Felt but not Expressed
=IRST of all is a short poem by Walter de la Mare, called "Silver." This is a very interesting example of a simple subject that is familiar to all. It is part of the poet’s business to do this. He tries to express not only what has never been thought before, but what has been thought and has not been put into words-at any rate, words as good as his. He transfigures all sorts of common experiences -love and death, sunsets, sunrises, the song of birds, the beauty of flowers, the trees, feelings of joy and sorrow. All of us are affected like this by poetry at times. We say to ourselves: "Yes, I felt just like that, but I couldn’t express it"; "‘ Yes, I’ve seen that sort of thing, but not half so clearly as he sees it." Well, in this poem " Silver,’ Walter de la Mare writes about one of the commonest of experi-ences-a moonlight night. We have all gone out of the house on a moonlight night and looked at the lights and shadows about the place, and said " How lovely!"-but that’s about as far as most of us get in our comments. We are spell-bound, but tonguetied--(" The Poetry Hour,’ 2YA, February 14.)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410314.2.10.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 90, 14 March 1941, Page 5
Word count
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211Felt but not Expressed New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 90, 14 March 1941, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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