Noonday Axeman single work   poetry   "Axe-fall, echo and silence. Noonday silence."
  • Author:agent Les Murray http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/murray-les
Issue Details: First known date: 1965... 1965 Noonday Axeman
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Notes

  • Translated by Yu Ouyang as part of a series of seven Les Murray poems, published in shijie wenxue (世界文学) [World Literature], no. 3 (2018): 284-305 (unsighted).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Holzfaller am Mittag
First line of verse: "Axtschlag, Echo und Schweigen. Mittagsschweigen."
Language: German

Works about this Work

“Creation’s Holiday” : On Silence and Monsters in Australian Poetry Jaya Savige , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Poetry , May 2016; (p. 169-184)
The Pain of Belonging Xavier Pons , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Aboriginal Australians and Other 'Others' 2014; (p. 189-202)

'The title of this chapter is of course a not-so-subtle take on Germaine Greer's phrase "the pain of unbelonging," which gives its title to the collection of essays edited by Sheila Collingwood-Whittick,' to which our co-editor Sue Ryan contributed. It refers to the sense of alienation, dislocation and bewilderment experienced by the European colonists of Australia - what Sheila Collingwood-Whittick called "the colonizer's absolute unfamiliarity with the alien space of the colony [...] their overwhelming sense of estrangement." It is an experience that has often been highlighted by writers and critics - two examples that come to mind are John Carroll's collection of essays Intruders in the Bush (a title that epitomizes the book's argument) and Les Murray's assertion, in his poem "Noonday Axeman," that "It will be centuries / Before many men are truly at home in this country." The non-Indigenous population of Australia is as it were doomed to grope its way, sometimes in a most painful manner, towards a sense of belonging, achieving what is rightly regarded as "a consummation devoutly to be wished," though it may be permanently out of reach if Greer is correct in saying that "for a gubba [white] in Australia there can be no belonging."' (Introduction)
 

Australia - the Space that Is Not One : A Literary Approximation Gerhard Stilz , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 27-43)
'Some dozen years ago, I rented a caravan in Adelaide for our family. It has a solid, glittering roo-bar in front and a prison-like wire-grating on the windscreen, fragmenting our view of the wide landscape into little safe squares. When we picked up that impressive vehicle, the rental manager routinely cautioned us that we should by all means stay on sealed roads, and he asked, just to make sure, "Are you going anywhere north of Port Augusta?" - "Yes," we said, "we would like to travel up to Alice and the Red Centre." - "Stuart Highway," he said, "but watch out, there's everything different there, you can get lost in no time, and you never know..." - "Know what?" we were about to ask, but that seemed too much of a sophistry in exchange for the goodly advise given by this good man, who did not look like a philosopher . Though a philosopher of sorts he may have been, following the thought-lines laid out through centuries of coping with dark and ill-defined spaces.' (Author's abstract)
A Poetry Serving Gaia Henry Sheerwater , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Five Bells , Autumn vol. 13 no. 2 2006; (p. 15-23)
The author describes seven characteristics of green poetry and discusses the works of several Australian and overseas poets.
Lost Horizon : Australian Reflections on the Global Village John Barnes , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Changing Geographies : Essays on Australia 2001; (p. 43-57)
Discusses the notion of an Australian national identity in relation to the climate of globalisation and with particular reference to the works and ideas of Les Murray,
A Poetry Serving Gaia Henry Sheerwater , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Five Bells , Autumn vol. 13 no. 2 2006; (p. 15-23)
The author describes seven characteristics of green poetry and discusses the works of several Australian and overseas poets.
Australia - the Space that Is Not One : A Literary Approximation Gerhard Stilz , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 27-43)
'Some dozen years ago, I rented a caravan in Adelaide for our family. It has a solid, glittering roo-bar in front and a prison-like wire-grating on the windscreen, fragmenting our view of the wide landscape into little safe squares. When we picked up that impressive vehicle, the rental manager routinely cautioned us that we should by all means stay on sealed roads, and he asked, just to make sure, "Are you going anywhere north of Port Augusta?" - "Yes," we said, "we would like to travel up to Alice and the Red Centre." - "Stuart Highway," he said, "but watch out, there's everything different there, you can get lost in no time, and you never know..." - "Know what?" we were about to ask, but that seemed too much of a sophistry in exchange for the goodly advise given by this good man, who did not look like a philosopher . Though a philosopher of sorts he may have been, following the thought-lines laid out through centuries of coping with dark and ill-defined spaces.' (Author's abstract)
Les Murray's Vernacular Republic Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1986 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Diversity Itself : Essays in Australian Arts and Culture 1986; (p. 21-37)
Family and the Father in the Poetry of Les A. Murray Lawrence Bourke , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 13 no. 3 1988; (p. 282-295)
The Bardic Pose: A Survey of Les A. Murray's Poetry : [Part] 1 Christopher Pollnitz , 1980 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 40 no. 4 1980; (p. 367-387)
Last amended 9 Mar 2021 15:32:03
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