Ronald Allison Kells Mason (10 January 1905 – 13 July 1971) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. Described by

Allen Curnow Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist. Life Curnow was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of a fourth generation New Zealander, an Anglican clergyman, and he grew up in a relig ...

as New Zealand's "first wholly original, unmistakably gifted poet", he was born in Penrose,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

on 10 January 1905. He was educated at

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, where he met fellow poet

A. R. D. Fairburn Arthur Rex Dugard Fairburn (2 February 1904 – 25 March 1957), commonly known by his initials A. R. D. Fairburn and otherwise as Rex, was a New Zealand poet who was born and died in Auckland. Fairburn was born in Auckland in 1904. His grandfa ...

. Mason was the holder of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in 1962. He died in Takapuna, Auckland on 13 July 1971.

Works

Poetry

*''The Beggar'' (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1924) *''Penny Broadsheet'' (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1924) *''No New Thing'' (Spearhead Publishers, 1934) *''End of Day'' (Caxton Press, 1936) *''This Dark Will Lighten'' (Caxton Press, 1941) *''China Dances and Other Poems'' (John McIndoe, 1962) *''Collected Poems'' (Pegasus Press, 1962)

Radio Play

*''Squire Speaks'' (Caxton Press, 1938)

Prose

*''Frontier Forsaken: An Outline History of the Cook Islands'' (Challenge, 1947) *''Four Short Stories 1931–1935'' (Holloway Press, 2003)

Music

* ''The Young Man Thinks of Sons'' by NZ group Ferocious (

Bill Direen William Direen (born 1957) is a New Zealand writer and performer. He graduated from Canterbury University (Christchurch) with the John Tinline Prize (1980) and M.A. Hons. (1st). His masters thesis was titled ''The influence of Japanese noh, B ...

, Johannes Contag and Mark S. Williams) (

Rattle Records Rattle Records, established in 1991, is a contemporary art-music label based in Auckland, New Zealand. It releases compositions generally by New Zealand composers in contemporary art genres. It has been described as "the de facto home of New Zeala ...

, February 2020
Music video (2020).
* New Zealand composer

David Farquhar David Andross Farquhar (5 April 1928 – 8 May 2007) was a New Zealand composer and professor of music at Victoria University of Wellington. Biography Farquhar was born in Cambridge, New Zealand, in 1928 but spent most of his early years in F ...

(1928-2007) composed a setting of "On the Swag" for unaccompanied choir. The score can be obtained from SOUNZ. * ''On the Swag'' Christopher Marshall (1956-) for mixed choir, unaccompanied. For details see SOUNZ and the National Library of New Zealand. * ''On the Swag'' by Dunedin hymn writer Colin Gibson, sung by tenor soloist Edmund Hintz, on “Spirited People” by the Festival Singers of Wellington.

References

External links

Poems:R.A.K. Mason
1905 births 1971 deaths People educated at Auckland Grammar School New Zealand male poets 20th-century New Zealand poets 20th-century New Zealand male writers {{NewZealand-poet-stub