The Commercial Traveller's Wife

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"The Commercial Traveller's Wife"
by Ronald McCuaig
First published inThe Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by John Thompson, Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth (1958)
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date1958

"The Commercial Traveller's Wife" is a poem by Australian poet Ronald McCuaig. [1] It was first published in the anthology The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by John Thompson, Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth in 1958, [2] and later in the author's collections and in other Australian poetry anthologies.

Contents

Outline

A neglected older woman makes a pass at the young man boarder with her and her husband. She is rejected and the young man then realises that he will have to move out and find another place to live.

Analysis

In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page praised the poet's " mastery of the colloquial", putting the opinion that McCuaig "was perhaps the first urban poet to use language in this way". He goes on to comment that this is a poem about the "everyday – and the shoddy moral compromises made by people who are fully human but have no particular claim to fame." [3]

Further publications

Note

See also

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References

  1. ""The Commercial Traveller's Wife" by Ronald McCuaig". Austlit. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  2. "The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by John Thompson, Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  3. 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp. 76-79
  4. "The Ballad of Bloodthirsty Bessie and Other Poems by Ronald McCuaig". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  5. "Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum edited by Geoffrey Dutton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  6. "The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry edited by Chris Wallace-Crabb". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  7. "The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  8. "Selected Poems by Ronald McCuaig". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  9. "60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  10. "Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  11. poetryreincarnations (2 December 2024). "Ronald McCuaig "The Commercial Travellers Wife" Poem animation" via YouTube.