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The Great Wrasse (for Les Murray) single work   poetry   "Mask wet and snorkel dry, I'm lying loose"
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 The Great Wrasse (for Les Murray)
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: The Great Wrasse : For Les Murray at Sixty
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Times Literary Supplement TLS no. 5089 13 October 2000 Z765614 2000 periodical issue 2000 pg. 26
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Australian's Review of Books vol. 5 no. 10 November 2000 Z820588 2000 newspaper issue 2000 pg. 4
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Book of My Enemy : Collected Verse, 1958-2003 Clive James , London : Picador , 2003 Z1095394 2003 selected work poetry lyric/song

    'The reputation of Clive James as a poet was slow to form, perhaps because he was too famous as a star journalist and television entertainer. There was also the drawback that his poetry was so entertaining it was hard for many critics to take seriously. But after the notoriety achieved by a single self-satirizing poem, ‘The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered’, one of the most anthologized poems of recent times, James’s poetic output became impossible to ignore, and his 1985 collection Other Passports was greeted with praise for its thematic scope and technical accomplishment, even by critics who still doubted his seriousness. Since then, James has emerged unarguably as one of the most prominent poets of his generation – and The Book of My Enemy (which includes Other Passports) shows why.' (Publication summary)

         London : Picador , 2003     pg. 200-203
    Note: With title: The Great Wrasse : For Les Murray at Sixty
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Opal Sunset : Selected Poems, 1958-2008 Clive James , New York (City) : W. W. Norton , 2008 Z1532441 2008 selected work poetry

    'Opal Sunset gathers together fifty years of Clive James’s poetry, and will undoubtedly enhance his reputation as one of the most versatile and accomplished of contemporary writers. Indeed – as with Other Passports, The Book of My Enemy and Angels Over Elsinore before it – Opal Sunset proves Clive James to be as well suited to the intense demands of the poetic form as he is to prose.

    'Readers new to his verse will not be surprised to find him a master of the comic set-piece and surreal excursion, while those who are familiar with his previous collections will already be aware of his fluency and apparently effortless style, his technical skill and thematic scope. Ultimately, however, the highest recommendation one can give is that Clive James is, in these poems, unmistakably himself – an assured and dazzling wordsmith.' (Publication summary)

         New York (City) : W. W. Norton , 2008     pg. 94-98
    Note: With title: The Great Wrasse : For Les Murray at Sixty
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Works about this Work

The Great Wrasse Andrew McCulloch , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 4 March 2014;
The Great Wrasse Andrew McCulloch , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 4 March 2014;
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Last amended 21 Apr 2013 10:05:49
Subjects:
  • Great Barrier Reef, Australian seas,
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