Elegy for Drowned Children single work   poetry   "What does he do with them all, the old king:"
Issue Details: First known date: 1965... 1965 Elegy for Drowned Children
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Need of Similar Name Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Cheshire , 1965 Z547356 1965 selected work poetry Melbourne : Cheshire , 1965 pg. 38
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    y separately published work icon The Sydney Morning Herald 9 October 1965 Z1897075 1965 newspaper issue 1965 pg. 19
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    y separately published work icon New Impulses in Australian Poetry Rodney Hall (editor), Thomas Shapcott (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1968 Z548090 1968 anthology poetry

    This 'anthology of Australian poetry of the 1960s, was edited, with an introduction, by Rodney Hall and Thomas W. Shapcott. The keynote of these ‘new impulses’ was ‘a suspicion of idealism, and an inbred awareness of the consequences of totalitarian beliefs’. Authoritarianism in religion and politics was eschewed, as was the concept of national and international aggression. Major established poets such as Kenneth Slessor, Judith Wright and A. D. Hope are not represented because the editors felt that their poetry of the decade added little to their already defined stances. Their contemporaries, however, Gwen Harwood and Francis Webb, are given considerable space because they are important influences on younger poets.' (Source : The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, online edition)

    St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1968
    pg. 42
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Condolences of the Season : Selected Poems Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1971 Z546924 1971 selected work poetry Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1971 pg. 46
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    y separately published work icon Twelve Poets, 1950-1970 12 Poets, 1950-1970 Alexander Craig (editor), Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1971 Z77157 1971 anthology poetry Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1971 pg. 110
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    y separately published work icon Australia Fair : Poems and Paintings Douglas Stewart (editor), Sydney : Ure Smith , 1974 Z392157 1974 anthology poetry Sydney : Ure Smith , 1974 pg. 72
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    y separately published work icon Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum Geoffrey Dutton (editor), Adelaide : Rigby , 1976 Z399014 1976 anthology Adelaide : Rigby , 1976 pg. 261
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    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1978 Z543663 1978 selected work poetry

    'The sixth edition of Sometimes Gladness includes three indexes to enable readers to find suitable texts. In addition to an alphabetical index, poems are also grouped according to form, and categorised by themes such as war, family, images or dreams.'

    Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1978
    pg. 134
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse Harry Payne Heseltine (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1981 Z333005 1981 anthology poetry Selection of Australian poetry from the 1950s. Ringwood : Penguin , 1981 pg. 54-55
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    y separately published work icon The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse Les Murray (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 Z427532 1986 anthology poetry Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 pg. 265
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1987 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1988 Z898040 1988 selected work poetry Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1988 pg. 54
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry John Tranter (editor), Philip Mead (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 Z151302 1991 anthology poetry Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 pg. 172
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems, 1954-1992 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1993 Z470171 1993 selected work poetry humour satire Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1993 pg. 51
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    y separately published work icon The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse Les Murray (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 Z427532 1986 anthology poetry South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 pg. 265-266
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    y separately published work icon Poems for All Occasions Ron Pretty (editor), Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 2002 Z1005699 2002 anthology poetry A collection of well-known poems from across the ages grouped by topic or event (such as 'Childbirth and Christening' and 'Funerals and Memorial Services'). Australian and international authors are included. Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 2002 pg. 55
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    y separately published work icon The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry John Kinsella (editor), Camberwell : Penguin , 2009 Z1553543 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units)

    'This is a comprehensive survey of Australian poetic achievement, ranging from early colonial and indigenous verse to contemporary work, from the major poets to those who deserve to be better recognised.' (Provided by the publisher).

    Camberwell : Penguin , 2009
    pg. 232
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    y separately published work icon Bruce Dawe : Life Cycle Stephany Steggall , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2009 Z1627487 2009 single work biography

    'Bruce Dawe: Life Cycle acknowledges one of Australia's best known poets and one of his best known poems. His life cycles have been poverty, perseverance and personal happiness; the rhythms of his being are the rhythms of his poetry - persistently fearless in speaking out on social and political issues; consistently sensitive and lyrical about painful concerns; insistently witty and satirical on just about anything. His range of poetry resists wrong and reveals a great love of his fellow man and a deep understanding of life. This biography is the first time that Dawe's life has been interpreted in full through his poetry, and the poems take on new significance when read in this context. The subject is telling some of the story in his own words - in poems.

    Sometimes Gladness is Dawe's signature title and a best-seller of about 130,000 copies. Now in it's sixth edition, the book expresses a life long attempt to understand the balance between gladness and grief, the common factors of human experience. Verse cartooning and satirical humour, the constants of more than fifty years of writing, are much admired and enjoyed by readers and listeners of all ages. Dawe, one of Australia's first and most successful performance poets, provides imaginative scope to fill the spaces between humour and the pathos.

    The reader of Bruce Dawe: Life Cycle shares a large experience, which effectively starts with 'Strictly En Passant', the first poem in the first book, No Fixed Address. Dawe looks forward to the multiplicity of 'feel and fragrance, sound and sheen' that his life will hold and he anticipates that, while he may not fully understand yet the meaning of a satisfactory existence, 'Time may build on this...' the existence culminates in 'Autobiography', in which Dawe measures what has been built. He says that he 'wouldn't have missed for anything' the experience of his life.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2009
    pg. 209
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 100 Australian Poems of Love and Loss Jamie Grant (editor), Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2011 Z1758937 2011 anthology poetry Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2011 pg. 159

Works about this Work

Bruce Dawe at the Frontiers of Gawkiness Dennis Haskell , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 14 no. 1 2000; (p. 27-33)
Bruce Dawe Dagmar Strauss (interviewer), 1990 single work interview
— Appears in: Facing Writers : Australia's Leading Writers Talk with Dagmar Strauss 1990; (p. 79-92)
Bruce Dawe Dagmar Strauss (interviewer), 1990 single work interview
— Appears in: Facing Writers : Australia's Leading Writers Talk with Dagmar Strauss 1990; (p. 79-92)
Bruce Dawe at the Frontiers of Gawkiness Dennis Haskell , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 14 no. 1 2000; (p. 27-33)
Last amended 21 Sep 2013 17:52:03
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