ensure their permanence. But, for many, Quinn's poems of the free life of the West will have the stronger appeal. The toast of the men in the Out-east camps -
Last with this-may their hearts discover,
On every track that the outcast tramps,
A friend in need and at need a lover,
Green grass round them and kind stars over
And dreams of peace in their western camps.
A virile roughness in the verse that would have been condemned by the Victorians is counted a virtue now, and grandsires and grandsons, will have to settle the question on the heights of Olympus. A fine volume closes with a noble poem, The Soul of the Anzac. Our copies of both publications come to us from Mr, W. H. Hurd, bookseller and news agent, Wilson street, Burnie.
First published in The Advocate, 24 December 1920
[Thanks to the National Library of Australia's newspaper digitisation project for this piece.]
