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Hokitika Guardian, 16 November 1927, Page 2

THE VALUE OF POETRY. “ If we left music, poetry, and art from the New England, we should find that man could not live hv bread alone,” said Air Sydney Walton in a speech reported in the “ Oxford Chronicle.” “His soul hungered for beauty, and be would not be content without it, however perfect bis material equipment. AYithout beauty humanity could not live. AA'o must minister beauty t the people, and to do that we must steep our souls in the poets. Our objective must be a more beautiful, a more prosperous England. The poet could enrich and enlarge our imagination. ‘Do not be a slave to Shakespeare merely because he is famous,’ said the lecturer. “ Great poets needed great audiences, too. The poets would quicken our imagination, give us poise and balance in our daily work, bringing in the invisible and redressing the balance when the visible tangible responsibility of the day tended to depress. A\ T e would thereby keep alive the sense of wonder which was the very gate and portal of knowledge and understanding.”