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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In this collection of poems, farmers, fathers, poverty-stricken pioneers, and people blackened by the grist of the sugar mills are exposed to the blazing midday sun of Murray's linguistic powers. Richly inventive, tenderly perceptive, and fiercely honest, these poems surprise and bare the human in all of us.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: To the glory of God
Contents
- The Family Farmers' Victoryi"White grist that turns people black", single work poetry (p. 9-10)
- A Brief Historyi"We are the Australians. Our history is short.", single work poetry (p. 11-12)
- Where Humans Can't Leave and Mustn't Complaini"Where humans can't leave, and mustn't complain,", single work poetry (p. 13)
- Green Rose Tani"Poverty is still sacred. Christian", single work poetry (p. 14-15)
- The Say-But-the-Word Centurion Attempts a Summaryi"That numinous healer who preached Saturnalia and paradox", single work poetry (p. 16-17)
- Dead Trees in the Dami"Castle scaffolding tall in moat,", single work poetry (p. 18)
- Rock Musici"Sex is a Nazi. The students all knew", single work poetry (p. 19)
- The Rolloveri"Some of us primary producers, us farmers and authors", single work poetry satire (p. 20)
- Late Summer Firesi"The paddocks shave black", single work poetry (p. 21)
- Cornichei"I work all day and hardly drink at all.", single work poetry (p. 22-23)
- Suspended Vesselsi"Here is too narrow and brief:", single work poetry (p. 24-25)
- The Water Columni"We had followed the catwalk upriver", single work poetry (p. 26)
- The Beneficiariesi"Higamus hogamus", single work poetry (p. 27)
- The Maenadsi"Four captured a man. When he grasped what they meant to do", single work poetry (p. 28)
- The Portrait Headi"How Jews may have pioneered sculpture under Pharaoh's knout:", single work poetry (p. 29)
- Phrygia, Birthplace of Embroideryi"When Mida, no less deserving of mercy or better for", single work poetry (p. 30)
- Like Wheeling Stacked Wateri"Dried nests in the overhanging limbs", single work poetry (p. 31-32)
- Wallis Lake Estuaryi"A long street of all blue windows,", single work poetry (p. 33)
- The Sand Coast Sonnets, sequence poetry (p. 33-38)
- Twin Towns Historyi"The northern shore used to be framed up", single work poetry (p. 34)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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‘Nearly All Deep Fertile Soil’ : Les Murray, His Son and Autism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 37 no. 1 2022;'‘It Allows a Portrait in Line Scan at Fifteen’ is one of Les Murray’s most well-known poems. It was written in 1993, first published in 1994, and featured in his 1996 book Subhuman Redneck Poems. The poem profiles, but does not name, Murray’s and his wife Valerie Murray’s second son (fourth child) Alexander, who, at three, was medically diagnosed as autistic. Both because the poem is Murray’s portrait of his son, and because it was Alexander’s autism diagnosis that prompted Murray’s full recognition of his own autism, this poem is also inherently as much about Murray as it is about Alexander. It explores not only their relationship as parent and child, but each of their relationships with autism, and how their shared autistic love of words, movies, and portraits deepens these relationships.' (Publication abstract)
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The Stump : Looking Back on the Republic of Murray
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , June 2019;'When monuments fall, they create ripples, shockwaves, fragments, pyroclastic flow – pick your metaphor. Les Murray was definitely that. Over his long career, he produced more poetry, more critically well-regarded poetry, and – stranger still – more commercially profitable poetry than pretty much anyone else in the Australian landscape. Unlike the famous expatriate coterie of his peers (Peter Porter, Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Clive James and so forth), he did it mostly from his own paddock, without modulating his principles to fashion or his prejudices to progress. You could think of Murray as the problematic old bastard grandad some of us had, if he’d been an internationally renowned poet. Structurally rarer, Murray’s work created and sustained an entire idea or moment or myth of Australia pretty much on its own. Let’s be blunt, there just aren’t that many writers who can pull off a feat of that magnitude.' (Introduction)
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An Australian Hybridity of Dialect and Didactics in Les Murray's Subhuman Redneck Poems
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature 2016; (p. 145-154)‘Studying Les Murray’s poetry provides students the opportunity to recognize important contexts for Australians’ connection to an often daunting land, for the tensions between city and country perceptions, and for contemporary manifestations of clashing Indigenous and postcolonial identities. Thus, selecting Murray as a representative of Australian poetry seems clear for many, especially those who now consider him to be Australia’s preeminent poet-although there are some for whom he is not their first choice, for distinctive reasons. Elleke Boehmer noted in 1995 that Murray is ‘Australia’s self-elected bard of the demonic’ (218), and in 2007 Dan Chiasson argued that he ‘is now routinely mentioned among three or four leading English-language poets’ (136). In his long career, he has had published over forty books of poetry and essays. His work has garnered many literary awards, including the coveted T.S. Eliot Prize in 1996 and a Queens’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1998. (Introduction)
