Five Bells single work   poetry   "Time that is moved by little fidget wheels"
Issue Details: First known date: 1939... 1939 Five Bells
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Five Bells : XX Poems Kenneth Slessor , Sydney : Frank Johnson , 1939 Z531428 1939 selected work poetry Sydney : Frank Johnson , 1939 pg. 15-20
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon One Hundred Poems : 1919-1939 Kenneth Slessor , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1944 Z531634 1944 selected work poetry

    The definitive collection of work from one of Australia’s preeminent twentieth century poets, Kenneth Slessor, drawing from his acclaimed books, Earth Visitors (1926), Cuckooz Contrey (1932) and Five Bells (1939). This selection was first published as One Hundred Poems in 1944 (with the addition of three further poems in 1957), and includes an introduction by Dennis Haskell and an Author’s Note. From his historical series, ‘Five Visions of Captain Cook’, to his memorial to the loss of a friend, the iconic ‘Five Bells’, and from the tragic landscape of El Alamein, influenced by his stint as a war correspondent and made famous in ‘Beach Burial’, to the meditation ‘Out of Time’, Slessor’s poetry continues to dazzle contemporary audiences. A master of modern verse, Slessor explores the themes of art, death and time, displaying an impressive range: from sorrow to satire, melodrama to poignant intensity. His work still influences and inspires younger generations, and the prestigious Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize is named in his honour.

    Source: Harper Collins

    (http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460703120/#sm.0001ateq1q7i8db3zj927an1pz5xe)

    Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1944
    pg. 119-123
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon An Anthology of Australian Verse George Mackaness (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1952 6472657 1952 anthology poetry Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1952 pg. 336-340
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    y separately published work icon A Book of Australian Verse Judith Wright (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1956 Z565053 1956 anthology poetry Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1956 pg. 97-101
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Verse John Thompson (editor), Kenneth Slessor (editor), R. G. Howarth (editor), Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1958 Z1013022 1958 anthology poetry Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1958 pg. 75-79
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    y separately published work icon Australian Idiom : An Anthology of Contemporary Prose and Poetry Harry Payne Heseltine (editor), Melbourne : Cheshire , 1963 Z333209 1963 anthology short story poetry extract criticism Melbourne : Cheshire , 1963 pg. 199-202
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    y separately published work icon Modern Australian Verse Douglas Stewart (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1964 Z390812 1964 anthology poetry Editor's Introduction: The anthology covers 'from 1930 onwards'... And, lastly, of course, an anthology of this kind should attempt to give as wide a picture as possible, consistent with quality, of Australian poetry in the period. That I have certainly tried to do; but without losing sight of the principle that it should be enjoyable. ... Douglas Stewart (q.v.) (xxi-xxxv). Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1964 pg. 9-13
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Book of Australian Verse Judith Wright (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1956 Z565053 1956 anthology poetry Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1968 pg. 95-99
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    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Verse Harry Payne Heseltine (editor), Ringwood Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1972 Z334403 1972 anthology poetry Selection of works by Australian poets from Charles Harpur (1813-1868) to Charles Buckmaster (b. 1951). Ringwood Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1972 pg. 156-159
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Poems Kenneth Slessor , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1957 Z531943 1957 selected work poetry (taught in 5 units) Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1975 pg. 121-124
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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. 146-149
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    y separately published work icon Australian Poems in Perspective : A Collection of Poems and Critical Commentaries P. K. Elkin (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1978 Z365352 1978 anthology poetry criticism biography St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1978 pg. 75-78
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    y separately published work icon The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry Chris Wallace-Crabbe (editor), Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 1980 Z62463 1980 anthology poetry

    'A collection of the best poetry of the twentieth century; Hope - Wright - Slessor - Webb - Harwood - Murray.' (Publication summary)

    Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 1980
    pg. 27-31
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Collins Book of Australian Poetry Rodney Hall , Sydney : Collins , 1981 Z542215 1981 anthology poetry Sydney : Collins , 1981 pg. 126-130
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The World's Contracted Thus J. A. McKenzie (editor), J. K. McKenzie (editor), Richmond : Heinemann Education Australia , 1983 Z174491 1983 anthology poetry Richmond : Heinemann Education Australia , 1983 pg. 275-278
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse Beatrice Davis , Melbourne : Nelson , 1984 Z315151 1984 anthology poetry biography Melbourne : Nelson , 1984 pg. 121-124
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years Leonie Kramer (editor), Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 Z1067493 1985 anthology poetry short story Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 pg. 20-23
  • Appears in:
    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. 142-145
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    y separately published work icon Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse John Barnes (editor), Brian McFarlane (editor), Richmond : Heinemann , 1984 Z900285 1984 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) Richmond : Heinemann Education Australia , 1988 pg. 82-85
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    y separately published work icon The Sea Poems of Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Slessor , Canberra : Brindabella Press , 1990 Z313182 1990 selected work poetry war literature Canberra : Brindabella Press , 1990 pg. 36-40
  • 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. 11-15
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse Vincent Buckley (editor), London : Faber , 1991 Z563845 1991 anthology poetry war literature satire humour London : Faber , 1991 pg. 11-15
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Kenneth Slessor : Poetry, Essays, War Despatches, War Diaries, Journalism, Autobiographical Material and Letters Kenneth Slessor , Dennis Haskell (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1991 Z153703 1991 selected work poetry prose extract correspondence criticism St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1991 pg. 44-47
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century Robert Gray (editor), Geoffrey Lehmann (editor), Port Melbourne : Heinemann , 1991 Z27032 1991 anthology poetry Port Melbourne : Heinemann , 1991 pg. 64-67
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    y separately published work icon Sydney's Poems : A Selection on the Occasion of the City's One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 1842-1992 Robert Gray (editor), Vivian Smith (editor), Leichhardt : Primavera Press , 1992 Z309309 1992 anthology poetry humour Leichhardt : Primavera Press , 1992 pg. 24-29
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Kenneth Slessor : Collected Poems Kenneth Slessor , Dennis Haskell (editor), Geoffrey Dutton (editor), Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1994 Z396988 1994 collected work poetry drama Comprehensive collection of Slessor's work from earlier selections as well as previously uncollected work, with preface, chronology and extensive textual and explanatory notes. Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1994 pg. 120-124
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Fivefathers : Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era Les Murray (editor), Manchester : Carcanet , 1994 Z276076 1994 anthology poetry Manchester : Carcanet , 1994 pg. 54-57
  • Appears in:
    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. 142-145
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology John Leonard (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 Z461207 1998 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) A thorough survey of poetry by Australians in English, beginning with a selection of contemporary work by younger poets, and going backward in time to the early colonial period. In addition to poems in the literary tradition, it indudes performance poetry, convict songs and old bush ballads. An extensive selection has been provided from the work of five major twentieth-century poets: Les Murray, Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, A.D. Hope and Kenneth Slessor. Several features are provided to assist the reader: the date of first publication of each poem is provided; footnotes explain unfamiliar words and allusions; and brief biographical notes assist in locating each poet in his or her place in time. Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 pg. 265-267
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Seven Centuries of Poetry in English John Leonard (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2003 Z1058257 2003 anthology poetry (taught in 6 units) Contains poetry from twelve countries, including Australia, and spans the development of English poetry over seven centuries. South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2003 pg. 148-150
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    y separately published work icon Two Centuries of Australian Poetry Kathrine Bell (editor), Smithfield : Gary Allen , 2007 Z1472336 2007 anthology poetry Smithfield : Gary Allen , 2007 pg. 186-189
  • Appears in:
    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. 147-151
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    y separately published work icon Harbour City Poems : Sydney in Verse, 1788-2008 Martin Langford (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1590539 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) 'From colonial origins to vibrant metropolis, Sydney has been portrayed with great liveliness and precision by its poets. This anthology's range extends from the foot of the Blue Mountains through the suburban heartlands to the harbour and the beach, incorporating numerous - and often conflicting - interpretations and images of the city. This is the first collection of Sydney-specific poems for twenty years. It includes such classics as Slessor's "Five Bells" and favourites like "Clancy of the Overflow" as well as a generous selection of very contemporary work and older verse tracing back to the town's verse.' (Publisher's blurb) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 51-54
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 443-446
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1674214 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 316-319
  • 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. 132-135
  • 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. 280-283
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Another English : Anglophone Poems from Around the World Catherine Barnett (editor), Tiphanie Yanique (editor), Massachusetts : Tupelo Books , 2014 8319162 2014 anthology poetry Massachusetts : Tupelo Books , 2014
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Love Is Strong as Death Paul Kelly (editor), Melbourne : Hamish Hamilton , 2019 17491295 2019 anthology poetry

