MODERN POETRY

Evening Star, Issue 22261, 12 February 1936, Page 12

MODERN POETRY

PUBLIC LIBRARY DISPLAY A poetry display has been arranged in the lending and reference rooms of the Dunedin Public Library. _ An op», portuhity is being, taken to display. re-‘ cent additions to the comprehensive collection of English poetry already on the shelves. The Georgian poets—De la Mare, W.H. Davies, Ralph Hodgson, Harold Monro, and Wilfrid Gibson .among; others—are wellrepresented, as also are the rebels against the Georgian poets—namely, the "Sitwells (Osbert, Edith, and Sacheverell)'. Outstanding . among the mass of post-war, poetry—the poetry of frustration and disillusionment, is that written by Robert Graves, Robert Nichols, V. SackvilleWest, and Edmund Blunden.. For the last 10 years the greatest single in-', fluence in modern English poetry has-, come, not from within, but from-Ame» ; rica. T. S. Eliot no longer dominates English poetry, but there is not a poet writing to-day who can entirely escape his influence, , ■ And now there is a genuine new, movement in English poetry, although - the fact that a new school has arisen seems not generally to "be recognised,-.. The movement is. characterised by .itsi, attention to the mechanisation of modern life and its desire for a new world' order. The latter is shown clearly . by, the attitude to contemporary politics. And when poetry begins to concern itself with the problem of politics it is touching ground which every reader of every newspaper is aware of as a present reality. Prominent in this group are W. H. Auden, Cecil Day-Lewis, Stephen Spender. These are writers who, if contemporary poetry is allowed any value at all, may .fitly represent it at its best. - ■