Classic NZ Poets by Theme

poetry is magic
– W. H. Auden

Here's a thematic breakdown of the 110 poems in our Classic NZ Poets in Performance anthology (Auckland: AUP, 2006). The categories are pretty subjective, and could undoubtedly be improved on. Not a bad starting point for discussion, though: what's the poem really about?

ADOLESCENCE
[Adcock’s “Camping” speaks for itself. Campbell’s “Gunfighter” is definitely having trouble growing up, even if he isn’t actually an adolescent. Wendt’s poems from The Book of the Black Star (AUP, 2002) are clearly about a great many things: depression, friendship, etc. but it was hard to think of any other heading to put them under].
Fleur Adcock: Camping - 89
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: The Gunfighter - 60
Albert Wendt: On Our Way - 115
Albert Wendt: Over Ponsonby - 116
Albert Wendt: Scavengers - 116
Albert Wendt: Bus - 117

ANIMALS
[The poems here may actually be about love, death and a number of other subjects, but animals star in all of them].
Peter Bland: Death of a Dog - 93
Lauris Edmond: yellow-eyed penguin - 47
Janet Frame: The Cat of Habit - 50
Brian Turner: Fish - 133
Brian Turner: Pig - 134
Brian Turner: Trout - 131

CHILDREN & GROWING UP
[Kids often seem smarter than grown-ups, but maybe that’s because we just project our preconceptions onto them].
Peter Bland: The Happy Army - 95
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: Home from Hospital - 61
Michael Harlow: Cassandra’s Daughter - 99
Alistair Paterson: Jenny Roache Love all the Boys in the World - 71
Albert Wendt: Conversation - 113

COMMUNICATION & POETRY
[These could be useful pieces for a class focussed on their own writing].
Fleur Adcock: The Pilgrim Fathers - 88
Louis Johnson: Singing to the Ancestors - 55
Alistair Paterson: On reading Robert Bly’s Selected Poems … - 72
Kendrick Smithyman: Communicating - 34
C. K. Stead: from The Masks of Catullus, 16 - 77
Albert Wendt: Bound For Whangamata - 117

DEATH
[One of the two great poetic staples].
Lauris Edmond: Before a Funeral - 45
Kevin Ireland: Villanelle for a Smile - 85
R. A. K . Mason: The Spark’s Farewell to its Clay - 8
R. A. K . Mason: Stoic Overthrow - 10
Vincent O’Sullivan: Elegy for a Schoolmate - 105
Keith Sinclair: E. D. S. (1893-1969) - 31
C. K. Stead: from The Masks of Catullus, 11 - 76

FRIENDSHIP
[Some of the most charming poems in the collection – I think so, anyway].
Janet Frame: Lines Written at the Frank Sargeson Centre - 51
Elizabeth Smither: Smoking with Carol - 126
C. K. Stead: from The Masks of Catullus, 19 - 77

GETTING OLD
[Best not to let it get you down, I guess ...]
Lauris Edmond: Autumn in Canada - 47
Louis Johnson: The Seventies - 56
Elizabeth Smither: Saveloy - 127
Kendrick Smithyman: Closing the Chocolate Factory - 37
C. K. Stead: Horation - 79

HISTORY

• colonialism
  [“History is real” -- Kendrick Smithyman]
  James K. Baxter: Prospector - 66
  Allen Curnow: House and Land - 16
  Allen Curnow: The Unhistoric Story - 17
  Allen Curnow: The Skeleton of the Great Moa … - 19
  Kendrick Smithyman: Near Ellon - 36
• the depression
  [memories of the Great Depression]
  A. R. D. Fairburn: Walking on my Feet - 4
  Denis Glover: The Magpies - 23
• the first world war
  [A Gallipoli poem]
  Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: Lest We Forget - 61
• the second world war
  [Three different aspects of the war – North Africa, the camps, and the front line].
  Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: Maori Battalion Veteran - 62
  Riemke Ensing: Transport - 111
  M. K. Joseph: Drunken Gunners - 26
• the atomic bomb
  [Two poems written after Hiroshima]
  Keith Sinclair: The Bomb is Made - 32
  Hone Tuwhare: No ordinary sun - 41
  

