POETRY IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 5

POETRY IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir,-It had been my intention to keep out of the current strife between poets, critics and public which is becoming an annual feature of your columns following a Poetry Yearbook review. Both sides have gone close to the slang-ing-match type of argument and I fail to see where either Mr. Reid’s attitude to sex or his Catholicity are called to account. What should be examined is the justice, or lack of it, in the review -neither of which can be determined by reference to the above matters. I agree with certain of the critic’s judgments on this annual report on the state of our poetry-or verse. But I find certain of his methods of arriving there, harmful. The underlining or removing of mere words from their context in the manner of Mr. Reid surely rates among the most anti-poetic types of criticism attempted in this country-a collection of abstract facts, in the manner of the Kinsey Report-with little real use made of those facts. This is the’ worst

possible kind of academic study, for it leads to mere annotation without accepting spiritual and instinctive guidance which arises from a more relaxed reading. With poetry, the reader must surrender something. This is most evident in the case of the critic’s analysis of Hervey’s poems. It should be evident that these poems move together; are on a related theme, and perhaps are part of a sequence, In which case, certain key-words are bound to recur. The vivisection of the poems has left none of this evident. The suggestion that Mr. Hervey was indulging in the same playing with erotic symbolism as other poéts is most unfair. The result can only be seen as too hasty an assessment, arising, no doubt, from the fact that Mr: Reid the critic is more prolific, and achieves print more easily than our poets. In the period in which he was reading this book for review, he chaired the ZB review session, appeared on it as critic, wrote the review sections for two weeklies and a monthly, and has printed other reviews in other publications. All this as well as lecturing! Mr. Reid is something of a professional critic, much too busy to be capable of the surrender of which I

spoke,

LOUIS

JOHNSON

(Wellington),