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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 8, No. 7. June 13, 1945

—verse again

verse again

Dear Sir,—I take it as axiomatic that in poetry we expect a large measure of restraint. In a sense we might say poetry is the science of restraint. Now the temptation to end a poem in a blaze of glory is great and so the point at which restraint is most often discarded is in the last line. After controlling themselves with at least some discretion in the body of the poem, writers will let fly with everything at the end only to become false, trite or sentimental. Nearly every poem published to date is, in my opinion, under suspicion, but to illusstrate the three faults let me quote M.H.W.'s "I am a stranger to myself" as a false analysis, Danver's "I pause and turn my head unto the East" as an example of triteness, and Davenport's "In gold mirrors of silver sheen" as sentimental word play.

And finally let me illustrate another fault by saying that I don't think the space used to print these contributions is a waste any more than war is a waste.—I am, etc.,

J. C. P. Williams.