    'Paul Kelly’s songs are steeped in poetry. And now he has gathered from around the world the poems he loves – poems that have inspired and challenged him over the years, a number of which he has set to music. This wide-ranging and deeply moving anthology combines the ancient and the modern, the hallowed and the profane, the famous and the little known, to speak to two of literature’s great themes that have proven so powerful in his music: love and death – plus everything in between.

    'Here are poems by Yehuda Amichai, W.H. Auden, Tusiata Avia, Hera Lindsay Bird, William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Constantine Cavafy, Alison Croggon, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Fenton, Thomas Hardy, Kevin Hart, Gwen Harwood, Seamus Heaney, Philip Hodgins, Homer, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Ono No Komachi, Maxine Kumin, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Norman MacCaig, Paula Meehan, Czeslaw Milosz, Les Murray, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, Ovid, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Porter, Rumi, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Izumi Shikibu, Warsan Shire, Kenneth Slessor, Wislawa Szymborska, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Ko Un, Walt Whitman, Judith Wright, W.B. Yeats and many more.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    Melbourne : Hamish Hamilton , 2019
Alternative title: Five Bells - Cinque Campane
First line of verse: "Il tempo mosso da convulse ruote"
Language: English , Italian
Notes:
Italian and English texts published together.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Meridian vol. 17 no. 2 Christopher Palmer (editor), Iain Topliss (editor), Bundoora : La Trobe University. School of English , 2000 Z795731 2000 periodical issue anthology Globalising Australia Bundoora : La Trobe University. School of English , 2000 pg. 93-105

Works about this Work

How to Drown a Husband: Five Bells, Four Chambers, and Saturday Nights at Sea Susan Bradley Smith , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 15 no. 1 2018; (p. 121-134)

'An autoethnography of a marriage and its demise, this work relies on the reflective modality of the lyric essay to consider the role of memory in love, heartbreak, and reconciliation. Examining two characters from different cultures whose ancestors fought for opposing sides during World War II, this story wonders if their marriage was doomed by history and the silences of intergenerational shame that emerged in Germany particularly during the post-war occupation period. Using the methodology of the witnessing imagination this essay also argues that creative writing gives shape to traumatic historical events and allows remarkable access to complex processes of recovery. Two poets—Kenneth Slessor and Joseph Brodsky—are employed as metaphoric soldiers fighting over the terrain of memory alongside the ‘witness’ author, interrogating personal issues about the on-going heartbreak of a failed marriage which come to symbolise larger concerns of social and political reconciliation. The notion of memory’s integrity to acts of reconciliation is explored through storytelling which relies on the ethical foundations of bibliotherapy as a creative practice devoted to healing trauma. This account of love and its subsequent heartbreak in a post-traumatic, ‘occupied space’ suggests that lyrical interventions afford distinctive opportunities for enhanced understandings to emerge.' (Abstract)

Between Bells, More Than a Poet Is Summoned Greg Lewis , 2016 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016;
On Tasman Shores - Guy & Joe Lynch in Australasia On Tasman Shores - Guy and Joe Lynch in Australasia Martin Edmond , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 5 2014;

