IMPORTANCE OF POETRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 26

IMPORTANCE OF POETRY

The importance of poetry in education was referred to by Dr. Cyril Norwood, president of St. John's College, Oxford, at the twenty-eighth birthday luncheon of the Poetry Society shortly before he left for New Zealand: Dr. Norwood, proposing the toast of "Poetry," said that one of the most wonderful things in education was to watch the change which occurred in a boy's mind when poetry really took hold of him. Such a boy acquired a kingdom to which he could always resort and of which he remained the sole sovereign. No one gained .the mastery of that kingdom unless he acquired it in youth. That was why poetry was so important in education. In his own early life and since his own school days there had been encouraging changes, but he remained convinced that where aesthetic values were concerned they had to look out when they came in contact with schools and schoolmasters and, the education system. The teaching of poetry, or rather the encouragement of the appreciation of poetry1; was still hampered by. examinations. One great reform that the Poetry Society ought to press was that English should not be examined at all save in the case of pupils who had passed the ages of 16 or 17.. Let it'be a matter of reading and reciting and acting. Boys and girls loved acting. Let the teacher treat poetry as the material to be used at pleasure and for pleasure.

A German translation of Mr. James Cowan's book of South Sea stories, "Suwarrow Gold," published by Jonathan Cape,, is to appear shortly. The London publishers' have sold the German rights of the book to suLeipzig house, on the author's behalf.