THE ROYAL ODE.
Sir,-With dismay I read in The Listener of May 27, the Royal Ode by Ruth France. On a third careful reading of the so-called poem I found myself baffled as to its meaning, and unable to understand one single line in the whole forty-line effort. To me there is neither beauty, music, nor rhyme. I
could detect neither feeling nor inspiration. It_.struck me as a mere intellectual exercise in the modern style of versewriting, in which style I have come across some truly lovely things. As a reader of poetry for the last fifty years, as a student of poetry and as a verse-writer myself, I may claim to know something of what I am talking about. Ruth France’s "Royal Ode" can surely give but scant pleasure to even the most conservative readers of poetry.
H. E.
GUNTER
(Palmerston North ys ;
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 520, 10 June 1949, Page 5
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144THE ROYAL ODE. New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 520, 10 June 1949, Page 5
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