Archive for the 'Poetry' Category

What I am reading: the poetry of Gwen Harwood

The Poetry of Australian poet Gwen Harwood

In one of the units of my Master of Arts in Creative writing course, I had to read and study the poetry of Australian poet Gwen Harwood. I did a little research on the background and life of Gwen Harwood before reading much of her poetry. Although I had heard of her I had read very little of her work before this last week. I had occasionally dipped into a volume of her poetry I found on my daughter’s bookshelf.

Gwendoline Nessie Foster was born on 8th June 1920 in Queensland into a family whose interests included language, religion, philosophy and music. As she grew she aspired to be a musician because her family had a strong interest in this area. Later she was an accomplished organist and a music teacher. In 1945 she married the linguist William Harwood and moved with him to live in Tasmania where she lived until her death in 1995.

Death is a recurring theme in her work, though it never seemed to cause her distress, even when diagnosed with cancer ten years before her passing. Harwood drew great inspiration from her music and referred to many musical terms in her poems. She invented the character of Professor Krote, ‘a talented European pianist who finds himself in a shallow, stuffy, conservative Australian town where he is forced to earn a living by giving music lessons to indifferent pupils.

Many of her poems written later in life explore the memories and experiences of her childhood in Queensland. These poems cover some distressing moments and an awareness of the innocence of childhood and how her attitude to those events changed as she grew older. If one could summarize her poetry, you would have to conclude that she has consistently poured her own emotions quite freely into many of her poems. She has drawn widely from her personal experiences and people she knew. Gwen Harwood received many awards and several honorary doctorates in recognition of her writing.

She has published her poetry under at least four other names.

Reference:

  • Harwood, Gwen, 2001, Selected Poems. Penguin, Camberwell.

Haiku #45 Baby Magpie

Persistent begging
Of baby magpie. Gaping
Mouth worm-filled. Silence.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2008 Trevor W. Hampel

Australian Magpie (juvenile)

Australian Magpie (juvenile)

Australian Poet Les Murray’s 70th Birthday

Over recent weeks I have read a great deal of the poetry of Les Murray. I had a concentrated period of reading his work, plus a biography of his life, so that I could write a research paper on his life and work. Today we celebrate his 70th birthday.

Les is arguably Australia’s greatest poet, and his work is acknowledged internationally as being amongst the best poetry being written in English.  The poetry of Les Murray is unmistakeably Australian in nature. He draws on the Australian landscape for inspiration like few other poets have done before him. With over thirty volumes of his poetry already published, Murray is also probably the most prolific of Australian poets ever. Because of this, it is hard to fully grasp the vast scope of his work. I only looked at five volumes of those thirty or more.

Related articles:

Tanka #2 Rainbow Bee-eater

Rainbow Bee-eater
Soars, glides, chirring on the air,
Snapping bees, flying
Insects. Dead branch perched – surveys
Its next savoury portion.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2008 Trevor W. Hampel

Rainbow Bee eater

Rainbow Bee eater

To view more of my photos click here.

Haiku #44 Buzzing honey bees

Buzzing honey bees
Hover around the flowers
Bringing forth sweet dreams.

All rights reserved.

Copyright 2008 Trevor W. Hampel

To read some more of my poems click here.