POETRY OR CHOCOLATES?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 12

POETRY OR CHOCOLATES?

WHICH DO WOMEN PREFER? Many excellent people have at many times become indignant over the success of poets and such unworthy artists as far as women are concerned (writes Sybil Vincent in the Evening Standard). They may write fifth-rate poetry, wear threadbare clothes, and not even have the saving grace of being particularly good looking, yet. not only in novels but in real life the serious-minded, hard-working young man is left stranded high and dry while the poet goes off, at least temporarily, with the young lady. It is all put down to women’s illogical and unbalanced minds. No one with any sense of proportion or values could prefer a piece of poetry, a mere scrap of paper, to a box of chocolates as a birthday present. Of course, a box of chocolates, or a pearl necklace, u* whatever the concrete offering may be. has certain advantages. . . . Not only is it a possession, but a symbol of the giver’s position in life. Without industry or good fortune he could not be able to buy such things. Still, anyone with the necessary money can get boxes of chocolates or pearl necklaces by the dozen across the counter. .The worst sonnet in the world, on the other hand, can only be written after severe and prolonged mental effort. The less inspired the poet the harder work it probably is. Indeed, if mental anguish rather than literary merit is the criterion, that rather bad set of verses by one of our youngest and most minor poets, who has no hopes of it ever appearing in print, is more of a tribute than any lines addressed to Laura, Lesbia, or Beatrice, whoso lovers were far more anxious to show off their metrical skill than to immortalise their ladies. They say that this is an unpoetical age, judging from the small number of our poets, but all the same there are few young men who were in one of the many intellectual sets at Oxford or Cambridge who do not -write poetry on occasions, although it is rarely good enough to be published, and far more young women receive poems than is generally imagined. They are mostly only halftime poets, of course. Still, it is possible to cultivate a poetic appearance in a_ number of professions nowadays. Even in the civil service I know of several poets w T ho have been allowed to keep their long and frenzied hair and generally threadbare appearance.