LOVE OF POETRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 12

LOVE OF POETRY.

Tho great charm and pleasure which could be obtained from a love of poetry was the subject of a talk given before the members of the Penwomen's Club yesterday afternoon by Mrs. L. E. Eowlatt. The president, Mrs. Carr-Rollet, presided. The speaker dwelt on the infinite variety of poetry. Most people, she said, see life through smoked glasses, but tho poet is a person more alive than his fellows. Poets deepen emotions and enable us to sec more clearly the beauty of existence. Many people think poets a sentimental type, but Mrs. Rowlatt said all those she met in England were strictly practical, with a sharp eye on royalties. Stevenson was one of the poets she loved, and when she was sleeping under the stars, she thought of Stevenson's appreciation of the open road. Turning to. the greater writers, the speaker pointed out how Splendid were the pictures painted by Milton, and the beauties in the poetry of Keats. For sheer excitement and a breathless picture, Masefleld's "Reynard the Fox" was unequalled. In colour and music Kipling and Newbolt gave a vivid impression. Poetry could only be understood by study and reading. To appreciate the music of poetry, it should be read aloud. She was sorry to say that a great love of poetry was not found widely in the Dominion. It was not loved as it is loved in England. One of the most delightful places in London was tho Poetry Bookshop, where poets like Drinkwater read their poems aloud. This was a place which should not be missed by any travelling New Zealander. New Zealand was a new country, but there was a good deal of verse produced, and some of it was really poetry, said the speaker. This was the opinion of one capable of judging, she said, with which she agreed, and as it was a young country she hoped great things from the writers. Mrs. Rowlatt also spoke of the poems which have been written by the poets of revolt, which have had great effect in righting some great evils. The best five women poets, she held, _ were Sapplio, Emily Dickenson, Christina Kossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Edna Vincent Millay, an American, while Mary Gilmorc and Lola Gaunt were good in Australia, and Eileen Duggan in New Zealand. The best way to learn poetry was to keep all one loves beside one, and this would teach the love of the beauty of words in verse more easily than any other method. At the conclusion the speaker was thanked by the president for her address.