Slessor’s Vision of Life

Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of time – Five Visions, Out of Time, Five Bells, Elegy

Memories are able to withstand the permutation of time but are only temporary to the inexorable passage of time – Out of Time, Five Visions, Five Bells

Admires our capacity to feel and provides us with a sense of enjoyment of living to soften the inevitability of mortality (helps us create meaning in life) – Sensuality

Life is harsh and brutal – Sleep & Beach Burial (shown thru futility of war)

Slessor’s Context and Milieu (social and cultural surroundings)

Born in Orange, NSW 1901 Lived in apartment overlooking Sydney harbour Most of Slessor’s watery poems were inspired by his view of the harbour

(Five Visions & Five Bells) Was a war correspondent (covers stories firsthand from warzone),

influenced his writings – Beach Burial

Appreciation of Slessor’s Oeuvre (body of work)

Appreciate him for his resonance of ideas Presents the duality of life (torment and beauty) – Out of time

& Sensuality Intensity of his ideas Unrelenting exploration of life and death, time and change Concerns about the meaning of life and death The daring denial of the significance of human life – Out of

Time Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning)

Critiques

“In many of Slessor’s poems, there is an unambiguous expression of a desire to escape the influence of Time, to exist in a paradise outside the normal processes of ageing and decay” – Julian Croft (Out of Time, Five Bells, Sleep)

“There is an increasing emphasis on the exploration of Time and its major symbol, the sea” – T.L Sturm (Out of Time, Five Bells, Five Visions, Beach Burial)

“Even Cook, heroic and a scientific wizard to his men, is subservient to Time” – Clive Hamer (Five Visions)

Ideas and Themes (they overlap)

Time (Out of Time, Five Bells, Five Visions, Elegy) Time is incessant (never ending)

Cyclic structure of ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Five Bells’ Time is powerful

Simile in “like a hundred yachts” in ‘Out of Time’ Personification in “He keeps appointments with a million

years”. Shows our existence is insignificant. - Out of Time Paradoxically, Time is powerless against itself and

succumbs to its own force – “his fate pursues him” – Out of Time

Wave imagery is representative of Time. Our hopelessness is shown by the waves:

“The tide goes over, the waves ride over you” - Five Bells The persona is “taken by the suck of the sea” – Out of

Time “One wave shook their keel” - Five Visions. Shows that

water can affect mortality. Time brings about change (Elegy)

Gardens have changed “…In the autumn I came where spring had used me better”

Persona symbolises his change in feelings to his altered view of Latin plant names: In the past they were a “Hateful name” which conveys disgust. Yet there is

change: “But now the schools horticulturalists, come forth triumphantly in Latin”. And this change is accepted: “so be it now”. The resigned tone reflects the persona’s ambivalence.

Name of the house in the garden changed: “Georgian Headlong Hall” has connotations of mystery and stateliness. Now “The National Herbarium”, coldly scientific and utilitarian

Memory (Out of Time, Five Bells, Five Visions, Elegy, Sensuality) Memories have the ability to

transcend/transfix/suspend/arrest time “Sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” Peal of the five bells represent memories of Joe Lynch.

Develops pensive recollections of him and persona effectively lives 30 years of Joe’s life in a few seconds

“The flood that does not flow” – Five Bells Memories are powerful and forceful

Take Home from his reality in Scotland – “but his eyes were dazzle-full of skies and water farther round the world” (dazzle conveys the brilliance and strength of those memories) – Five Visions

Persona cannot let go memories of Joe – “Yet something’s here”, “are you shouting at me dead man?” - Five Bells

Memories bring joy Home’s delight with Cook borders obsession – “a man

gone daft with Cook” – Five Visions Remembered sensations in Sensuality. A celebration of

the feelings and sensual experiences in life. Memories give a kind of mortality

Persona’s memories of Joe Lynch - “you have gone from Earth, yet something’s there” – Five Bells

