Mark Pirie has edited this previously uncollected group of poems. The whole thing has remained unpublished since 1924.
Some of this may sound old school, full of iambic pentameter and rhyming couplet. Sherratt, working for the Railways, was posted in places like Christchurch, Invercargill, Greymouth and Kaiapoi, from where this sequence was penned. Polynesian Legends offers a glimpse of Pakeha representations of Maori mythology and legend.
''Maui Seeks the Goddess of Fire (No. 11)'':
... When morning came the slaves their embers found
All cold and dead and scattered o'er the ground.
To Maui's mother some the news had brought,
And she a messenger then quickly sought
Amongst the slaves to seek the spirit Flame,
And to her ears their lack of fire proclaim;
But all the slaves drew back in mortal fear -
None for this awesome task would volunteer.
This whole thing is curious and original. It is both inventive and ambitious.
Michael O'Leary has added a helpful introduction.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
