KING'S PRIZE FOR POETRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

KING'S PRIZE FOR POETRY.

AN OXFORD WINNER.

In November, 1033, it was announced that henceforth the King would offer every year a gold and a silver medal for poetry in English language published in volume form within tho Empire by British citizens. Tho awards would be made either for a poet's first or second volume of verse or to a poet still under 33. The first committee of judges was to consist of John Masefield (chairman), Laurence Binyon, Walter do la Mare, Professor Gilbert Murray and 1010 A. Richards.

The first award of the gold medal, a beautiful piece of work designed by Edmund Dulae, has now been made (writes the literary correspondent in London of the New York "Times"). Out of several hundred volumes submitted— the largest batch arrived from India— the judges were unanimously of opinion that the best volume of verse published during 1934 under the above-mentioned conditions was "Four Walls," the second volume of verse by Lawrence Whistler. They were especially impressed by a poem entitled "The Burial," describing the funeral of a dictator who altered the stream of a nation's life. The prizewinner is a young Balliol man of 23, who won the Chancellor's English essay prize at Oxford last year. He is a brother of Rex. Whistler, the designer.

One of the purposes of the institution of the King's medals was to quicken public interest in poetry. Apparently such a stimulus is sorely needed. For there comes, almost simultaneously, an announcement that the Poetry Bookshop, in Bloomsbury, is closing down. It was opened in 1913 by the late Harold Munro as a sort of poetry centre. The shop itself was well stocked with the works of major and minor poets alike, and twice a week, in adjoining rooms, there were readings of contemporary verse. For many years the opportunities thus offered were greatly appreciated by both writers and readers of poetry. Since Munro's death the enterprise has been carried on by his wife, but lack of financial support lias now compelled her, regretfully, to discontinue it.