Lives of the Poets
HIS heading is the title of a new literary series coming from 3YL on Sunday evenings. Unlike its numerous predecessors, it appears to be a local production. For this, praise is due; following on a long succession of overseas presentations, generally of high standard, it requires firmness of spirit to undertake the task. The method followed is of a critical narration interspersed with extracts from the poet in question, read in another voice. For the first in the series, the poet chosen was Robert Herrick; and I hardly think I would be wrong in saying that the compiler of the programme doesn’t like him. True, he calls him at last "the greatest of the English minor poets" (is he?), but this sounded, as delivered, not unlike "the greatest of English inconsiderable poets." I am not sure that I agree with the presentation of Herrick as a_ timid sensualist who wrote with daintiness (sometimes combined with indelicacy) of flowers and female beauty, without however permitting these subjects to possess any reality in his life. "In fact, Herrick sometimes seems more: interested in the dresses his girls wore than in the people inside them." Perhaps, but there was something sickly and cold-blooded in the picture thus drawn; which Herrick’s actual work does not (or does not often) justify,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451026.2.18.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 9
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220Lives of the Poets New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 331, 26 October 1945, Page 9
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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