LANDSCAPE & LOCALITY
[Autres endroits, autres moeurs].
James K. Baxter: Poem in the Matukituki Valley - 65
James K. Baxter: The Fallen House - 68
Allen Curnow: A Dead Lamb - 19
Denis Glover: Threnody - 24
Kevin Ireland: A Hard Country - 82
M. K. Joseph: Mercury Bay Eclogue I & II - 26
M. K. Joseph: Elegy in a City Railyard - 29
R. A. K. Mason: Flow at Full Moon - 11
Kendrick Smithyman: Inlet - 34
C. K. Stead: Auckland - 79
Albert Wendt: The Mountains of Ta’ū - 113

LIFE IN GENERAL
[So what’s it all about? -- dunno, really].
A. R. D. Fairburn: Full Fathom Five - 1
Janet Frame: The Icicles - 51
Michael Jackson: Seven Mysteries - 120
Louis Johnson: Coming and Going - 57
Vincent O’Sullivan: Butcher on Life in General - 103
C. K. Stead: Birthday Sonnet - 75

LOVE
[The second great poetic staple ...]
Charles Brasch: from In Your Presence - 14
A. R. D. Fairburn: Cupid - 4
Michael Harlow: And, yes - 101
R. A. K. Mason: Be Swift O Sun - 9
Vincent O’Sullivan: Seeing You Asked - 106
C. K. Stead: from April Notebook - 75

MAGIC
[How else could one characterise these poems?]
Fleur Adcock: A Game - 87
Riemke Ensing: Morning Glory - 109
Michael Jackson: Shape-Shifter - 119
Vincent O’Sullivan: Still Shines when you Think of it - 104
Elizabeth Smither: Late Summer Dew - 129
Brian Turner: In the Swim - 135

MEN
[Two versions of the Kiwi bloke].
Kevin Ireland: A Whiff of the Old Adam - 84
Vincent O’Sullivan: Butcher in Sunlight - 103

MUSIC
[Pianos seem to have more fans than any of the other instruments – so far, at any rate].
Michael Harlow: Today is the Piano’s Birthday - 100
Elizabeth Smither: Listening to The Goldberg Variations - 128

NATURE & CONSERVATION
[Jackson stresses the violence of nature, Tuwhare its gentleness].
Michael Jackson: Green Turtle - 122
Hone Tuwhare: Rain - 40

PAIN & IMPRISONMENT
[Suffering / illness ...]
Riemke Ensing: T’ai Chi - 110
Janet Frame: O Lung Flowering Like a Tree - 52

RELATIONSHIPS
[“No problem, but not easy” – different relationships, with their different beginnings, middles and ends].
Lauris Edmond: Scar Tissue - 46
A. R. D. Fairburn: A Farewell - 2
Michael Harlow: No Problem, But Not Easy - 98
Kevin Ireland: Cloud - 83
Vincent O’Sullivan: Before you go - 107
C. K. Stead: Between - 78

SEX
[It’s on our minds a lot, so it’s in our poems a lot, too].
Fleur Adcock: Smokers against Celibacy - 90
A. R. D. Fairburn: The Cave - 2
Brian Turner: One Night Stand - 135
Hone Tuwhare: cummings - 42

VISION QUEST
[Poems about journeys, long or short, and the things one sees on them, whether they qualify as “visions” or new perceptions of reality].
Allen Curnow: Any Time Now - 20
Michael Jackson: The Red Road - 119
R. A. K. Mason: Out from Sea-Bondage - 8
Brian Turner: Training on the Peninsula - 132

WAR, VIOLENCE, PREJUDICE
[“Sudan” can be a good corrective for students who find poetry bland and unmoving].
Peter Bland: the nose - 94
Michael Jackson: Sudan - 121
Louis Johnson: Words for Blair Peach - 56
David Mitchell: my lai / remuera / ponsonby - 124
Alistair Paterson: The dictionary of battles - 73

