Myths & Legends of the Ancient Pākehā

In this collection of poems Glenn Colquhoun explores a range of Pakeha oral poetic forms; sea shanties, hymns, ballads, nursery rhymes and clapping songs. It is a companion volume to Three Women, his collection of poetry in Te Reo Māori, and is richly illustrated by Nigel Brown.  "It was by looking at Māori oral poetry more closely that I came to ask what it is that a Pakeha oral poem might sound like. And whether it is capable of holding the same power. Might a sea shanty meet the energy of a haka? Can a hymn stand up to a moteatea? To find out I went back to the ways that spoken English poetry first arrived in New Zealand: via sea-shanty and hymn, lullaby and nursery rhyme, working song, clapping song and skipping song. I also went back to what has often been the concern of oral poems, our histories."