John Barr (poet)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Barr of Craigielee (1809-1889) was a Scottish-New Zealand poet. In his time, he was considered the Laureate of Otago province, of which he wrote, in Lowland Scots:

There's nae place like Otago yet,

There's nae wee beggar weans,

Or auld men shivering at our doors

To beg for scraps or banes

Allen Curnow described his writing as "this Scots-colonial parritch... watery gruel at the best."

[edit] References

• Curnow, Allen (ed) The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse