NZ LIT 101
Modernism’s
kiwi kulturkampf was, to say
the
least, fraught, as Apollo and Dionysos warily
circled
each other like rival falcons over roadkill
about the
bromeliad gyre of national identity
in
Wolfskehl’s Thule of the South.
On Team
Apollo the bronzed beach boys of Logos:
Curnow,
Walters and Stead, while the wine god’s posse
gathered
the hairy-arsed revellers: Baxter, Fairburn,
McCahon,
and equivocating Sargeson twixt
the two
hosts, both sides screaming
Cumae’s
song at each other while οἱ πολλοί
of the
city states looked on uncomprehending,
waiting
for the slouching Annunciation;
The Great Cycle of centuries begins anew,
Justice and the Reign of Saturn returns.
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