That's right, Doug, from my NZ boyhood.
As it emerged, I recognized I was in Heaney mode. Farm life recalled, etc.
As for the regional voice, I recall my first conversation with Peter Porter
many years ago.
He said my ten syllable lines were not British, and that his own in his
early books prompted reviewers to say Porter can't keep metre.
Yet both of us grew up reading Shakespeare and Tennyson.
Along with of course many other poets.
Well, that's only 'metre', which in NZ was then felt to be holding its poets
back from releasing the local and regional voices.
Max
On 8/07/10 12:14 AM, "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> though very likely, New Zealand, if i remember rightly, Dave.
>
> a memory so specific of something i never knew, though, & that's neat.
>
> Doug
> On 7-Jul-10, at 12:14 AM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>
>> I can hear an Australian voice in every line, Max, 's fine.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
>
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.htm>
l
>
> because I want to die
>
> writing Haiku
>
> or, better,
>
> long lines, clean and syllabic as knotted bamboo. Yes!
>
> Phyllis Webb
--
|