In Praise of God, and Donne
"T’HESE poems are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn’ fool if they weren’t." Thus Dylan Thomas, yet the same could have been written over three centuries before, more mildly perhaps, by John Donne. ; Poets write for complicated reasons, yet reach, in the end, the simplicities. That we are to have 26 poetry réadings seems too good to be true; if New Zealand poets starve in fact they
need not, this winter, wither in spirit. And if the rest live up to the first, a reading of Donne’s poems by Christopher Hassall, they will be fortunate indeed. I approach readings cautiously. I once heard a young woman burlesque a serious poem she could not understand until I bled for the author. I need not have worried. The combination of Christopher MHassall’s ‘technical excellence and emotional understanding, which only lagged faintly in the longer poems, gave us a moving programme. Highlights for me were "The Rising Sun," "The Ecstasie"; then, "Death Be Not Proud" and "Hymne to God the Father." From the discoveries of love to the appropriations of truth, yet not "so much truth as it defeats all Poetry," is a feast for one evening.
R.
F.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570412.2.46.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 24
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212In Praise of God, and Donne New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 24
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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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