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Choose TWO or more poems by one poet you admire, and with close reference to the poems write an essay to justify your choice. One poet I admire is James K. Baxter, because this New Zealand poet deals with the issues of the society he lived in, using various techniques to reiterate these themes. Baxter published more than 30 books of poetry before his death in 1972, and he opposed Western materialism, and advocated social change and the spiritual values Catholic faith and Maori culture. These views are prominent in two of Baxter’s poems, He Waiata mo Te Kare and The Ballad of Calvary Street. Also, in these poems there is constant reference to the lifestyles and cultures of New Zealanders. The Ballad of Calvary Street deals with the ugliness which he saw as being present behind the ‘decent’ façade of middle-class New Zealand life, while He Waiata mo Te Kare is a ‘love letter’ to his wife.
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