Crete 1941
By: Bernard Cadogan
Publisher: The Tuwhiri Project
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Language: eng
Number of pages: 140
ISBN-13: 9780473587901; 9780473587888
Copyright date: 2021
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945; Campaigns; Poetry; New Zealand Participation; New Zealand poetry; Military campaigns
Description: "Australia has The Great South Road, South Africa has Shaka Zulu, Argentina has the gaucho epic Martin Fierro, and Chile has La Araucana as its national poem. Now New Zealand has Crete 1941, a 2475-line epic poem about the New Zealand-led defence of Crete during the Battle of Crete between 20 May and 1 June 1941. Crete 1941 is the only epic long poem in English since Derek Walcotts Omeros, with the entry of the 28th (Māori) Battalion as an active combat force providing the culmination of the poem. As geopolitical tensions rise in the Pacific today, it is timely to look back to when New Zealand last went to war and defended another small nation Greece on its last redoubt, in a battle that ended in a Dunkirk-style evacuation. More than just a war story, Crete 1941 brings women back into the historic struggle for Crete. The poem is a life-changing reflection on the virtue of good small nations, on the contribution of indigenous people such as Māori and Cretans to international developments, and on the fragility that both peace and its disruptors share. In this poem, Bernard Cadogan tells the story of what small nations such as Greece and Aotearoa New Zealand have had to do to uphold international law, and of the extraordinary extent which indigenous citizenship, such as Māori possess, contributes to the international personality of a country. The defence of the island of Crete in the second world war was a mission which Allied forces could have won. The failure to repel the German landings embroiled Cretans in more than three years of bitter occupation. It is astonishing, in retrospect, that New Zealanders led the defence of the island against a great power such as Germany. Crete is where the famed 28th (Māori) Battalion found its feet in battle. Sfakia on Crete is where the revolutionaries began the struggle for a Hellenic republic in 1821, while in 1941 it was where Allied troops were evacuated from; New Zealand Dunkirk. This poem presents a story which both Greeks and New Zealanders need to recover for themselves from the myths that British writers have created around the Battle of Crete."--Publisher website.
Table of contents: title: Intro; title: Contents; title: Karakia; title: Foreword; title: By Rt Hon Trevor Mallard; title: Introduction; title: Sonnet for Lieutenant Ngārimu VC; title: Crete 1941; title: Canto I; title: Canto II; title: Canto III; title: Canto IV; title: Canto V; title: Sonnet to Hölderlin; title: Coda; title: About the author; title: Thanks; title: Tuwhiri thanks