Inside the Workshop
A FAVOURITE exam question when I was young was "Write an appreciation of the following," and then a short poem. Whereupon the candidate grubbed around in his cultivated mind and set to work to expand the figures of speech which the poet had so laboriously condensed and to erect elaborate superstructures on the literary allusions which the poet had with infinite care reduced to a nuance. Never did I expect that I would live to appreciate anything resembling this activity. But it’s a different story when the poet does his own explaining. To me the really fascinating
part of Allen Curnow’s talk, "Making a Poem," was his account of the processes and materials used in the making of one particular poem-his sonnet beginning "The skeleton of the moa on_ iron crutches." Such a glimpse of the workshop does not destroy the magic of the thing created.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540122.2.16.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 757, 22 January 1954, Page 8
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149Inside the Workshop New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 757, 22 January 1954, Page 8
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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