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Herongate single work   poetry   "I dream I am opening the door"
Issue Details: First known date: 1991... 1991 Herongate
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Notes

  • Dedication: to Graeme Hetherington
  • Herongate was the name of a seaside shack owned by Harwood's son. It burned down in May 1989. In a letter to her friend Father William Paton, Harwood describes the experiences inspiring the poem: 'After Herongate burned I had a terrible recurrent dream: I would be at the door putting the key in the padlock, drawing back the bolt, putting the house key in the lock: all is well, I'd think in the dream, the fire was a dream and the house is as it was. As I opened the door I'd see that my hand was a skeleton: I had died and a ghost was returning.' (A Steady Storm of Correspondence, p.422)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Southerly Memory vol. 51 no. 3 North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1991 Z325888 1991 periodical issue North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1991 pg. 234-235
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Present Tense Gwen Harwood , Alison Hoddinott (editor), Potts Point : Imprint , 1995 Z94648 1995 selected work short story poetry prose Potts Point : Imprint , 1995 pg. 2-3
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bridgings : Readings in Australian Women's Poetry Rose Lucas (editor), Lyn McCredden (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 Z219096 1996 anthology poetry criticism extract South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 pg. 41-42
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Selected Poems : A New Edition Gwen Harwood , Gregory Kratzmann (editor), Victor Harbor : Halcyon Press , 2001 Z824188 2001 selected work poetry Details of the changes made in compiling this selection are outlined in the editor's introduction . Some poems not appearing in previous selections, as well as some unpublished poems, have been added; some poems previously appearing have been omitted. Textual emendations have been made to some works. Victor Harbor : Halcyon Press , 2001 pg. 234-235
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Works about this Work

'Lines of Confusion, Stones of Emptiness': The Place of Mourning in Gwen Harwood's 'Herongate' Rose Lucas , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 65 no. 3 2005; (p. 146-155)
The Other Shore Is Here : Contemporary Poetry of the Sacred Bill Ashcroft , Frances Devlin-Glass , Lyn McCredden , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Intimate Horizons : The Post-Colonial Sacred in Australian Literature 2009; (p. 243-286)
Littoral : A Beach Gathering for Gwen Harwood, Sunday Morning 4th February 1996 Megan Schaffner , 1996 single work prose biography
— Appears in: Famous Reporter , June no. 13. 1996; (p. 66-67)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (3)
Last amended 4 Jun 2003 12:47:06
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