"VERSE ALIVE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

"VERSE ALIVE."

NEW NOTES IN OUR POETRY.

New Zealand poetry is moving fast from the old sentiments and sentimentalities of bellbirds and tuis and the immigrant's nostalgia. It has its advanced school, advanced in thought and form. It is helping to create a national spirit, and it is setting forth revolutionary ideas. What Mr. Denis Glover says in "Home Thoughts" in the volume "Verse Alive," issued by the Caxton Press, Christchurch, is in the minds of many New Zealanders. I do not dream of Sussex downs Or Quaint old England's quaint old towns; I tliink ot what will yet lie seen In Johnsonville or Geraldine. A North Island poet might have used Maori names. This, however, is perhaps the mildest poem in a collection which is so named because, in the opinion of its editors, it is alive with the urgency of the time. Here is strong meat. Sir. Lan Slilner heartens strikers in San Francisco; "Julian" sees in church "old Mammon mouthing the responses"; Sir. Denis Glover writes with cutting irony about a Radical meeting, the implication being that this sort of intellectualism will not build a new State; Sir. A. R. D. Fairburn indulges a rare bent for savage epigram. Dr. J. C. Beaglehole's "Newspaper Reader" is a picture of a mad world. If all the world lie mad to-day Why should not 1 bo mad as they? This is a poem with line form. And in "Cycling at Night" Dr. Beaglehole weds metaphysics with beauty. Sir. Allen Curnow is another poet with a metaphysical urge. At present his reach exceeds his grasp, if one may quote Browning in tlieso days, but he has vision. The invective of the book is at times rather shrill and boring, but the "some measure of lively independence" that the editors claim, is there, and with it some true poetry. The verses are all taken from the Christchurch journal "To-morrow" and are collected by H. Winston Rhodes and Denis Glover. Sir. R. A. K. Mason is one of our most original poets, so a new volume from him is welcome. "End of the Day" (Caxton Press, Christchurch) contains livo short poems. "Prelude" likens his poetic method to a short straight Roman sword. Leave the thinjr of pearls with silken tassels to priests and ffirls and currish vassals. Here's 110 line cluster 011 (lie hilt, this drab blade lacks lustre— but it can stab. This, indeed, has always been Sir. Mason's way. His poetry has always been stripped and stark, getting uncompromising effects in a few words, and so it is in this slight booklet. Th* Caxton Press is to be complimented 011 the distinguished format of these two booklets. This is how verse should be printed.