The Shy Muse
To adapt poetry for the air is no easy task. The muse has always been difficult to woo, and is too conservative to: take kindly to a new medium. So a cautious approach is indicated. The shy Lyric would vanish at sight of microphone, the Epic shuns the studio and even Dramatic Poesy is a rare visitor. The Narrative Poem does seem the most likely to yield her charms to the radio listener. So 4YA evidently thoucht in
resurrecting for the air Canon Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends, of which "The Ghost" was presented recently, with musical accqmpaniment and _ varied voices. It was very competently done, and if the result was
not particularly thrilling or funny, the fault is Barham’s for spinning his rather mediocre story out to such length. Other of the shorter legends are much better, for example, "The Jackdaw of Rheims," which we are promised for January, There are many other poems which could, be exploited in the same way. The Browning "Pied Piper" has already been done very succéssfully. What about "Tam o’ Shanter"’ for a Burns Nicht, or Masefield’s "Reynard the Fox," or Day Lewis’s narrative of the flight of Parer and M’Intosh to signalise the Empire Air Race? The possibilities are endless, but the material must
be good.
K.J.
S.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19500106.2.19.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 550, 6 January 1950, Page 10
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217The Shy Muse New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 550, 6 January 1950, Page 10
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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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