POETRY HAS BEEN in the news lately. First, there was
the well-deserved award of the Arts Council prize for poetry to R. S. Thomas for his volume Song at the Year's Turning. Readers of the Spectator will remember the praise Kingsley Amis gave to this quietly original poet, whose clear observa- tion of natural things and humility before the object so strangely recall those of his namesake Edward Thomas. Then there has been the reincarnation of Poetry London as Poetry London-New York complete with lyre bird, Tambimuttu and all. The actual benefits of this to English poetry are, to judge by the list of poets which the editor claims to have launched in Poetry London, rather more dubious, but there can never be enough periodicals for new talent to publish in, and Poetry London-New York deserves a welcome, if not as a revenant, then as a tabula rasa. The first number contains new poems by Dylan Thomas, Walter de la Mare and Robert Graves, and a brief commination service is conducted over the majority of young English poets in the editorial columns.
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