THE POET LAUREATE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 209, 3 September 1919, Page 11

THE POET LAUREATE.

(To the Editor.) _ Sir, in his "Random ■Shots" generally hits the "bull's eye," ■ -and he did not niks the mark in last \ Saturday's issue in aiming at the Poet- ■ lauriette. He probably was within the ! mark when he hinted that not 5 per j cent- of ''Star" readers could give his | name—at anyrate on the spur of the j moment. It kept mc awake for some J time one night while attempting to j solve the problem. I ran down the | alphabet—as my wont is when forj gettimr names —from "A" to "Z" to get at the initials, and when making a fresh 3ta-r.t I hft upon it; both Christian and surname begins with "A"—Alfred Austin —ibut they are his patronymics. What is his name to-day? "Ay, there's the run." Surely a 'baronetcy, or peerage, has 'been conferred upon him before now. The very fact that it took the British I Government four years to consider who should he the worthy successor of Lord Tennyson is a .proof positive that he is a poet of some distinction. During those four years and more he wrote several poems which are now very rare, rarely met with, and still more rarely read. Moreover, he wrote the Coronation Ode in 1911, and after that rested on his laurels. H, however, what "Zanriel" said of him is true, he must of late have taken to prose, and used some shockingly bad language. But the whole question of laureateship brings to mind a witticism on the part of the Rev. A C. Lawry, so well-known throughout New Zealand for his saving grace of humour. It was at a public meeting while discussing poetry he said that "he used to "devour" "In Memoriam' and feast' on Tennyson, and they called j him the 'Poet Lawrv-ate.'"—l am, etc., R.P.R.