"THE PERFUME VENDOR."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 272, 16 November 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

"THE PERFUME VENDOR."

NEW ZEALAND POEMS. Miss Gloria Rawlinson is a poet who has learnt very early in life the power of words, and in her latest book, "The Perfume Vendor" (Hutchinson), published at the age of fifteen, words are used with all the magic of one who can speak a fairy tongue. For in all truth, Gloria knows tho fairy folk. Their airy dancing, the silver and blue of their light, and the whimsical humour of the goblins are all reflected in her poems. There is much of the same swing and delicacy in this new volume, a miscellany dating from the day on which she first took up her pen, and including the later poems, so that the reader may follow her rapid advance. There are old favourites of the little blue "Gloria's Book," with a tinkle of gaiety in their, charming childish lilt, such as "Belinda" and "A Flower Romance." But there are, too, depth of thought and serenity of soul, and such poems as "She picked the Spray," "The Oleander Blooms Again," "Easter Morning" and "The Mother" will live in the hearts of some who read them. Two others of strangely varying styles must be mentioned. One that will appeal to all New Zcalandcrs is "The Garden," while the other is the last of the volume, "Sorcery, a song of death, with haunting light and shadow. Oh, will lie give mo a poppy-flight dream, deep, delirious, dim? Or people my slumber with fairy tilings? "The Beadseller," sung by A Garrulous Goblin, rivals the "Perfume Vendor" with its wealth of colour and its romance. "The Perfume Vendor," from which the title of tho book is taken, lias the same touch of faery in it, deepened and lit with the colour of magic words: Oil, T/ove is like the scents I sell, it sweet and crystal pure, It holds the fragrant loveliness of things that will endure.

Gloria's crystal-pure poems, like Ncroli's scents, hold for all lovers of verse "the fragrant loveliness of things that will endure."