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'In The Breaking of Style, Helen Vendler observes that "in lyric writing, style in its largest sense is best understood as a material body." The body of style resists reshaping, and though the breaking may seem, at last, as fluid as water, many poems may be needed to prepare the transformation. This essay explores the emergence of an original voice through the first four collections by the distinguished Australian poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe. It tracks the agonistic forces of two distinct styles, present from the beginning of Wallace-Crabbe's oeuvre, demonstrating how these stylistic sources led through gradual transformation to the poet's mature voice.' (Publication abstract)
Notes
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Epigraph:
Then at last
We sense the water changing under keel:
Gone the exhilaration of the rocks,
Vanished our agitation, whirl and dash,
As out we glide upon that nameless flood,
A twilit river at the core of things. (Wallace-Crabbe, "Like Orellana," Rebel General 25)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- The Music of Division 1959 selected work poetry
- In Light and Darkness 1963 selected work poetry
- The Rebel General 1967 selected work poetry
- Where the Wind Came : Poems 1971 selected work poetry