Abel Janszoon Tasman & The Discovery of New Zealand

1942

Brasch G236 T3 A351

Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs

In 1942 poet Allen Curnow was commissioned by the Department of Internal Affairs to write a poem to mark the tercentenary (13 December, 1942) of Abel Tasman’s arrival in New Zealand. On finishing the poem, he took it to Douglas Lilburn, who promptly put music to the poem, which was called Landfall in Unknown Seas. Charles Brasch’s literary journal <i>Landfall</i> was named after the poem. This signed presentation copy from Denis Glover to Curnow reveals a misplaced line in the second stanza of this now iconic New Zealand poem.