NEW ZEALAND VERSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 22, 24 November 1939, Page 37

NEW ZEALAND VERSE

ARCADIAN GROVE. by Ronald B. Castle. Wright & Carman. INTERLUDE. By Roma M. Hoggard. Handcraft Press. These two books by New Zealand poets would not be in any way portentous if it were not for their prefaces, Poets, I think would be wise to give us their work ungarnished. Mr. Castle is his own impresario. He attempts to disarm criticism by announcing that he writes solely for his own pleasure, though there is a hint of a humbler feeling when he mentions that his verse is "conditioned only by the limits of the imagination and by the poetic values of contemporary English." He shows us the limits of his imagination when. he confesses to the innocent snobbishness of having invoked the opinion of a former Governor-General. Miss Hoggard has also handicapped herself by a preface by Ken Alexander. Mr. Castle writes agreeably. He tries out a variety of verse forms, with reasonable success, in spite of sudden attacks of self-consciousness. His verse did not have its origin, as he would like to think, in his "inner consciousness," but in his rather desultory culture. His work is cultivated, but he does not always catch the flavour of his originals. He is at his best in a poem like "At a Picnic," where he has not bitten off more than he can chew. Miss Hoggard has the courage to be simple in her verse, and does not attempt the precarious sophistication of Mr. Castle. She has a direct and stimulating music with a compelling rhythm. She never gets out of her depth, even when, as in " Philosophy," she attempts an epigram. In a mood of optimism under summer skies the reader will accept without demur the products of her essentially pictorial imagination. ~