WOMEN
[Guys like talking about women; women do, too, it would appear.]
Peter Bland: Shopping with Brigitte Bardot - 95
Riemke Ensing: Love Affair - 109
Elizabeth Smither: Red shoes - 126

Classic NZ Poets by Region

The road goes through to somewhere else
– Kendrick Smithyman

Here's my preliminary attempt at a regional breakdown of the 27 poets in our anthology, Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance:

• Place -- Name -- Dates -- Pages in Classic NZ Poets
  

AUCKLAND

• A. R. D. Fairburn (1904-1957) 1-7
• mainly Devonport and the North Shore, though he also worked at Auckland university and at ELAM.
• Kevin Ireland (b.1933) 82-86
• mainly Devonport and the North Shore, though he spent 25 years working as a journalist in the UK.
• R. A. K. Mason (1905-1971) 8-13
• born in Penrose, but lived later at a succession of addresses on the North Shore (including Mairangi Bay).
• Keith Sinclair (1922-1993) 31-33
• brought up in Pt Chevalier, he moved later to Takapuna, across the Harbour Bridge.
• C. K. Stead (b.1932) 75-81
• strongly associated with the Sargeson school on the North Shore, he subsequently moved to Parnell.

CHRISTCHURCH & CANTERBURY

• Allen Curnow (1911-2001) 16-22
• born in Timaru, and moved to Auckland in 1950. Much of his later poetry is set there, particularly on Karekare beach.
• Denis Glover (1912-1980) 23-25
• born in Dunedin, brought up in Christchurch, and lived in Wellington (writing memorably about its harbour).

COOK ISLANDS

• Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (b.1925) 60-64
• though he moved to New Zealand as a child, he has written a good deal (poetry & prose) about his Polynesian heritage.

DANNEVIRKE

• Lauris Edmond (1924-2000) 45-49
• brought up in Hawkes Bay and educated in Wellington, she is strongly associated with the Central North Island.
  

DUNEDIN & OTAGO

• James K. Baxter (1926-1972) 65-70
• also has strong associations with Wellington, Auckland and Jerusalem on the Whanganui River.
• Charles Brasch (1909-1973) 14-15
• lived in Britain for a long time, but came back to New Zealand to found and edit Landfall in the 1950s.
• Janet Frame (1924-2004) 50-54
• from Oamaru, though she lived in many different parts of the country, including Sargeson’s bach in Takapuna.
• Brian Turner (b.1944) 131-137
• lives in Central Otago, after many years of writing and working in Dunedin.

GREECE

• Michael Harlow (b.1937) 98-102
• born in New York, he has lived in Greece, Christchurch and (now) Central Otago.

HOLLAND

• Riemke Ensing (b.1939) 109-112
• moved to New Zealand at the age of twelve; she was brought up in Northland and subsequently moved to Auckland.

NELSON

• Alistair Paterson (b.1929) 71-74
• born in Nelson, went to university in Wellington, and is now living in Auckland.
• Michael Jackson (b.1940) 119-123
• born in Nelson, brought up in Taranaki, but has spent most of his adult life abroad (Sierra Leone, the USA, etc.)

NORTHLAND

• Kendrick Smithyman (1922-1995) 34-39
• though he moved to Auckland at the age of nine, he always retained strong links with the north.
• Hone Tuwhare (b.1922) 40-44
• also strong links with Dunedin and Otago, where he now lives (Kaka Point).

SAMOA

• Albert Wendt (b.1939) 113-118
• born in Apia, he was educated in New Plymouth and Wellington before returning to Samoa (now based in Auckland).

TARANAKI

• Elizabeth Smither (b.1941) 126-130
• born in New Plymouth, she has spent most of her life working there as a librarian.

UK

• Fleur Adcock (b.1934) 87-92
• born in Auckland and educated in Wellington, she has spent much of her adult life in the UK.
• Peter Bland (b.1934) 93-97
• born in Yorkshire, he moved to New Zealand at the age of 20. He is principally associated with Wellington.
• M. K. Joseph (1914-1981) 26-30
• born in Essex and educated in France, he moved to Tauranga at the age of 10, and subsequently moved to Auckland.

