| Author | Message | ||
     Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 148 Registered: 03-2015 |
“These songs are for Gloria Swanson, Kenneth Slessor, Brett Whiteley and Dean Martin.” Fireboy CD – G.W. McLennan Grant surely was a fan of Slessor’s wonderful poem “Five Bells,” which has been called the greatest poem written by an Australian. The poem is a mediation on the downing in Sydney Harbor of Slessor’s friend Joe Lynch. Sydney as a location appears many times in his poems. The Fireboy CD is as dark as someone like Grant gets and accounts suggest that he was going through a dark period in 1992 living in Sydney. I am not the first person on this board to make the connection between Darlinghurst Nights, a book of illustrated poetry, by Kenneth Slessor and Robert’s song of the same title. This book of light humorous verse from 1933 is different from his more serious Modernist poems located his “Selected Poems.” “Darlinghurst Nights” is in print today and there was even a musical from 1988 based upon it. The poems have titles like The Gunman’s Girl, The All-Night Taxi Stand, Delicatessen, Kimono Cora, Lonely, and Croker’s Lane. It is a fun read with great illustrations looking back at a different and more innocent time. There was even a sequel titled “Backless Betty from Bondi.” | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 506 Registered: 02-2007 |
Fred, thanks for reminding me about "Five Bells", an extraordinary poem, one of the finest to have ever been written by an Australian poet. I am only reasonably familiar with Slessor's other work, although I have read quite a few of his war poems from WW2 where he was a war correspondent. |