Poetry of Kenneth Slessor (1 Viewer)

[Seven3121]

Hi. i have an assessment coming up about Slessor's poetry.
If anyone has any notes or any info about "country towns" and one of his other poems, preferably "beach burial" or "the night ride", could you please post?
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Wooz]

I studied night ride & country towns in yr 10, i'll try to find my notes.

 

[popjiggas]

if u do get any notes can u plz send it to me aswell, coz i gotta assessment 2moz and i'm also doin "Beach Burial", aswell as "william street" and "country towns"
any help would be much appreciated

 

[cccclaire]

We did some work on beach burial last year, I had such good notes on it.
But I threw them out =/ sorry.

 

[blahmeh]

Here are my notes on William Street:

the Australian themes evident

Poetic techniques portrayed

 

[Siddhartha]

I was given a bunch of Slessor poetry, but couldn't be bothered studying all of them, just Sleep and Country Towns, and their relations to change. I don't know what exactly you need, but this is what I'm working on.


Country Towns

Note the (sorry, I can't remember exactly) verses, 'houses of yellow wood', 'sign with 1896'... (somewhere in first stanza)

From these verses (and some others) we infer that country towns are obviously aging, thus changing.

But Slessor moves on to point out that Country Towns (note the 's' in Towns) don't like change, and are in fact, resisting it.

We know this from the image of a time warp which Slessor tries to create in our minds. In this time warp nothing seems to change, nothing seems to happen in this town -
The streets are empty,
there have been no more visiting circuses/troupes,
People sleep all day
Other people are passing near the town, but never disturb it (somewhere in 3rd stanza about dogs hearing something then going back to sleep)

Through Country towns, Slessor tries to tell us that change is inevitable. As the country town tries to resist change, we obviously notice some immutable aspects of nature such as aging. Slessor eludes to the inevitable surrender of country towns to globalisation - even though they try to resist change, the images of death (dead cicada skins, burnt pepper trees) taint the peaceful, serene image of the country town suggesting that something bad is going to happen...

 

[porquoispas]

check this website out for country towns.. found it helpful..


http://lardcave.net/hsc/english.2ug.slessor.countrytowns.html

 

[k--man2]

I was given a bunch of Slessor poetry, but couldn't be bothered studying all of them, just Sleep and Country Towns, and their relations to change. I don't know what exactly you need, but this is what I'm working on.


Country Towns

Note the (sorry, I can't remember exactly) verses, 'houses of yellow wood', 'sign with 1896'... (somewhere in first stanza)

From these verses (and some others) we infer that country towns are obviously aging, thus changing.

But Slessor moves on to point out that Country Towns (note the 's' in Towns) don't like change, and are in fact, resisting it.

We know this from the image of a time warp which Slessor tries to create in our minds. In this time warp nothing seems to change, nothing seems to happen in this town -
The streets are empty,
there have been no more visiting circuses/troupes,
People sleep all day
Other people are passing near the town, but never disturb it (somewhere in 3rd stanza about dogs hearing something then going back to sleep)

Through Country towns, Slessor tries to tell us that change is inevitable. As the country town tries to resist change, we obviously notice some immutable aspects of nature such as aging. Slessor eludes to the inevitable surrender of country towns to globalisation - even though they try to resist change, the images of death (dead cicada skins, burnt pepper trees) taint the peaceful, serene image of the country town suggesting that something bad is going to happen...

i am doing sleep and country towns as well, got any tips or notes on sleep ...help appreciated :worried:

 

[Siddhartha]

Slessors 'Sleep' attempts to bring forward the unstoppable and ultimately inevitable nature of change through the use of an extended metaphor which represents the 3 stages of sleep(surrender, sleep, awakening) with the whole process of childbirth (contraception, gestation, birth)

Slessor's use of sound and rythme is most profound in 'Sleep' than in Wild Grapes, Country Towns, BB, and Captain Dobbin.

For example, stanza 2

Beat with my Bloods Beat, Hear my Heart Move

Alliteration of the "b" sounds and "h" sounds.
Assonance of the "eat" sounds and "ear" sounds

Smooth Flowing

Creates a harmonious and warm image of either the mother's womb or sleep.

This is contrasted with...

Life with Remorseless Forceps beckoning

No assonance nor alliteration.

Not smooth flowing like the last quote.

The image created by this verse on the most shallow level describes the birth and its harsh expulsion from the mother, or the irritable sensation of waking up from sleep.

Upon higher inspection, the unstoppable grip of change is seen in the image of "remorseless forceps". Just as baby has no choice over whether he's/she is born or not, nor does a sleeper have a choice over waking up or further sleep. And the harsh reality of life is seen to be painful, thus Slessor belives that forced change is painful whereas voluntary change isn't(the sleeper surrenders to sleep int he first stanza1).

 

[Lucid Scintilla]

Could the patter be any more prosaic? Otherwise, yes, that is a reasonably fine analysis of Sleep. By the way, what English class are you in, Siddhartha?

contraception

That means the baby is more or less aborted, even before it's a zygote, fetus, or even a possible dictator, which so, so many people use as an argument for abortion.

It's conception, ffs.

 

[Safda]

check this website out for country towns.. found it helpful..


http://lardcave.net/hsc/english.2ug.slessor.countrytowns.html

Nice, thanks very much.
(However, maybe its just me, but they seem to mix up things from different stanzas.. - It's still very good though!) ^_^

 

[Safda]

Oh and would anyone happen to have any notes or good sites/pages on Beach Burial? If not I'll just use North Country.

 

[Bernard.Lagana]

...remorseless forceps...

No assonance nor alliteration.

Not smooth flowing like the last quote.

The image created by this verse on the most shallow level describes the birth and its harsh expulsion from the mother, or the irritable sensation of waking up from sleep.

Just something I picked up about you analysis of this quote:

The repetition of "or" creates assonance and repetition of "s" consonance. Creating the aural image of both pain and frustration (assonance) as well as furthering the water motif present in Most of Slessor's poetry (consonance).

I do agree with the contrast between the two quotes in the poem, emphasising the contrast between sleep and awakening (or the birth/sex metaphors implied/inferred)