NOT SO DEAD
]|¥ you saw a programme labelled "Voices From the Past: The Voices of Poets and Writers of the Past 60 Years," wouldn’t you expect echoes from the grave, the nostalgic tones of people who had passed on, as they say? I certainly did when I turned to 1YC to catch this BBC feature. But the voices proved to be, not Rupert Brooke, Galsworthy, Chesterton, de la Mare and the like, but four familiar ones, three still very much with us-T, §. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell and Dylan Thomas. After the initial disappointment, I found the programme interesting enough, wellworn though the poems read were. For the four readers varied so widely-the dry, austere delivery of Eliot, the sibylline chant of Dame Edith, the matter-of-factness of Sir Osbert, the plangent, bardic luxuriance of Thomas. Eliot's. reading I stubbornly like, and Edith Sitwell and Dylan Thomas, in their different ways, do genuinely "interpret" their verses, but Sir Osbert, who writes so wittily and well, is the worst reader possible, rattling on with an aristocratic disdain of such tricks as emphasis and pause. He is a good argument against always expecting poets to do justice to their own inner ear. But, of course, 60 years. from now, it might be interesting to hear his voice!
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19580801.2.32.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 20
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214NOT SO DEAD New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 20
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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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