"South Country" (1939) is a poem by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor.
It was originally published in the poet's collection Five Bells : XX Poems, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
Synopsis
The poet lyrically travels from the inhabited fertile coastal strip of Australia ("the whey-faced anonymity/Of river-gums and scribbly-gums and bush") to the "South Country", the "flat earth of empty farms". This is a "monstrous continent", so huge "You walk on the sky's beach".
Critical reception
In his Oxford University Press book about Slessor and his work, Adrian Caesar noted that the poet "conceives the trees as in an argument, but their doubts and quarrellings, the 'plots and pains' are ended by 'clear and gliding plains/Like an abrupt solution.'" He also commented that "As in 'North Country' the landscape is threatening, dealing in death and punishment.”Oxford Australian Writers : Kenneth Slessor by Adrian Caesar, Oxford University Press, 1995, p88-81
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication Five Bells : XX Poems in 1939 it was reprinted as follows:
One Hundred Poems : 1919-1939 by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1944 Poems by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1957 The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by John Thompson, Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth, Penguin Books, 1958 The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by Harry Heseltine, Penguin Books, 1972 The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry edited by Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Melbourne University Press, 1980 The Collins Book of Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall, Collins, 1981 The World's Contracted Thus edited by J. A. McKenzie and J. K. McKenzie, Heinemann Education, 1983 Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984 My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer, Lansdowne, 1985 Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century edited by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann, Heinemann, 1991 The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Vincent Buckley, Faber, 1991 The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry edited by John Tranter and Philip Mead, Penguin, 1991 Kenneth Slessor : Poetry, Essays, War Despatches, War Diaries, Journalism, Autobiographical Material and Letters edited by Dennis Haskell, University of Queensland Press, 1991 Kenneth Slessor : Collected Poems by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1994 Fivefathers : Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era edited by Les Murray, Carcanet, 1994 The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English edited by John Thieme, Arnold, 1996 Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998 A Return to Poetry 2000 edited by Michael Duffy (2000) Sunlines : An Anthology of Poetry to Celebrate Australia's Harmony in Diversity edited by Anne Fairbairn, Dept of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, 2002 Little Book of Flowers edited by Della Thomas and Wendy Mehnert, National Library of Australia, 2002 100 Australian Poems You Need to Know edited by Jamie Grant, Hardie Grant, 2008 Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Nicholas Jose, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Anita Heiss, David McCooey, Peter Minter, Nicole Moore, and Elizabeth Webby, Allen and Unwin, 2009 The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009
Notes You can read the full text of the poem on the All Poetry website.
See also "North Country" by Kenneth Slessor 1939 in Australian literature 1939 in poetry
References