Great Regulars: The main stylistic influence on the New Zealand

poet CK Stead is probably Ezra Pound, from whom he has inherited a delight in iconoclastic adaptations of classical poets. Here's his take on Catullus--"Death, you clever bugger/who would have credited you/with such finesse!" And the sequence "Walking Westward" (1979) is full of the colloquial rumbustiousness and jarring disjunctions of the middle Cantos.

from Charles Bainbridge: The Guardian: Collected Poems 1951-2006 by CK Stead

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[Derek] Walcott's lyricism is on full show, from the piercing insights of "Elsewhere" to the sense of wonder and craftsmanship to be found in "The Bounty"--"Never get used to this; the feathery swaying casuarinas,/the morning silent light on shafts of bright grass". But his greatest achievement lies in his ability to combine this lyricism with broad narrative structures.

from Charles Bainbridge: The Guardian: Selected Poems by Derek Walcott

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