LIFE AND THE POET.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 209, 4 September 1929, Page 6

LIFE AND THE POET.

WfTl you permit one who feels a little out of place in the turbulent sea of modern life, and who lays nc* claim to know much about poetry, to venture her opinion upon the present discussion? I do not presume to understand "Taumarunui's" technical criticisms of Mr. Podkins' verses, but will you permit me to state that I find in them a cheerful and elevating strain that appears to be lacking in many of the other verses I have read in the newspapers? I feel sure that most of your readers enjoy the simple pleasures of Nature, the songs of the little birds, the frolicking of the tender lambs, and the joys of the sun and the open road. I am not able nowadays to go abroad as much as I used to once, but I find comfort in the works of that great poet, the late Laureate, Lord Tennyson. I still find enjoyment in some verses of his that I learnt years ago, which begin "What does little birdie' say, on her nest at peep of day ?" Now I would not presume to say that Mr. Podkins' verses are as elegant as Lord Tennyson's, but there is about them, I feel, something straightforward, genteel and nice, something that satisfies our longing to appreciate the beauty scattered so lavishly all around us.. So I cannot but feel that "Taumarunui's" remarks are rather unkind. MILLICENT TYNDALE.