Alexander Home’s memories of Cook – Five Visions

War (Beach Burial)

War is futile, meaningless, a waste of lives, accelerates our fated deaths

Irony in “convoys of dead sailors” as convoys usually protect

“pluck them from the shallows and bury them in burrows” exacerbates the lack of human dignity. Burrows indicate mass graves, which imply no proper funeral – meaninglessness of war

Unable to identify the sailor “unknown seaman” -perverts status of man through their insignificance and anonymity

Out of Time

Vision of Life Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of Time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of Time but are

temporary to the unrelenting nature of Time How the poem portrays the Vision of Life

Image of Bony Knife and Enfolding me in its bed show the powerful nature of Time (duality of Time too)

Cyclic structure of poem demonstrates Time’s atemporal existence

Transience of Life shown in the repetition of ‘moment’ in successive sonnets and is synonymous to man’s life. A contrast can be made with Time “keeping appointment with a million years”, emphasising our insignificant existence

“He must open doors or close them” – Time ultimately determines our mortality

Man desperately attempts to defy time – “leaning against his golden undertow” (undertow representative of Time)

Memories are used in the “sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” to emphasise man’s defiance of Time to transcend it

Attempts are futile as persona is inevitably “taken by the suck of the sea”

Quick Plot Summary Sonnet 1

Establishes the nature of Time (duality) Persona wishes to stop Time

Sonnet 2 Shows Time is powerful and is compelled to do things. E.g.

open or close doors. HIS FATE PURSUES HIM – Too powerful Time is inexorable and makes our existence seem

insignificant in that it keeps appointments with a million years

Persona attempts to defy Time (lean against undertow) Sonnet 3

Persona defies Time “in a sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” essentially transcends Time for a brief moment

Time overcomes the memories and takes the Persona “by the suck of the sea”

Cycle of Time re-continues as it links with first sonnet

Five Bells

Vision of Life Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of Time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of Time but are

temporary to the unrelenting nature of Time How the poem portrays the Vision of Life

Cyclic structure similar to Out of Time – Inexorable passage Peal of five bells representative of the memories of Joe. Persona

effectively relives 30 years of Joe’s life in a few seconds. Relate to “Sweet Meniscus”. Demonstrates the capacity for memory to uphold Time

Memories “the flood that does not flow” Relentless nature of Time shows man’s mortality “The tide is over

you”

Watery grave implied in “sea pinks bend like lilies in your teeth” exacerbate man’s loss of dignity to death and Time as he is not associated with the land

Memories of Joe fade away from the persona (temporary memories) and the persona desperately tries to contact him “Are you shouting at me dead man?”

Memories of Joe are lost as persona hears harbour sounds “a boats whistle and scraping squeak of seabirds” – Time’s overpowering of memories

Quick Plot Summary When five bells are rung on a warship, the persona relives 30

years of Joe’s life Joe is given mortality through memories with the persona Persona desperately tries to communicate with Joe (are you

shouting at me dead man?) Remembers 3 encounters with Joe, each represented in a stanza

and outlines his character. Moorebank, Melbourne and Sydney Moorebank – Establishes that Joe was educated and egalitarian.

Also normal as he speaks of girls and love Melbourne – Joe becomes withdrawn from the world. Loss of

moral righteousness. Locked up with protected goods “curioes”. Items are concrete reminders of life, “all without use” and remind us that perhaps our lives are pointless and only lead to death

Sydney – Passion becomes darkly violent. Hyperbole “blowing up the world” – frustration.

Returns to dead Joe in next stanza. Expresses uncertainty of Joe’s death and dying in general. “Where have you gone?” “The tide is over you”. Persona feels Joe’s death “I felt your eardrums crack”. Slessor reminds us of reality of death.

