VERSE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 3

VERSE

Poems. By James Devaney. Angus and BoberUon. 126 pp.

This volume, which is arranged chronologically, contains a representative selection from the poetry of an Australian writer who has been producing his “slim volumes" (now all out of print) for nearly 30 years. He describes himself as a "writer of verse who is not at one with the times in the matter of contemporary verse convention, and technique,.” He has not discarded rhyme. Far from it; in fact, sometimes bis poems are dominated by rhyme as in ‘‘The Boat” which begins.

The calm Is deep dnd the stream asleep, and the wind has died. Oh, ply no more but with idle oar in the stillness glide, and continues with the same tyrannical rhyme-scheme throughout. He is fond of ail the outmoded and more obvious poetic devices such as alliteration and assonance, and he likes simple rhythms. There would be no objection to all this, if it were not that the thoughts arid emotions expressed in his poems are usually rather sentimental, and his images obvious. Nevertheless, his feeling for the beauty of Nature is simple and direct. The majority of the poems are nature poems and they do give the reader an idea of the Quality of the Australian landscape and its wild life. Occasionally there are ballads, too, like “The Bunyip.” which have a good swing to them. The whole collection is pleasantly unpretentious. It should be mentioned also that the book is excellently bound and printed, and has a most elegant appearance.