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‘The Elephant Has Left the Room’: Jacket Magazine and the Internet
2012
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'Australian poet John Tranter trained in all aspects of publishing, from hand-lettering to editing, from litho platemaking to screen printing, and developed an early familiarity with computers. The development of the Internet in the 1990s found him armed with a formidable array of skills. He published the free international Internet-only magazine Jacket single-handed in 1997. Jacket quickly grew to become the most widely read and highly respected literary magazine ever published from Australia. In late 2010 John Tranter gave it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it continues to flourish. This memoir traces John Tranter's publication of literary materials on the Internet including the technical and literary problems faced by Jacket, and outlines the many other projects that resulted in the Internet publication of over fifty thousand mostly Australian poems, articles, reviews, interviews and photographs.' (Editor's abstract)
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The Country Calling
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: Illawarra Mercury Weekender , 5-6 March 2011; (p. 21) Poet Les Murray spends as much time in cities as he does in the country.
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Murray and Other Rivers
1997
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , May vol. 7 no. 4 1997; (p. 43-44)
— Review of The Wild Reply 1997 selected work poetry ; Accidental Grace 1996 selected work poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems 1996 selected work poetry ; Dogstown: Poems 1996 selected work poetry -
With Rhyme and Reason
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , December-January (1996-1997) vol. 1 no. 4 1996; (p. 20-21)
— Review of Lineations 1996 selected work poetry ; Accidental Grace 1996 selected work poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems 1996 selected work poetry -
Sensitive Redneck Poems
1997
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 4 January 1997; (p. 5)
— Review of The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse 1986 anthology poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems 1996 selected work poetry -
First-Rate Poetry Worth Reading, Redneck or Not
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 9 November 1996; (p. C10)
— Review of Subhuman Redneck Poems 1996 selected work poetry -
Jesting with Death
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 November 1996; (p. 11s)
— Review of Subhuman Redneck Poems 1996 selected work poetry -
Les Murray
Ramona Koval
(interviewer),
2005
single work
interview
— Appears in: Tasting Life Twice : Conversations with Remarkable Writers 2005; (p. 267-291) -
The Country Calling
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: Illawarra Mercury Weekender , 5-6 March 2011; (p. 21) Poet Les Murray spends as much time in cities as he does in the country. -
‘The Elephant Has Left the Room’: Jacket Magazine and the Internet
2012
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'Australian poet John Tranter trained in all aspects of publishing, from hand-lettering to editing, from litho platemaking to screen printing, and developed an early familiarity with computers. The development of the Internet in the 1990s found him armed with a formidable array of skills. He published the free international Internet-only magazine Jacket single-handed in 1997. Jacket quickly grew to become the most widely read and highly respected literary magazine ever published from Australia. In late 2010 John Tranter gave it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it continues to flourish. This memoir traces John Tranter's publication of literary materials on the Internet including the technical and literary problems faced by Jacket, and outlines the many other projects that resulted in the Internet publication of over fifty thousand mostly Australian poems, articles, reviews, interviews and photographs.' (Editor's abstract)
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Redneck Hits the Mark (from Les Murray: A Life in Progress)
1999
extract
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 November 1999; (p. 7) -
Subhuman Redneck Politics
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Counterbalancing Light : Essays on the Poetry of Les Murray 1997; (p. 123-136) Southerly , Winter vol. 58 no. 2 1998; (p. 126-139)
Awards
- 1997 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards — NBC Turnbull Fox Phillips Poetry Prize
- 1997 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Poetry
- 1997 winner T.S. Eliot Prize