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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 3, No. 2. 1940

Short Discourse on Poetry

Short Discourse on Poetry.

In the pages of Salient you find verse of all descriptions, and you react accordingly. Sky-gods revolt you; putrescent sex interests you; and streamline fascinates you.

But there is no poetry of this age. Prose is asserting itself in response to the call of the masses (writers must obey their audience), but poetry lags behind. The attempts of Auden and Spender appear to be bourgeois efforts of escape!

Study these things: keep them in mind and try to find what is a true expression of this age, and who really appeals to you Read Saroyan, James Hanley, and the "Grapes of Wrath". Observe the emotion rodent in you; and be true to that emotion. See that others - writers in particular, are true to their emotions. Then write and tell Salient your discoveries.