FOR LOVERS OF POETRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21830, 17 December 1932, Page 4

FOR LOVERS OF POETRY

" A Tale of Troy." By John Masefleld (Holneraann, 5s net). “News From the Mountain." By Richard Church (Dent, Ss €d net). . ; _ , " Texts and Pretexts." By Aldous Huxley (Chatto and Wlndus, fs 6d net). " The Poetry of T. S. Eliot.” By Hugh Ross Williamson (Hodder and Stoughton, 5s net). " New Zealand Best Poems of 1932." Chosen by C. A. Harris (Harry H. Tombs, 2s net). “Gift Booh of New Zealand Verse.” Compiled by “ John o’ Dreams" (New Zealand Radio Publishing Company).

Two English Poets There was a time in England when poets were frequently best-sellers. Scott Byron, Tennyson, Browning, all knew at some period in their careers the satisfaction that even a high-minded writer of verse must experience when bis work runs through several editions immediately it appears. Nowadays the public ,buys verse charily, reluctantly, if at all. • ine Testament of Beauty," Masefields collected poems, the work of Alfred Noyes, have drawn forth a practical expression of appreciation from buyers of books, but for the most part we are confronted by the somewhat dispiriting spectacle ot poets who publish their poems because it is a necessity of their being that their work should be available to those to whom it may bring pleasure, but are forced to depend on lecturing and publishing (like Mr Eliot), on journalism (like Mr Woolf), on book reviewing (like Mr Gould) or on novel writing and criticism (like Mr Church) for their livelihood. Yet one might honestly say that, never has poetry been more interesting than to-day. or the number of writers of poetry deserving of critical acknowledgment or public appreciation greater. Among the volumes published in time for Christmas that may prove of interest to readers of verse there is something to please all tastes. Mr Masefields A Tale of Troy ” demonstrates Ins art in its purer form. In a series of narrative poems which at times are of great, beauty, and are always interesting for their structure and appreciation of English, he has retold a well-known story with tresb vision and a new style. Mr Church s "News From the Mountain " consolidates his reputation as one of the foremost living lyric poets. His is a chaste, but not a severe Muse, and this volume contains much that is finely emotional as well as perfectly wrought.

Huxley and Eliot Mr Huxley contributes an anthology, but one as different from the usual verse anthology as is his fiction from that ot the Victorians. The book, Texts and Pretexts,” is divided into 45 sections, under such headings as ‘Man and Nature,” “Physical Passion, England, “ Money," and so on, and Mr Huxley provides his own running commentary on what he quotes. Need we say that his views are always his own, that his selections are in no way conventional? This is a most stimulating work, its range being wide enough to include Chaucer and Burns, Plato and Arnold. Mr Hugh Ross Williamson, the editor of the Bookman, is confessedly an enthusiast where

the work of T, S. Eliot is concerned, but his “The Poetry of T. S. Eliot” goes considerably deeper than a mere appreciation. Eliot’s poetry, particularly The Waste Land,” requires an elucidator. It is of such complex structure as to baffle those whose reading has been on more conventional lines, and its allusions, often veiled or without the general range ot scholarship, are none the worse for having an enunciation apart from that of the author himself. This well-balanced, it uncritical study contains a complete analysis of “ The Waste Land,” discusses other aspects of Eliot’s work, and has a note on works in progress, with quotations from a section not yet published m England. New Zealand Poetry

Art in New Zealand contains its most refined expression in the quarterly published by Messrs Harry H. Tombs, and there could be no better sponsor tor “New Zealand Best Poems of 1932, which is edited By Mr C. A. Mnrns. There is nothing in this little volume, from the experimental work of some o: the younger poets to the completely satisfying work on more traditional b nes those who are well known in the Dominion, which does not justify its selection. The book is of more than ephemeral interest, and we can commend it sincerely, both for what it contains and what it promises. Dunedin is represented by poems from Mama Service and C. R. Allen, and a newcomer. William Bridgman, , . Another welcome volume is the Lritt Book of New Zealand Verse," which contains some three score poems, the worn of 40 New Zealand _ writers. All these have previously received the benison 91 the New Zealand Radio Record, wherein they were first published in connection with a poetry competition conducted oy “John o’ Dreams” for that journal. d. M.