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Night-Piece (Alternate Version) single work   poetry   "The intemperate torch grazed"
  • Author:agent 'Ern Malley' http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/mcauley-james
Issue Details: First known date: 1944... 1944 Night-Piece (Alternate Version)
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Notes

  • 'Night Piece : Alternate Version' is one of seven poems from The Darkening Ecliptic that was cited during the Angry Penguins obscenity trial. The trial was conducted in Adelaide in September 1944. Michael Heyward (The Ern Malley Affair, 1993, p.93) suggests that McAuley and Stewart decided to write 'Night Piece' twice. 'It is possible that they preselected its imagery, agreed on the number of lines, and then wrote the two versions ['Night Piece' and 'Night Piece : Alternate Version'] individually.' Each poem has three stanzas. In 'Night Piece' the configuration of lines per stanza is 5/4/4; in 'Night Piece : Alternate Version', the configuration is 4/4/5.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Related Works

Night Piece i "The swung torch scatters seeds", 'Ern Malley' , 1944 single work poetry
— Appears in: Angry Penguins , Autumn no. [6] 1944; (p. 15) The Darkening Ecliptic 1944; (p. 23) The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry 1991; (p. 90) The Age , 28 August 1993; (p. 7) Jacket , June no. 17 2002; Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature 2009; (p. 627-628)
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Last amended 8 Jun 2005 16:28:38
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