A SHOVELFUL OF FUN
DUM-DUM: HIS SELECTED VERSES. By John Kendall. Harrap. ERSES out of Punch do not readily commend themselves to those sour spirits (of whom I am one) who never read verses in Punch. "Dum-Dum" regales us in this volume with a selection from his humorous rhapsodisings of love, music, sport, and people. He writes gracefully in many metres and often brings off an apt echo of old and famous lines--and a casement closed at night To keep the warm air in. -a neat trick if not overworked. Here and there a line chimes well: he likes the players in an orchestra with "their earnest faces," * And the conductor too, I liked his back.
Perhaps "Dum-Dum" is at his best when he sings of games; there was the seventh holed in one and its endingThen to my foe, who stood with drooping head, "That for a half," I said. So much humour, so much arch wit, all in one dose is like a whole meal of meringues. Humorous verse in English has a long and respectable ancestry. Am I merely a tiresome praiser of times past if I de not find here the accomplishments of the Ingoldsby Legends, of Lewis Carroll, of Calverley, of our homespun Whim-Wham? I am reduced to one adjective and that a period one: "DumDum" is killing. -David Hall
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 14
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225A SHOVELFUL OF FUN New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 14
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