Death of a Poet
\/HEN we say that no one is indispensable we may well ask to what, or to whom, for the death of certain people leaves a gap in the human landscape that neither wreaths nor laurels can cover. That the untimely death of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was felt in this way is testified to by the ease with which the NZBS commissioned four New Zealand poets to speak on the man and his work. Nevertheless, it was a
mistake to ask Messrs. Curnow, Joseph, Baxter and Glover to cram all they knew or felt into a bare half hour programme. The speaker, knowing his time limit, packs his information togethers too tightly for the listener who cannot return, as in the case of the printed word, to sift the meaning more closely. Moreover, unless the programme is extraordinarily well planned it will lack the natural unity which the single speaker imposes on his material, and it will overlap to no purpose. Words ill constructed are words thrown to the wind, and it was unfortunate that this session on a young poet, not as well known as he will become, could scarcely be called memorable.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540226.2.20.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 762, 26 February 1954, Page 10
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199Death of a Poet New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 762, 26 February 1954, 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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