Slessor implies death is relentless and all of us are fated to die. He expresses this frustration as a wider questioning of life. Slessor eventually loses recollections of Joe as it fades away from him and all he can hear are harbour noises such as a “boat’s whistle and scraping seabirds”

Five Visions

Vision of Life Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of Time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of Time but are

temporary to the unrelenting nature of Time How the poem portrays the Vision of Life Quick Plot Summary

Sleep

Vision of Life How the poem portrays the Vision of Life Quick Plot Summary Supporting Techniques/Quotes

Sensuality

Vision of Life How the poem portrays the Vision of Life Supporting Techniques/Quotes

Elegy

Vision of Life How the poem portrays the Vision of Life Supporting Techniques/Quotes

Beach Burial

Vision of Life How the poem portrays the Vision of Life Supporting Techniques/Quotes

Out of Time and Five Bells

Appreciation of Oeuvre Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning) Vision of Life

Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of time but are

only temporary to the inexorable passage of time How the poems convey this vision

Out of Time (Man’s attempts to defy time are futile) Image of Bony Knife and Enfolding me in its bed show the

powerful nature of Time (duality of Time too) Cyclic structure of poem demonstrates Time’s atemporal

existence Transience of Life shown in the repetition of ‘moment’ in

successive sonnets and is synonymous to man’s life. A contrast can be made with Time “keeping appointment with a million years”, emphasising our insignificant existence

“He must open doors or close them” – Time ultimately determines our mortality

Critique “In many of Slessor’s poems, there is an unambiguous

expression of a desire to escape the influence of Time, to exist in a paradise outside the normal processes of ageing and decay” – Julian Croft

Man desperately attempts to defy time – “leaning against his golden undertow” (undertow representative of Time)

Memories are used in the “sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” to emphasise man’s defiance of Time to transcend it

Attempts are futile as persona is inevitably “taken by the suck of the sea”

Five Bells (Memories are transient to the passage of Time)

In Five Bells, memory is “the flood that does not flow” Peal of five bells representative of the memories of Joe.

Persona effectively relives 30 years of Joe’s life in a few seconds. Relate to “Sweet Meniscus”. Demonstrates the capacity for memory to uphold Time

Memories of Joe fade away from the persona (temporary memories) and the persona desperately tries to contact him “Are you shouting at me dead man?” – highlights Time’s capacity to distort memory

Relentless nature of Time shows man’s mortality “The tide is over you”

Watery grave implied in “sea pinks bend like lilies in your teeth” exacerbate man’s loss of dignity to death and Time as he is not associated with the land

Memories of Joe are lost as persona hears harbour sounds “a boats whistle and scraping squeak of seabirds” – Time’s overpowering of memories

Cyclic structure similar to Out of Time – Inexorable passage Appreciation of Oeuvre

Resonance of intense ideas which is why we study Slessor today

Out of Time and Five Visions

Appreciation of Oeuvre Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning) Vision of Life

Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of time but are

only temporary to the inexorable passage of time How the poem portrays the Vision of Life

Out of Time (Man’s attempts to defy Time are futile) Image of Bony Knife and Enfolding me in its bed show the

powerful nature of Time (duality of Time too) Cyclic structure of poem demonstrates Time’s atemporal

existence Transience of Life shown in the repetition of ‘moment’ in

successive sonnets and is synonymous to man’s life. A contrast can be made with Time “keeping appointment with a million years”, emphasising our insignificant existence

“He must open doors or close them” – Time ultimately determines our mortality

Critique “In many of Slessor’s poems, there is an unambiguous

expression of a desire to escape the influence of Time, to exist in a paradise outside the normal processes of ageing and decay” – Julian Croft

Man desperately attempts to defy time – “leaning against his golden undertow” (undertow representative of Time)

Memories are used in the “sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” to emphasise man’s defiance of Time to transcend it

Attempts are futile as persona is inevitably “taken by the suck of the sea”

Five Visions (Time is inexorable and powerful, demigod Cook dies)

Cook portrayed as a powerful figure “a warlock, a mesmerist” that “mocks the typhoon”

However is still vulnerable to forces of time and death. Shown in ironic death with natives when he gave them a knife. “Cook was carried on a sailor’s back” shows loss of dignity and status. His death illustrates Time’s relentless passage

Alexander Home, a pathetic frail man “old captain in the corner” illuminates life of Cook through fragile memories. Gives Cook a sense of mortality.

