Tonga’S 92-Years-Old

Poet

ON May 5, Mr. Alfred Cowley, a very well-known resident of Nukualofa, Tonga, was 92 years old; and he celebrated his birthday by writing this little poem;

When I Go West

When I go west, be there no grief

expressed

No painful sigh, no mournful tear, For one set free from hope or fear, Whose love of life does not extend To “Life Eternal,” without end.

More humble is my brief request; That with the Summons to go West, There comes assuring consciousness That all that life once marred is mended, That Nature and I in one are blended.

Nevermore is there worst, or best — Only the grave’s most perfect rest.

May 5, 1951.

A. Cowley.

Mr. Cowley was born in England in 1859, and he was trained as a baker and con fectioner. He arrived in New Zealand when he was only 24 and, within seven years, he was a trader on his own ac count. He moved to Tonga in 1895, and established a profitable business there as baker, confectioner and manufacturer of aerated waters.

As the decades passed, Mr. Cowley turned more and more to a contemplation of science and the arts, and some of his literary work has outstanding merit. He writes very good prose: but his natural inclination is towards poetry. Here is a set of verses which he wrote at Christmas time, 1937. Few writers have succeeded so well in putting into words that in describable attraction of the South Pacific Islands:-

South Seas Magic

Magic of South Sea Islands, formed of light from the stars; Fragrance of spice-laden breezes, music of native guitars; Roll of the surf on its beaches, lilt of sweet song on the air; Voices in harmony blended, joyous with freedom from care.

Glamour of Island enchantment, magic of Southern seas— Long rolling sweep of its billows, seductive caress of its breeze: Wafted from Island to Island, from palm fringed lagoon to the strand, Fragrant in glorious sunlight, gateway to fairy land.

Bevy of brown-hued maidens in garlands of flower and palm Beguile the heart from its bosom by magical spell of their charm: The soul in ecstatic emotion, inspired by vision of these, Is impelled to a life-long devotion, to linger and dream ’neath the trees.

South Sea Islands magic, lure of the reef and the palm, Transports of glamorous enchantment, coral formed islets that charm; Memory of a meeting; a moon-lit camp by the sea— One glance, a word of greeting, my heart was in thrall to thee.

Magic of South-Sea-Islands, marvel of lure and charm.

Are enshrined in thy peerless beauty, sweet maid of the coral and palm.

“I tried, in these verses, to depict the idyllic conditions of life in these Islands, as it once was, but which long since has ‘gone with the wind.’ ” writes Mr. Cowley.

“I place the termination of that era about 1920; and the poem represents my desire to picture something of the free dom. the friendliness, the naturalness and

happiness expressed once by these people

(See foot Col. 1, Page 59)

in song and laughter, bubbling over with the sheer joy of living.”

“I have lost interest in world affairs, and have no opinion to offer respecting the Korean impasse, or the unsavoury diplomatic mess into which the British Labour Government has been dragged by the blunders of Truman and Mac Arthur,” he goes on; but his comments on world affairs are as incisive as ever!