optimum form. malcolm heath, in his introduction to aristotle's 'poetics' (p xvi) discusses optimum form: 'Once the optimum form of anything has been achieved, further development of it is by definition impossible'- aristotle gives the example of greek tragedy. i dont know enough about aboriginal songs to know or tell if ngarla songs have a distinct form or are variations on other aboriginal song forms - it is probablt impossible to tell from roman print versions of the original languages or the english translations. we cant know how old ngarla songs are as form. those in the book are 20th century but it is possible they reached optimum form before aristotle (384-322 bc). rodney hall in the collins book of australian poetry suggests aboriginal songs may be 40 000 years old.