Five Days Old

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"Five Days Old"
by Francis Webb
First published in The Bulletin
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date30 April 1958

"Five Days Old" (1958) is a poem by Australian poet Francis Webb. [1]

Contents

It was originally published in The Bulletin on 30 April 1958, [2] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies. [1]

According to The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature "The background to the poem, according to Webb's friend, Sister M. Francisa Fitz-Walter, was that a kindly doctor, hoping to renew Webb's interest in life and to restore his desire to write, placed a five-day old baby named Christopher John in Webb's arms." [3]

Critical reception

The Oxford Literary History of Australia wrote that Webb's "rich tapestry of metaphors and similes has contributed greatly to his popularity among his successors, some of whom might even have taken his mental condition as part of a true poet's inevitable alienation from modern society, or even from all society. 'Five Days Old' represents Webb in an unusually lyrical and publicly open mode." [4]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in The Bulletin magazine in 1958 it was reprinted as follows:

The poem was also translated into Indonesian in 1991. [1]

Note

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Austlit — "Five Days Old" by Francis Webb". Austlit. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  2. ↑ ""Five Days Old"". The Bulletin, 30 April 1958, p35. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  3. ↑ The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature edited by Wilde, Hooton and Andrews, 2nd edition, p263
  4. ↑ The Oxford Literary History of Australia edited by Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Strauss, 1998, p222
  5. ↑ "Australian Poetry 1958 selected by Vincent Buckley". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  6. ↑ "Socrates and Other Poems by Francis Webb". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  7. ↑ "Modern Australian Verse edited by Douglas Stewart". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  8. ↑ "New Impulses in Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall and Thomas Shapcott". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  9. ↑ "A Book of Australian Verse edited by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  10. ↑ "Collected Poems by Francis Webb". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  11. ↑ "Modern Australian Poetry edited by David Campbell". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  12. ↑ "Twelve Poets, 1950-1970 edited by Alexander Craig". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  13. ↑ "Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum edited by Geoffrey Dutton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  14. ↑ "Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  15. ↑ "The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  16. ↑ "My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  17. ↑ "Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  18. ↑ "Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb edited by Michaael Joseph Giffith and James A. McGlade". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  19. ↑ "Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century edited by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  20. ↑ "Fivefathers : Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  21. ↑ "'The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Peter Porter". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  22. ↑ "Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  23. ↑ "Poems for All Occasions edited by Ron Pretty". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  24. ↑ "The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  25. ↑ "Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
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