POETRY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26521, 8 September 1951, Page 3

POETRY

Son Among the Ruins. By Louis Johnson. Pegasus Press. 53 pp. .Here is a volume of 33 short poems ?? young New Zealander. Its first consists of 13 love poems, heavy Phrases like “conceptive dark,” tendering loin,” and “the chemistry and I,” Good lines there are. J* ne “ ITles a felicitous roughness in h'J’ythm, but the main impression w a thjnness of emotional experiPut to the service of the author’s to make patterns with words, of fk Sec » on< i section is entitled “Myths 2,®? Living and the Dead.” but the rather pretentious for it merely wHrh Uces an assorted group of poems t C k2? l . ran Be from a lament for lost thoughts on shaving, or for a Maiden Lady,” to reflecon “Death in the Winter” on or Pygmalion and Galatea. John?l * or a Poet” shows that Mr can be very clever, “Chrysaen „ w , a t h°me he is with the mod- “ Poetic manner.

Coloured. Poems by Charles B P**r. Caxton. 60 pp.

Mr Spear the mystique of h •? ee “®B mountains nor the ethos pjhe enisled. He neither “h'edgejjZ- nor botanises on his mother’s v“ e has hardly taken root in i»wl, y Zealand creative compost, tiM!T rin ,S> like Ariel, “to ride on the h tha c .? s ” and flame amazement itu?* tugging of a sensuous imaginit is his electrifying sensuiDjCy ithat does not thicken, but suL Pure, the contemporary atmosajj?’ m short, lyrical poems full of tesnl ~e * citements and exciting at strikes the reader first—strident. always a rich »hisfio iV® vision is as clean as. a fej. o ®’ ms imagery - “streaked with jpana jade,” sinister with flaming,W.Juns’ with “shop-rioped flags, tag of extremes. But his readme anf i unusual, is possessed. Me ®ecome. if one mav degenerPeari, Jms simile, as wine-washed . can catch hold of an image Mtajv, .°P it to a symbol—but a most e ’ feather-like one. His phrase-

charm:

And“£k to the rhythms of ’EI Chocolo’.” wi« words by turn taught, trim, „ bilious and splendid, are and a shade too precious for the among hravura f and'disturbing echoes have given this reviewer his happiest task this year.