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Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Sacred Pathways : Metaphor and the Sacred in the Poetry of Les Murray
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'The sacred, as understood in the Christian religion and as reflected in work by poets of that persuasion, is manifested as a ‘presence’ which transcends our reality and which surpasses language. That this sacred presence can be conveyed and experienced through poetry relies on two assumptions: firstly, of God's real presence or ‘absent presence,’ and secondly, that the aesthetic is a means by which God's presence can be experienced.

The poetry of Les Murray reflects his exploration of the sacred within his Christian (more specifically Roman Catholic) tradition. In this task, metaphor is both the means by which he articulates the sacred, its elusive presence and absence, and the pathway that can lead the reader to encountering it. This navigation is a journey in which the poet must pass beyond and around the obstacles of language: the inherited established metaphors that bind the poet and his work to reality, handicapping the sacred experience; and language itself that weighs on us all, leading us to use words that are never quite our own, confining us to already-established and thus assumed ways of speaking and seeing the world. ' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New Scholar Australian Literature : The Road Ahead vol. 3 no. 2 Toby Davidson (editor), Michael Austin (editor), 2014 8242736 2014 periodical issue

    'This 2014 special issue of New Scholar, Australian Literature: The Road Ahead, follows the 2013 Macquarie University conference of the same name in seeking to examine trends, manifestations and solidifications in Australian writing and modes of analysis which reveal new research frontiers.'

    2014
Last amended 16 Jan 2015 13:58:13
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