WELLINGTON POETRY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 797, 29 October 1954, Page 5

WELLINGTON POETRY

Sir,-One was glad to see Mr. Johnson’s "Song in the Hutt Valley" in your pages, because it shows that there is no "personal vendetta" going on. But in another way one is sorry. One doesn’t expect great poetry in songs. But Mr. Johnson has not supplied us with music, so we must judge his piece as literature. The trouble with song-poetry is that it encourages padding and parody. Mr. Johnson doubtless has taken his lead in song-poetry from Mr. Baxter, This new trend in Wellington poetry is probably to be regretted. It indicates a falling: off. There are some effective ideas in Mr. Johnson’s poem, but they don’t come across very well. Mr. Johnson lacks the direction and firmness a Yeats could supply. Mr. Johnson begins with recollections of geography lessons at school and moves on to Tennyson. In the second verse he might be with Gray in the Churchyard, until he remembers this is the 20th Century. But the effort is too much and Mr. Johnson collapses: "Houses still grow, the children/ Like cabbages are seen;/ Grandfather’s thoughts are hidden/Upon the bowlinggreen," which is rather weak. Mr. Glover is heard faintly in the third verse, but oes under in an obscure bit about ouses and formations, which includes

some sort of pun that doesn’t quite come clear, But Mr. Johnson does his best to finish up on a happy note. One might notice that the double use of cabbages in two significances is a blemish. Also, old-time inversions in the last three verses tend to disrupt the easy rhythm and suggest lack of finesse. Poems of this kind, if they are done at all today, should be done well. Mr. Johnson is writing about a fine, sunny day. In such circumstances nobody could be expected to have his wits about him. Accordingly, it would hardly be fair to blame Mr. Johnson for seeming a little bemused, But one can’t help feeling this sort of poem bears out Mr. Reid’s contention. ‘

F. W. N.

WRIGHT

(Christchurch),