'The Tasman Sea, precisely defined by oceanographers, remains inchoate as a cultural area. It has, as it were, drifted in and out of consciousness over the two and a half centuries of European presence here; and remains an almost unknown quantity to prehistory. Its peak contact period was probably the sixty odd years between the discovery of gold in Victoria and the outbreak of the Great War; when the West Coasts of both New Zealand’s main islands, and the South East Coast of Australia, were twin shores of a land that shared an economy, a politics, a literature and a popular culture: much of which is reflected in the pages of The Bulletin from 1880s until 1914. There was, too, a kind of hangover of the pre-war era and of the ANZAC experience into the 1920s; but after that the notional country sank again beneath the waves.

'This paper attempts recovery of fragments of that lost zone from a prospective standpoint: beginning the restoration of a Weltanschauung which, while often occluded, has never really gone away. It will be undertaken by focussing upon the story of the Melbourne born Lynch brothers and their cohort: Guy and Joe Lynch, George Finey, Cecil ‘Unk’ White and Noel Cook, all of whom migrated from Auckland to Sydney after World War One and worked in the 1920s as artists, caricaturists and cartoonists on various newspapers and magazines. Joe was sculpted twice in stone by elder brother Guy; as a soldier standing on a plinth in the war memorial at Devonport, Auckland; and, controversially, as a faun in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens. Joe Lynch fell, or jumped, from a ferry one night and drowned in Sydney harbour; and thereby became the inspiration for Kenneth Slessor’s great elegy, Five Bells.' (Publication abstract)

No More Boomerang? 'Nigger's Leap' and 'Five Bells' Leigh Dale , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , 1 March vol. 37 no. 1 2013; (p. 48-61)
'This essay argues that Judith Wright's poem "Nigger's Leap" is a reply to Kenneth Slessor's "Five Bells", within the context of discussions about Slessor's and Wright's attitudes towards colonialism and colonial history. The essay also discusses Gail Jones' novel Five Bells and its engagement with Slessor's poem, arguing that metaphors of sound and musical repetition offer a useful way of understanding the structure of Jones' novel and the relationship between novel and poem.' (Author's abstract)
Time's Abyss : Australian Literary Modernism and the Scene of the Ferry Wreck Brigid Rooney , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Scenes of Reading : Is Australian Literature a World Literature? 2013; (p. 101-114)

'The desire to challenge or escape colonial provincialism in search of a freer, more cosmopolitan modernity finds expression in three works of fiction by women writers that stage the drama of ferry wreck on Sydney Harbour, and that thread - as Wai Chee Dimock would say - local Australian scenes into the deeper time of world literature: Christina Stead's short story 'Day of Wrath' (1934), Eleanor Dark's novel Waterway (1938) and The Transit of Venus (1980) by Shirley Hazzard' [p. 102].

Untitled The Vulture , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Magazine , 6-7 April 1996; (p. 10)

— Review of Five Bells Kenneth Slessor , 1939 single work poetry
Slessor's Three Visions of Time and the Sea Julian Croft , 1977 single work criticism
— Appears in: Considerations : New Essays on Kenneth Slessor, Judith Wright and Douglas Stewart 1977; (p. 38-68)
'Five Bells' : Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971) Jane Gleeson-White , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Classics : Fifty Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works 2007; (p. 137-141)
form y separately published work icon Hidden Treasures : Inside the National Library with Betty Churcher : John Olsen's Opera House Mural Betty Churcher , ( dir. John Hughes ) Australia : Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 2008 Z1507719 2008 single work film/TV
An Approach to 'Five Bells' John Barnes , 1981 single work criticism
— Appears in: Viewpoints : H.S.C. English Literature , no. 81 1981; (p. 69-73)
Word on the Street : Delia Falconer Delia Falconer , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The (Sydney) Magazine , May no. 73 2009; (p. 54)
Last amended 29 Jun 2023 11:32:23
Subjects:
  • Sydney Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales,
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