However memories are fleeting in relation to the purposeless temporal progression of Time that overcomes Home’s memories, bringing him back to reality as “he felt a chair in Scotland and Sat down.”

Time’s powerful nature further emphasised in image of two chronometers. One that quickly “dances over Greenwich like a lunatic” and one that slowly “climbs out of yesterday with sticky feet”. This mechanical time shows that man’s attempts to control Time are futile and that Time is dominant.

Appreciation of Oeuvre Resonance of intense ideas which is why we study Slessor today

Sleep and Sensuality

Appreciation of Oeuvre Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning) Vision of Life

Sleep - Life is harsh and cruel Sensuality - Although life can be cruel, we can soften the

inevitability of mortality through feelings and sensations (helps us create meaning in life)

How the poems portray this Vision of Life Sleep (A nihilistic view on life)

Uses sex and gestation of a baby as a metaphor for sleep First Stanza –Surrendering to sleep

Abandoning oneself to enter subconscious world “do you give yourself to me utterly”

Second Stanza – Deep unconscious sleep Slessor shows that in sleep, we become unaware of

our surroundings, that we forget life’s complications. Shown in the imagery of “blindly in the bones that ride above you.” – The mother’s ribcage is nurturing the baby and is synonymous with sleep protecting the sleeper from the reality of life

Third Stanza – Unpleasant shock of awakening (childbirth) Conveys the harsh cruel reality of life. Compares

awakening from sleep to childbirth. Both sleeper and baby experience it as a tearing apart of their refuge by their protector. And this is explicitly shown in the violent act of expulsion that is “riving and driving forth”.

Last two lines suggest a deep unhappiness in Slessor. He sees “life with remorseless forceps beckoning”, threatening to drag sleeper into life. The forceps suggest a brutal mechanical force that we cannot resist, reinforcing Slessor’s negative view on life

His last line “pangs and betrayal of harsh birth” propose that it would be better to be unborn or stay asleep than to suffer the experiences of life

Sensuality (while Slessor tells us that Life is brutal and cruel, he shows that we can alleviate pains of mortality through feelings)

Sensuality is an optimistic poem that entails Sleep in that it gives mankind a medium in which they can enjoy life.

Slessor establishes the harsh side to life in negative sensations of “hunger, cold, pity, pain”

However he follows each negative sensation with its positive reciprocal “hunger to food, cold to fire” – conveys his acceptance of the adversities and challenges of life

Many contrasts are made of the senses such as “cedar, sweat and petrol and sea”. These contrasts ultimately portray the richness of our lives, that it is one worth living.

Poem is a ‘list’ of remembered sensations presented in unstructured form – enjambment reflects poet’s appreciation and enjoyment in life.

The ellipsis at the end suggests that Slessor can carry on and on, that it is hard to encapsulate all our rich experiences and feelings

Appreciation of Oeuvre Resonance of intense ideas which is why we study Slessor today

Out of Time and Elegy

Appreciation of Oeuvre Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning) Vision of Life

Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of time Memories are able to withstand the permutation of time but are

only temporary to the inexorable passage of time How the poem portrays the Vision of Life

Out of Time (Man’s attempts to defy Time are futile) Image of Bony Knife and Enfolding me in its bed show the

powerful nature of Time (duality of Time too) Cyclic structure of poem demonstrates Time’s atemporal

existence Transience of Life shown in the repetition of ‘moment’ in

successive sonnets and is synonymous to man’s life. A contrast can be made with Time “keeping appointment with a million years”, emphasising our insignificant existence

