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In two parts: I 'Tunes of Memory' pp. 1 - 71; II The Gate of the Road' pp. 73 - 159
Part II is prefaced by an extract from Tennyson's 'Morte d'Arthur'.
Contents
* Contents derived from the Sydney,New South Wales,:Angus and Robertson,1922 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Gilmore writes of a woman whose beauty lay in her character and of her love for a man who was married. Querying to whom the man was really contracted leads her to consider the imponderables of life.
Gilmore suggests men tell tales to other men, whereas women tell them to children, leading her to query the significance of tales, as well as a number of apparent paradoxes in the human situation.
Gilmore writes of the impossibility of knowing anything as another person knows it. Considering the differences between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, she speculates that the difference lies in the human capacity to remember ideas.
Gilmore regrets that men seem to no longer whistle, seeming instead to prefer raucous singing, particularly in the bath. She looks back at the place whistling held in her own life and further back into the past.
In a series of vignettes Gilmore illustrates how talent and creativity can be lost through lack of opportunity and unfavourable circumstances. She disagrees with the view that poverty is an aid to genius.
Gilmore wonders if birds, being so brilliantly coloured themselves, are aware of colour around them. Further, she discusses the experience of colour, the impact of the unfamiliar, and the gift of thought.
Celebrates an unnamed Irish woman who married a pioneer in Africa and raised her children there. Many years later she arrived in Sydney, where she told Gilmore her story.
Gilmore writes about the romance and importance of roads and exploration. Amongst the stories she relates is that of the nurse of Roger Tichborne, probably the one person in Australia who could have identified, or otherwise, the claimants to his title and fortune.
Gilmore describes travelling on foot in the rain. When she stops to rest for the night she ponders the power of words to stir the emotions, even when the events they relate to are long in the past.
In an empty hut on the road to Braidwood, Gilmore finds a group of a woman's possessions including a pincushion with a note fastened to it. When she opens the note she discovers a poem written by some unknown hand.
Mary Gilmore1923single work review — Appears in:
The Queenslander,20 January1923;(p. 3) — Review of
The Hound of the RoadMary Gilmore,
1922selected work essay short story This review is highly complimentary of Mary Gilmore's poetry and describes some of the inspirations for her writing, such as places she has lived.
Mary Gilmore1923single work review — Appears in:
The Queenslander,20 January1923;(p. 3) — Review of
The Hound of the RoadMary Gilmore,
1922selected work essay short story This review is highly complimentary of Mary Gilmore's poetry and describes some of the inspirations for her writing, such as places she has lived.
