DEATH OF N.Z. POET

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 141, 1 July 1937, Page 4

DEATH OF N.Z. POET

-Bress Association.)

Auckland Man Commits Suicide life in england

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, Last' Night. News has reaehed New Zealand of the death of Mr Geoffrey Poilett, tho 29-year-old Auckland poet who had been in England for some time. Mr Poilett travelled round England in the same manner as Mr Darcy Cresswell, selling copies of his poems from door to door. • He embodied his experiences in a book, "Song for Sixpence, " which was published by a London firm in March last year. For eight years before 1935 he is said to have lived in Auckland. In New Zealand his work appeared in "the New Zealand Mercury," and in some of the volumes of "New Zealand 's Best Poems," also in the Auckland Star. In England he had an interesting tramp through the country, making a "bag" of autographs which would rouse the euvy of many eollectors. Included in the famoiis people who signed a copy of his ''Nostalgia" (which was printed by the famous St. 1 Dominic's Press that has issued much of the work of Eric Gill) wore Gerald Bullett, William Bothenstein, Arthur Quil-ler-Couch, Henry Newbolt, W. H. Davies, Laurence Honsman, A. G. Mc- : -Donnell, Frank Swinnerton, and E. M. Delafield. He also obtained signatures from Rutland Boughton, the eomposer, A. G. Street, the painter, Ernest Rhys, well-known for his editorial work, and G. K. Chesterton. Mr Poilett apparently eommitted suicide in his room in London, by use of gas, after a quarrel with a young girl whom he wished to marry He was depressed and concerned about his work and had previously threatened to take hia own life.