The early work, ‘Lament (1)’, for example, demonstrates the attempt to make the classical Maori tradition accessible to a largely English-speaking audience. Praiseworthy at the time, much of it reads like bad early Victoriana. ‘He waiata whakahōnore atu ki a Haki rāua ko Hōhepa’, on the other hand, is a lament in classical form, retaining the language, rhythms and figures of this tradition, as well as employing the idioms of contemporary speech in a radical and highly successful departure from the strictures of the form.