NO POET LAUREATE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 954, 23 April 1930, Page 11

NO POET LAUREATE?

PAPER SAYS JOB IS LAUGHING STOCK ASPIRANTS DISCUSSED United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 11.50 a.m. LONDON, Tuesday. There is speculation about Mr. MacDonald’s choice of the new Poet Laureate. The names of Sir William Watson, Rudyard Kipling, John Drinkwater, Alfred Noyes, and John Masefield are mentioned.

Out of these Mr. Kipling would have the heartiest support of millions who do not read poetry as a habit, but who love his vigorous ballads. \ Mr. Drinkwater’s youth may be against him. John Masefield is the most talented, next to Kipling, but critics hold that his work lacks dignity. Alfred Noyes has practically all the qualifications except age. The “Daily Express” hopes the post will remain vacant. “Why saddle the country with the laughing stock of a public poet, as though poetry were a form of activity to be supervised, guided and turned on and off by the Lord Chamberlain or Officer of Works?” it asks.

In certain quarters the claims of a railway porter, Henry Chappell, author of the remarkable wartime poem, “The Day,” are seriously advanced, “in view of the present democratic times.”