Leopard-Skin

"Leopard-Skin"
by Douglas Stewart
Written	1959
First published in	Australian Letters
Country	Australia
Language	English
Publication date	December 1959
Lines	14

"Leopard-Skin" (1959) is a poem by Australian poet Douglas Stewart. ^[1]

It was originally published in Australian Letters in December 1944, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies. ^[1]

Synopsis

The poet examines the self-invented adolescent who owns a number of pairs of leapoard-skin underpants which he spies drying on a backyard clothes line.

Critical reception

In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page stated that that at the basic level this poem "presents no problems. It's like a good cartoon". He goes on to note that the poem's simplicity hides the way it plays with the basic form of the sonnet, adding extra syllables as if it "does not want to fit into the cage designed for it." ^[2]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in Australian Letters it was reprinted as follows:

• Collected Poems 1936–1967 by Douglas Stewart, Angus and Robertson, 1967
• Selected Poems by Douglas Stewart, Angus and Robertson, 1973 ^[3]
• The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray, Oxford University Press, 1986 ^[4]
• The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets edited by Geoff Page, Indigo, 2003 ^[5]
• The Canberra Times , 18 June 2005 ^[1]
• 80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2006 ^[6]
• 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009 ^[7]

See also

• 1959 in Australian literature
• 1959 in poetry

References

1. "Austlit — "Leopard-Skin" by Douglas Stewart". Austlit. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
2. 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp 95-98
3. "Selected Poems by Douglas Stewart". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
4. "The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
5. "The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets edited by Geoff Page". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
6. "80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now edited by Geoff Page". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
7. "60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 January 2025.