Between Earth and Heaven
HE "Days of Creation" series, now drawing to a close at 3YA, takes its theme from Genesis, but notably ‘lacks the unquestioned confidence of that record. There is, indeed, a distinct note of doubt and even pessimism, as of poets gone astray in a hostile universe. So far there has been a good deal of Hous-man-and Shropshire was nowhere to go for a laugh-at least one excerpt from James Thomson’s City of Dreadful Night, about ‘the most thorough expression of despair in the English language. One day ended with Nashe’s In Time of Pestilence-‘"I am sick, I must die. Lord have mercy on us"-and there was D. H. Lawrence’s expression of sheer dislike of the animal kingdom in "Bats." Omar is eschewed; I should think because hedonism does not match with the mood of the series. There is, of course, a good deal on the other side — Wordsworth, Brooke, Rossetti-but even then much of the consolation takes the form of open mysticism (Blake, Emily Dickinson, Vaughan) which never really maintains that the universe isea pleasant place to be in. The standard of selection and reading has throughout been particularly high, and on the whole this is probably the best literary series heard this year,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451102.2.17.9
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 332, 2 November 1945, Page 9
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208Between Earth and Heaven New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 332, 2 November 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.
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