“He must open doors or close them” – Time ultimately determines our mortality

Critique “In many of Slessor’s poems, there is an unambiguous

expression of a desire to escape the influence of Time, to exist in a paradise outside the normal processes of ageing and decay” – Julian Croft

Man desperately attempts to defy time – “leaning against his golden undertow” (undertow representative of Time)

Memories are used in the “sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” to emphasise man’s defiance of Time to transcend it

Attempts are futile as persona is inevitably “taken by the suck of the sea”

Elegy (Persona pessimistic of Time but accepts it due to its inexorable nature)

Gardens have changed “…In the autumn I came where spring had used me better” - Time’s nature to bring about change

Symbolism of colour is exploited to convey change where red pebbles become a pale watermelon pink – change

A sad tone is established in “all gone today; only the leaves remain” to express the persona’s despair at the change but his powerlessness to challenge it. The leaves that remain are representative of his memories of his youth

Persona symbolises his change in feelings to his altered view of Latin plant names: In the past they were a “Hateful name” which conveys disgust. Yet there is change: “But now the schools horticulturalists, come forth triumphantly in Latin”. And this change is accepted: “so be it now”. The resigned tone reflects the persona’s ambivalence.

Name of the house in the garden changed: “Georgian Headlong Hall” has connotations of mystery and stateliness. Now “The National Herbarium”, coldly scientific and utilitarian, reflects a pessimistic attitude towards Time

Appreciation of Oeuvre Resonance of intense ideas which is why we study Slessor today

Out of Time and Beach Burial

Appreciation of Oeuvre Synthesises concrete images (essentially blends the art and

literature to convey meaning) Vision of Life

Out of Time - Life is transient in relation to the inexorable passage of time and is meaningless/insignificant. Memories are able to withstand the permutation of time but are only temporary to the inexorable passage of time

Beach Burial - Life is harsh and brutal How the poem portrays this Vision of Life

Out of Time (Life is meaningless in relation to Time) Image of Bony Knife and Enfolding me in its bed show the

powerful nature of Time (duality of Time too) Cyclic structure of poem demonstrates Time’s atemporal

existence Transience of Life shown in the repetition of ‘moment’ in

successive sonnets and is synonymous to man’s life. A contrast can be made with Time “keeping appointment with a million years”, emphasising our insignificant existence

“He must open doors or close them” – Time ultimately determines our mortality

Critique “In many of Slessor’s poems, there is an unambiguous

expression of a desire to escape the influence of Time, to exist in a paradise outside the normal processes of ageing and decay” – Julian Croft

Man desperately attempts to defy time – “leaning against his golden undertow” (undertow representative of Time)

Memories are used in the “sweet meniscus…lensed in a bubble’s ghostly camera” to emphasise man’s defiance of Time to transcend it

Attempts are futile as persona is inevitably “taken by the suck of the sea”

Beach Burial (Life is meaningless but why do we accelerate our mortality through war?)

Uses the theme of war to convey vision of life – brutal, cruel, meaningless

Slessor was a war correspondent (influenced him) Enormity of number of dead men in “convoys of dead

sailors” portrays the brutality of war. Is also ironic as “convoy” and “dead” further emphasise futile notion of war as convoys usually protect

Slessor applies water imagery that has been established in Out of Time to show Time’s cruelty as a medium of death.

In the imagery of “morning rolls them in the foam”, the water dehumanises the men as they are at the command of the water and “rolled”, highlighting the paucity of their dignity

The quick “plucking of bodies from the shallows and burying them in burrows” exacerbates the lack of human dignity

Burrows indicative of mass graves which imply no proper funeral – war is meaningless

Unable to identify the sailor “unknown seaman” -perverts status of man through their insignificance and anonymity

Although the indelible pencil attempts to remember the fallen, these inscriptions are ultimately washed and faded away by the tide. This act symbolises Time overpowering memories and synonymous with the persona being “taken by the suck of the sea” in Out of Time.

Appreciation of Oeuvre Resonance of intense ideas which is why we study Slessor today