In his anthology of New Zealand Verse Mr Allen Curnow was at some pains to show us, to our own astonishment, that we had something of an emerging national consciousness of poetic destination. He rolled up our scattered snowflakes into a tight little bail, and threw it at the public. And the public, the dear old public, was very very happy because it had at last a national ice cream sundae with a flavour all of its own. There, they said, we can hold up our heads among the nations! Quick, give it to someone for Christmas! Denis Glover, 'Outlook For Poetry', p. 9
