Collected Poems

by R.A.K. Mason, Allen Curnow (Editor)

First published by the Pegasus Press in 1962 and reissued by VUP in 1990, this is the definitive collection of the poems of R.A.K. Mason.

Mason has long been recognised as a poet of rare originality and distinction in New Zealand.

‘R.A.K. Mason is the poet we think of as being the first genuinely New Zealand Poet. He is certainly the first New Zealand poet I read with enthusiasm.’ —Bill Manhire

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Ronald Allison Kells Mason was a New Zealand poet, described by Allen Curnow as New Zealand's "first wholly original, unmistakably gifted poet".

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bring clove cinnamon and mace
for no path my love must tread
but for the quiet place
where her small powerful face
lies strong and dead :
perfume her lovely head—

What need is there for such aid
when the curls crowding her brow
and the sweetness that is made
from her bright body still evade
her death, even now
as fragrant as a pine-bough

As a bough that sings where it soars
unseen far aloft and unknown
and in the sweet evening pours
its murmur of surf on far shores
to the sky alone
with a soft and melodious tone?

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing collection of poems from a writer regarded as an early modernist among New Zealand poets. While there were many fine poems and sections of poems in this collection, and I can see why the writer is regarded highly, overall it just wasn't quite to my taste. Perhaps it was the overemphasis on religious verse, which makes up a sizeable part of this collection, or on the sonnet form, which seems to have been a favourite of Mason's, but for some reason I found it hard to enthuse over the collection as a whole. Despite that, as I said, there were many instances where the writer did strike a resonant chord, enough that overall I feel 3.5 stars would be an appropriate rating.