BOOK REVIEWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 288, 29 December 1944, Page 11

BOOK REVIEWS

MORE RHYME THAN REASON (1) A RHYMER’S SKETCH BOOK. (2) IDYLLS OF AN IDLER. Both by James H. Elliott. Waikato and King Country Press, Hamilton. IME was when poetry was an ascent into the higher realities (Wordsworth) or an escape into sentimentality (T. Moore). Tennyson blended both the ascent and the sentimentality. J. H. Elliott attempts to do so, but his efforts are not always successful. For three or four lines he keeps in step and then stumbles, "Rhymes-Rhymes-Rhymes, Through my attic they scamper along, As high in the belfry, the chimes ‘eel out their incessant ding-dong; Beating their notes on my brain, in demand To fashion them into a song." Sometimes Mr. Elliott fashions, but quite often he fumbles. Samuel Butler was of opinion that "One for sense and one for rhyme, Is quite sufficient at one time." Mr. Elliott does not always bother to maintain that not very exacting proportion, but if there is such a thing as honest-to-goodness #entimentality, he has it. Here are the two last verses of "Ave Maria." "The Crown to the stand called its witness, A man with the marks of estate Who came, with a wrong to be righted, A duty to serve-and the fate Of the prisoner hung on a question, But ere it was answered, there flowed Through a window, the breath of an organ And borne on its pinions-an ode. A hush, on the actors lighted A voice led prayer, as it rolled Towards Heaven its Ave Maria, And gripped in that mystical hold, The Courthouse changed to the Chapel, The sinners bent in their pews, And an Angel of Mercy recorded The answer-‘I do not accuse.’" KIWIS WITH VOICES SING AS WE GO. By John E. Reed. Illustrated. A. H. & A. W. Reed. "THE official history of the Kiwi Concert Party has still to be written. This is an informal and racy one, but, it has the merit of being honest and unpretentious. Mr, Reed arrived in the

Middle East in 1940 attached to an infantty battalion, which later took him to the fighting in Greece, On his return to Egypt he was transferred to the New Zealand Entertainment Unit, and joined the chorus of the Kiwi Concert Party. The next two years found him entertaining in Egypt, Syria, Malta and Palestine. Back in New Zealand on a furlough tour, Mr. Reed found a demand for an account of the unit’s activities. He knew the story, and has now written it. But although his is a personal account, seen from the inside, Mr. Reed has been careful .not to obtrude himself. He makes it plain that Army Entertainment Units don’t live in luxury, nor are they travelling civilian companies. The orchestra erects the marquee, the chorus is the stage crew, and it is not a signal for temperament when the desert turns their make-up into sandpaper or plays tricks with the curtains. Mr. Reed has chosen a good title, but singing is only part of the story. He has much more to tell us, and tells it well. SEX IN PRINT MEETING AND MATING: The Mental and Physical Aspects of Love and Marriage. By Joan and Bruce Cochran. A. H. & A. W. Reed. 10/-. EX in cold print can easily be ridiculous, and the authors of this book have not entirely escaped that danger. But they have almost escaped it, and that, in such a field, is a real achievement. An acuter sense of the ludicrous might have saved them from one or two absurdities — take Page 88, for ex-ample-but if nothing may be written about sex at which someone may laugh a good deal of useful information will remain undisclosed. It is the first New Zealand book on the subject that can really rank as a book, and it contains just about everything that a wholesome New Zealander requires to know. It is a book of courage, of delicacy, of highmindedness, and will assuredly and deservedly sell freely, even at 10/a copy. But it is necessary to speak plainly. The authors’ purpose is not birth control, but sex expression (as distinct from irresponsible indulgence). In |

spite of their earnest and even religious attitude, their aim is to teach peoplepreferably but not necessarily marriedhow to yield to their sex impulses without incurring the natural consequences. They quote Eric Gill. It would be interesting to know if they are aware of his horrible phrase for such unnaturalness,