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  • on Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling, on October 16
    Brilliant quotable phrasemaking, as always with RK, which is why he'll be remembered as a poet long after his critics - so subservient to political correctness - pass on and are forgotten.
    Is the misspelling of "villainous" a typo?

    Ian
    ("villainous" is in the original poem as spelled Old Poetry Staff)

  • on Daddy Fell into the Pond by Alfred Noyes, on June 24
    Delightful!

  • on Butchered to make a Dutchman's Holiday by Harry 'Breaker' Morant, on June 20
    There was a fine Australian film made titled 'Breaker Morant', about his trial and execution, with Edward Woodward playing the title role. The film takes the line that Morant and a couple of fellow Aussie soldiers, who had shown their willingness to use tactics as tough as those of the Boers (who had generally proved too wily for the English redcoats), were scapegoated by a hypocritical English command for some extraneous political purpose, and executed for allegedly shooting a Boer non-combatant. (The English later herded scores of thousands of Boer civilians into concentration camps where a high proportion of them died from malnutrition and disease). The DSO was an English military medal that was awarded to officers who had distinguished themselves boldly in their command, compared with the Victoria Cross and Military Cross, which were for individual acts of exceptional courage. Morant's reference to the DSO is probably aimed at some English officer who had been involved in parley with enemy officers. Apropos of Kevin's comment about this being a boorish poem, I'm sure Morant would never have claimed to be more than a talented dilettante writer of light verse, at a time when recitation of that genre of poetry was a common entertainment around Australian rural campfires and in wealthy settlers' dining rooms.

  • on A Love Song by D H Lawrence, on June 16
    Not meaning to spoil anyone's enjoyment of this poem, but I wouldn't be true to my own tastes if didn't say that I don't think it's DHL at his best.
    For a love poem, the first verse is a dampener, with him asking his wife not to be upset with him because he puts her out of his mind. Gramattically, does "and rejoice" go with "I" or with "your eyes"? It's unclear. If the former, he's not going to soften her heart by saying he rejoices at forgetting her! If the latter, it's a strange note to introduce, and it's never taken up.
    Rhyme can be wonderful, but it wasn't DHL's forte, and the strains show here, as in the penultimate line, and in his reliance on "malingering" (with all its irrelevant negative overtones) to achieve the rhyme in S2.
    I don't think he was particularly good either, at syllabic rhythm. Putting "do" before the verb 7 times to achieve the meter makes the diction in this short poem seem very mannered.
    The words repeated (e.g. "breast" three times, and "moon" and "sleep") don't help.
    The closing line, which should be great, contains a really woolly simile "sleep ... stronger even than wine". What does that mean? And why is it given the showpiece spot?
    In this poem presumably meant to express passion (a "love song") what, I wonder, was the seed phrase or line that came from his muse and compelled him to start writing? It's not obvious. I suspect he set out, without feeling passion, to construct a love poem; and the result inevitably is heavy going.
    Others may totally disagree with me. That's fine. In the arena of poetry I respect and even enjoy all such disagreements, so long as they are good humoured. If someone can persuade me to their different point of view, even better.
    But until that happens I won't be including 'A Love Song' in my personal collection of best love poems.