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Notes
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Sequence consists of eight numbered and titled poems.
Includes
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The Old Women
i
"From social ellipses, from actual weight and mass",
1964
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 54-55) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 230-231) What's Yours? : An Anthology of Australian Poetry 1977; (p. 7-8) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 241-242) Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1991; (p. 223-224) Seven Centuries of Poetry in English 2003; (p. 84) -
A Man
i
"He can hardly walk these days, buckling at the knees,",
1964
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 52-54) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 229-230) The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse 1981; (p. 32-33) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 239-241) Contemporary Australian Poetry : An Anthology 1990; (p. 50-51) Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1991; (p. 222-223) -
Homosexual
i
"To watch may be deadly. There is no judgment, compulsion,",
1964
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 50-52) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 227-229) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 238-239) Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1991; (p. 220-222) The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry 1991; (p. 145-147) -
Old Timer
i
"I have observed even among us the virus",
1963
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 48-49) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 225-226) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 236-237) Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1991; (p. 218-219) The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry 1991; (p. 144-145) The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry 2009; (p. 219-220)
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , June vol. 22 no. 2 1963; (p. 218) Australian Poetry 1964 1964; (p. 48-49) -
Wild Honey
i
"Saboteur autumn has riddled the pampered folds",
1964
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 56-57) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 231-232) The Penguin Book of Australian Verse 1972; (p. 365-366) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 242-243) Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry 1986; (p. 157-158) The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse 1986; (p. 247-248) -
Ward Two and the Kookaburra
i
"We fingered the World, or watered little cacti of anger.",
1962
single work
poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , September vol. 21 no. 3 1962; (p. 317) The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 49-50) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 226-227) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 237-238) Cap and Bells : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1991; (p. 219-220) -
Pneumo-Encephalograph
i
"Tight scrimmage of blankets in the dark;",
1962
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 8 December vol. 85 no. 4320 1962; (p. 37) The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 45-46) New Impulses in Australian Poetry 1968; (p. 144) Collected Poems 1969; (p. 223-224) The Penguin Book of Australian Verse 1972; (p. 363-364) The Collins Book of Australian Poetry 1981; (p. 234) -
Harry
i
"It's the day for writing that letter, if one is able,",
1962
single work
poetry
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , March vol. 21 no. 1 1962; (p. 60-61) Australian Poetry 1962 1962; (p. 54-55) The Ghost of the Cock : Poems 1964; (p. 46-47) Modern Australian Writing 1966; (p. 258-260) On Native Grounds : Australian Writing from Meanjin Quarterly 1967; (p. 357-358) A Book of Australian Verse 1968; (p. 241-243)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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‘Doomed Shapely Ersatz Thought’ : Francis Webb, Ward Two and the Language of Schizophrenia
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 37 no. 1 2022;'Francis Webb’s Ward Two is based on Webb’s hospitalisation for schizophrenia in Paramatta in the 1960s, and was the first Australian poetic sequence concerned with the experience of being institutionalised for mental illness. Whilst anti-psychiatrists condemn the harmful influence of psychiatry, and the social model of disability suggests that disability is a social construction, the poetry of Ward Two holds up the nuances of the institution, the society surrounding it and the disabilities suffered by those within. Through a dry, self-deprecating tone characteristic of mid-century Australian poets, and setting himself apart from the Romantics and American confessionals, Webb represents his speaker and other patients as holy, artistic and transcendental. Although the lines are self-consciously ironic, their sonic effects also suggest, in sincere celebration, that the psychiatric subjects have some spiritual quality that others lack. In this liminal space, those condemned by society – the mad, the gay and the mentally disabled – can recover their identities, thoughts and language, even through the process of losing them. While Foucault wrote that psychiatry is a monologue by reason about madness, Webb’s poetry is a monologue about madness by both reason and unreason, as his surrealist lines have the inventive leaps that align it with unreason, but they also have the calm mode of address and high order linguistics to align it with reason. This affords it a unique position through which it can speak about mental illness that sets it apart from the pathologising language of psychiatry, and the romanticising language of anti-psychiatry. I argue that Webb’s poems, synthesising beauty and pain through imagery, rhyme and metaphor, can depict the subtleties of the schizophrenic mind, and the harmful and healing aspects of psychiatry and the institution.' (Publication abstract)
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'The Tiny Not the Immense' : Francis Webb and the Location of the Sacred
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Intimate Horizons : The Post-Colonial Sacred in Australian Literature 2009; (p. 69-103) -
Francis Webb's 'Harry' : Can Imbecility Be Made Innocent?
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ethical Investigations : Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics 2008; (p. 100-105) -
The Journeying Self : Schizophrenia and the Poetry of Francis Webb
1983
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Francis Webb - Poet and Patient : A Joint Seminar of the Department of English, Faculty of Military Studies, Duntroon and the School of Psychiatry, the University of New South Wales. 1983; (p. 52-69)
— Appears in: The Gimbals of Unease : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1996; (p. 59-83) -
'realer than the Real' : Francis Webb's Ward Two
1979
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 9 no. 1 1979; (p. 59-70) The Gimbals of Unease : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1996; (p. 173-191)
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'The Tiny Not the Immense' : Francis Webb and the Location of the Sacred
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Intimate Horizons : The Post-Colonial Sacred in Australian Literature 2009; (p. 69-103) -
Francis Webb's 'Harry' : Can Imbecility Be Made Innocent?
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ethical Investigations : Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics 2008; (p. 100-105) -
The Journeying Self : Schizophrenia and the Poetry of Francis Webb
1983
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Francis Webb - Poet and Patient : A Joint Seminar of the Department of English, Faculty of Military Studies, Duntroon and the School of Psychiatry, the University of New South Wales. 1983; (p. 52-69)
— Appears in: The Gimbals of Unease : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1996; (p. 59-83) -
'realer than the Real' : Francis Webb's Ward Two
1979
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 9 no. 1 1979; (p. 59-70) The Gimbals of Unease : The Poetry of Francis Webb 1996; (p. 173-191) -
The Broads of the Spirit : The Poetry of Francis Webb
1974
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Autumn vol. 33 no. 1 1974; (p. 7-18)