South of My Days

Last updated

"South of My Days"
by Judith Wright
Written1945
First published in The Bulletin
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date8 August 1945

"South of My Days" (1945) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright. [1]

Contents

It was originally published in The Bulletin on 8 August 1945, [2] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies. [1]

The poem depicts a landscape of desolation and isolation, both physical and emotional.

Critical reception

The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature notes that this poem established Wright "as the poet of the New England countryside." The entry points out it reflects the countryside where Wright was born and that it also contains "fragments of stories from that countryside's pioneer past — drovers and bushrangers, desperate droughts and starving cattle, and the legendary coaches of Cobb & Co." [3]

The Oxford Literary History of Australia stated that with this poem "Wright exceeds even the cultural confidence of other scions of squatting families, fusing an Australian landscape with her own past and with her own body." [4]

Publication history

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

See also

Notes

The full text of the poem is also available at the "All Poetry" website. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judith Wright</span> Australian poet, environmentalist and Indigenous rights campaigner

Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, 1965 and 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Brennan</span> Australian poet, scholar and literary critic

Christopher John Brennan was an Australian poet, scholar and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh McCrae</span> Australian writer

Hugh Raymond McCrae OBE was an Australian writer, noted for his poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Man from Ironbark</span> Poem by Banjo Paterson

"The Man From Ironbark" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. It is written in the iambic heptameter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Murray (poet)</span> Australian poet and critic (1938-2019)

Leslie Allan Murray was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings.

"Up The Country" is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title "Borderland." Its publication marked the start of the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson asserting contrasting views of the true nature of life in the Australian bush.

Douglas Stewart was a major twentieth century Australian poet, as well as short story writer, essayist and literary editor. He published 13 collections of poetry, 5 verse plays, including the well-known Fire on the Snow, many short stories and critical essays, and biographies of Norman Lindsay and Kenneth Slessor. He also edited several poetry anthologies.

Saltbush Bill is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 15 December 1894, the Christmas issue of that publication.

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1944.

Valentine Thomas Vallis (1916–2009) was a Queensland poet, lecturer and opera critic.

At Cooloolah is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 7 July 1954, and later in the poet's poetry collection The Two Fires (1955). The poem has also been printed under the titles "At Cooloola" and "At Lake Coolooah".

The Tomb of Lt. John Learmonth, AIF is a poem by Australian poet J. S. Manifold. It was first published in New Republic magazine on 10 September 1945, and later in the poet's poetry collections Collected Verse (1978), and On My Selection : Poems (1983). The poem has subsequently been published numerous times in various Australian poetry anthologies.

Stephen Kenneth Kelen, known as S. K. Kelen, is an Australian poet and educator. S. K. Kelen began publishing poetry in 1973, when he won a Poetry Australia contest for young poets and several of his poems were published in that journal.

Kate Llewellyn is an Australian poet, author, diarist and travel writer.

"Faces in the Street" (1888) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson.

"The Crane is My Neighbour" (1938) is a poem by Australian poet John Shaw Neilson.

"How M'Dougal Topped The Score" (1898) is a poem by Australian poet Thos. E. Spencer.

"A Bushman's Song" (1892) is a poem by Australian poet A. B. Paterson.

"The Roaring Days" (1889) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson.

"Beach Burial" (1944) is a poem by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Austlit — "South of My Days" by Judith Wright". Austlit. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  2. ↑ ""South of My Days"". The Bulletin, 8 August 1945, p2. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  3. ↑ The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature edited by Wilde, Hooton and Andrews, 2nd edition, p639
  4. ↑ The Oxford Literary History of Australia edited by Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Strauss, 1st edition, p226
  5. ↑ "Australian Poetry 1945". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  6. ↑ "Poets of Australia : An Anthology of Australian Verse (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  7. ↑ "The Moving Image : Poems (Meanjin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  8. ↑ "New Song in an Old Land (Longmans Green)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  9. ↑ "An Anthology of Australian Verse (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  10. ↑ "The Boomerang Book of Australian Poetry (Longmans, Green)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  11. ↑ "New Land, New Language : An Anthology of Australian Verse (OUP)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  12. ↑ "The Penguin Book of Australian Verse (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  13. ↑ "Five Senses : Selected Poems (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  14. ↑ "Six Voices : Contemporary Australian Poets (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  15. ↑ "Modern Australian Verse (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  16. ↑ "Judith Wright : Collected Poems, 1942-1970 (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  17. ↑ "The Penguin Book of Australian Verse (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  18. ↑ "Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum (Rigby)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  19. ↑ "The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry (MUP)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  20. ↑ "My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years (Lansdowne)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  21. ↑ "Two Centuries of Australian Poetry (OUP)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  22. ↑ "A Human Pattern : Selected Poems (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  23. ↑ "A Treasury of Bush Verse (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  24. ↑ "Grace and Other Poems (Picaro)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  25. ↑ "Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (A&U)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  26. ↑ "Australian Poetry Since 1788 (UNSW Press)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  27. ↑ ""South of My Days by Judith Wright"". All Poetry. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.