THE ROYAL ODE
Sir,-I concur in the criticism made by H. E. Gunter on the winning entry. My further criticism is that thé" competitors were instructed to write something that would be "an expression of New Zealand’s homage to the Crown." The judges have awarded the prize to an entry that has as much to do with that as Hamlet’s soliloquy has to do with the production of butterfat. If imagine that Their Majesties will be considerably puzzled to discover what the winning entry has to do with them.
J. MALTON
MURRAY
(Oamaru).
Sir-A good many of your readers will have been amused to note your heading for the prize poem. There must be odd quirks in the minds of the judges which enabled them to admit the verses in competition for the much advertised "Homage to the Throne." One who lived for 30 years under Victoria cannot hope to be very enthusiastic about current verse, but the first 32 lines do give an interesting account of the coming of the Maori in a typical, if turgid, example of the "New Writing." At this point the poet seems to have remembered the advertisement and, conscientiously but without pleasure, to have sprinkled the words "king," "kingdom," and "crown" in eight lines. Is it possible that the judges decided that thrones and homage have no place in New Zealand verse of to-day? Or was their real aim to set a record puzzle
for the country’s composers? Yes, Mr. Editor, I was one of the other three hundred and eleven.
SEMPER
FIDELIS
(Mapua)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 522, 24 June 1949, Page 5
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260THE ROYAL ODE New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 522, 24 June 1949, Page 5
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