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Poem single work   poetry   "So much of a city"
Alternative title: Blue Hills 44
  • Author:agent Laurie Duggan http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/duggan-laurie
Issue Details: First known date: 1996... 1996 Poem
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New and Selected Poems 1971-1993 Laurie Duggan , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1996 Z125172 1996 selected work poetry St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1996 pg. 174
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Mangroves Laurie Duggan , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2003 Z1006796 2003 selected work poetry Poems in this selection are grouped into two main sections: Part I Mangroves (2000-2002) and Part II The Night Watch (1988-1994). The author's note (p.ix) explains the significance of this grouping. St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2003 pg. 159
    Note: With title: Blue Hills 44
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Jacket no. 27 April 2005 Z1215782 2005 periodical issue 2005
    Note: With title: Blue Hills 44
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry Since 1788 Geoffrey Lehmann (editor), Robert Gray (editor), Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 Z1803846 2011 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) 'A good poem is one that the world can’t forget or is delighted to rediscover. This landmark anthology of Australian poetry, edited by two of Australia’s foremost poets, Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, contains such poems. It is the first of its kind for Australia and promises to become a classic. Included here are Australia’s major poets, and lesser-known but equally affecting ones, and all manifestations of Australian poetry since 1788, from concrete poems to prose poems, from the cerebral to the naïve, from the humorous to the confessional, and from formal to free verse. Translations of some striking Aboriginal song poems are one of the high points. Containing over 1000 poems from 170 Australian poets, as well as short critical biographies, this careful reevaluation of Australian poetry makes this a superb book that can be read and enjoyed over a lifetime.' (From the publisher's website.) Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 pg. 838
Alternative title: 蓝丘(四十四)
First line of verse: "So much of a city=城市中如此大一部份"
Language: English , Chinese

Works about this Work

‘A Homemade World’ : On the Dandenong Line Laurie Duggan , 2018 single work prose
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 84 2018;

'Sometime in 1953 my parents bought a house in Clayton (Victoria, Australia), then on the edge of south-east Melbourne. We moved there from a decidedly different environment: the guest house that my Grandmother owned. This was on Beaconsfield Parade in South Melbourne. In those years that suburb was largely working class with connections to the Port Melbourne wharf and the further dockside territory along the Yarra River. This guesthouse and the country around Ensay in the Tambo valley of East Gippsland where my father was born were ghost presences as I was growing up – imaginaries of an existence I might have had (urban / rural). We would visit my uncle and aunt in Ensay (travelling by train and bus until around 1960 when we finally owned a car) and we would venture into the inner suburbs occasionally where I would get to look at the ‘slums’. I’m not sure what significance these places had for my parents or even why they wanted to take me there. It could have been as a ‘this could have happened to you’ lesson, though I suspect this was not the case. The places we visited may have had more of an affirming effect for my parents. For me, the inner suburbs were simply ‘picturesque’. In art classes at Huntingdale High School I would often draw or paint decaying buildings from the images I had taken on my box Brownie camera. These were sketchy romantic visions lifted probably from the work of Sydney artists like Sali Herman or Donald Friend (encountered in the library rather than the art gallery).'  (Introduction)

‘A Homemade World’ : On the Dandenong Line Laurie Duggan , 2018 single work prose
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 84 2018;

'Sometime in 1953 my parents bought a house in Clayton (Victoria, Australia), then on the edge of south-east Melbourne. We moved there from a decidedly different environment: the guest house that my Grandmother owned. This was on Beaconsfield Parade in South Melbourne. In those years that suburb was largely working class with connections to the Port Melbourne wharf and the further dockside territory along the Yarra River. This guesthouse and the country around Ensay in the Tambo valley of East Gippsland where my father was born were ghost presences as I was growing up – imaginaries of an existence I might have had (urban / rural). We would visit my uncle and aunt in Ensay (travelling by train and bus until around 1960 when we finally owned a car) and we would venture into the inner suburbs occasionally where I would get to look at the ‘slums’. I’m not sure what significance these places had for my parents or even why they wanted to take me there. It could have been as a ‘this could have happened to you’ lesson, though I suspect this was not the case. The places we visited may have had more of an affirming effect for my parents. For me, the inner suburbs were simply ‘picturesque’. In art classes at Huntingdale High School I would often draw or paint decaying buildings from the images I had taken on my box Brownie camera. These were sketchy romantic visions lifted probably from the work of Sydney artists like Sali Herman or Donald Friend (encountered in the library rather than the art gallery).'  (Introduction)

Last amended 5 Jul 2013 20:13:28
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