Our Prize Poem Competition

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 37, 28 March 1930, Page 22

Our Prize Poem Competition

HIS competition has proved of extreme interest, and has produced some arresting efforts, both grave and gay. The prize of Half a Guinea is awarded to "Oh Mack" for her poem entitled "I Could Not Live." With their soft eadences and open-eyed realisation of the beauty of our New Zealand countryside these verses cannot fail to charm. Selected for commendation is "Early Autumn," eulogising the warm, still days of fleeting summer, and revealing a blithe facility of expression coupled with quick awareness of lovely sights and sounds. From Timaru comes a tiny, graceful fragment, "The Elfin Queen," which one would like to hear set to music,

Also from the little soythern town, with its tamarisk trees and sweep of silvery bay, is a contribution from "Esmeralda," but the lines do not scan, and her Pegasus limps badly. "S.B.D." forwards a witty modern version of our old favourite, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty’ Maid?" which goes with an amusing swing. "Tiny Tim’: Good for a-17-year-old, but not up to’standard. ‘Try again. "Rabbi Ben M4zra": ‘Toilsomely Browningesque. "The best is yet to be" with this versifier; at least one hopes so! "Paolo": Love-lines of the sloppy variety. Francesca doesn’t appeal. "Glass-blower": Mostly froth and bubble, but alas, without irice -,