THE YEAR’S POETRY, 1934

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 25

THE YEAR’S POETRY, 1934

The ‘ Year’s Poetry ’ has been selected by Gerald Gould, John Lehmann, and Denys Kilham Roberts from books published between the summer of 1933 and the summer of 1934, some periodicals, and also includes some hitherto unpublished items. Well-known names are represented— Mr Yeats, the Poet Laureate, .Messrs \V. H. Davies, Walter de la Marc, John Drinkwater. Humbert \\ one, Siegfried Sassoon, W. J. 1 tinier, Herbert Palmer, Robert Nichols, Ldmund Blunden, the Sitwells, Miss SackvilleWest, Miss Sylvia Lynd, and Andrew Young, with a number less well known. Here is the last stanza from Herbert Palmer’s poem on ‘ The Passing of Lord Grey ’: — Through green woods of wonder, Where tho pretty birds sing, “ Tiraloo, ebing, citing, 0, where are you wayfaring?— BTsherman, B'ate’s man, Fair nobleman, statesman, Fine bird friend. True great man.” ’ And the first from Sylvia Lynd’s ♦ The Street ’ What fierce pleasure, what fierce pain Those lovers knew who walked this street; Oh, what an Edeu had it been, If none but they had walked in it; A southward slope of sunny green, All over-arched with springing trees— Oh, what an Eden had it been Unpeopled save by these! A few lines may be quoted from the heart of V. Sackville-West’s poem, ‘ On the Lake ’: — . . . Peer in the water Over the boat’s edge; seek the sky’s night-heart; Are they near, are they far, those clouds, those stars Given, reflected, pooled ? Are they so close For a hand to clasp, to lift them, feel their shape, Explore their reality, take a rough possession? Oh, no! too delicate, too shy for hand ling. They tilt at a touch, quiver to other shapes, Dance away, change, are lost, drowned, scared. Many will be glad to read Mr Mar tin Robertson’s ‘ Through the door ’: — [ stepped out of my thoughts And saw the grass road, straight between dark hedge? Patch-worked with green and grey And flecked with white of large convolvulus, caught Among blackberry flowers with torn edges And honeysuckle drooping antlered sprays Pink, gold, and white, sweetening the light stillness By bird-notes pierced but not dispersed. While' easy coolness Lay soft against my skin. “ Why are we always thinking Since being is so pleasant?” I thought, and the door closed as 1 stepped in. It is good to know, that the Bodley Read hope to publish the ‘ Year’s Poetry ’ in the years to come.