WELLINGTON

• Louis Johnson (1924-1988) 55-59
• born and brought up in Wellington, he later worked in Australia and New Guinea before returning to New Zealand.
• David Mitchell (b.1940) 124-125
• born in Wellington, he made his reputation as a performance poet there and in Auckland in the 60s and 70s.
• Vincent O'Sullivan (b.1937) 103-108
• born in Auckland, he taught in Wellington and Waikato before returning to the capital to live.
  
  
  

Classic NZ Poets Teaching Notes

[cover image: Pat Hanly / Cover design: Christine Hansen]

Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance
Edited by Jack Ross.
Poems Selected by Jack Ross & Jan Kemp
(Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2006)

Well, yes, I am a teacher. I teach Academic and Creative writing at Massey University’s Auckland campus, and give lectures on NZ literature as well.

AUP asked me quite a while ago to write some teaching notes for the audio / text anthology which we launched on Thursday last week, so I thought it might be a good idea to put them up here for maximum accessibility.

I guess our desire all along was that the book could be used to promote awareness of NZ poetry in schools and tertiary institutions (though of course it’s priced to appeal to individual consumers as well).

Some of the teachers I’ve met have told me that they don’t quite know how to go about teaching poetry in their classes. Clearly I don’t have any magical panacea for that, but here are one or two suggestions:

Think of a theme or subject you’d like to discuss, and choose a poem (or, if you have time, poems) which deals with it in a way you think might interest your students.

I’ve compiled a thematic breakdown of all the poems in the anthology (and it took quite a wee while, too, so don’t wax too sarcastic at my expense. I know some of the categories are a bit suss):

• ADOLESCENCE
• ANIMALS
• CHILDREN & GROWING UP
• COMMUNICATION & POETRY
• DEATH
• FRIENDSHIP
• GETTING OLDER
• HISTORY
  · colonialism
  · the depression
  · the first world war
  · the second world war
  · the atomic bomb
• LANDSCAPE & LOCALITY
• LIFE IN GENERAL
• LOVE
• MAGIC
• MEN
• NATURE & CONSERVATION
• PAIN & IMPRISONMENT
• RELATIONSHIPS
• SEX
• VISION QUEST
• WAR, VIOLENCE, PREJUDICE
• WOMEN
  

Our book is arranged in chronological order of birthdates, beginning with Rex Fairburn in 1904 and ending with Brian Turner in 1944. (Some of the reviewers appear to think that this implies we believe that one has to be over sixty to be a “classic” poet, but I guess I’d see this as about as intelligent as attributing conscious bias to a librarian’s choice of Dewey decimal numbers. Chronology simply seemed to us the most convenient way of arranging the material. No-one’s yet claimed to find the book difficult to navigate.)

Another way of approaching a poetry class might be through region and locality. Why not get your class to talk about a poet who comes from where you live? The idea would be to get the students to consider the characteristics of their particular place: culture, physical features, lifestyle – even at some distance away in time. What are the continuities (and discontinuities) in your area?

My colleague Mary Paul has been teaching a course called “Auckland Writers and their Region” at Massey Albany for a number of years now, and we’ve always found it an excellent way of approaching the major themes and concerns of New Zealand life and culture: Arrival; Assimilation; Civilisation & Barbarism; Colonial Identity; Cultural Cringe; Landscape; New World / Old World dichotomies; Settler Blues ...

Many of the poets in the book have associations with more than one region, but some (like Kendrick Smithyman or Brian Turner) are very strongly identified with a particular place, and constantly revisit it as subject-matter in their work.

Here are some of the places on offer:

• AUCKLAND
• CHRISTCHURCH & CANTERBURY
• DANNEVIRKE
• DUNEDIN & OTAGO
• GREECE
• HOLLAND
• NELSON
• NORTHLAND
• SAMOA
• TARANAKI
• TONGA
• UK
• WELLINGTON

When it comes to teaching the actual class, I would recommend beginning by introducing the poet, telling them some picturesque details about them, where they lived, what they liked to do (drink too much, in many cases, alas …) A lot of this information is available online, and I’ve tried to provide links where you can find a picture and discussion of each poet.

Hand out the text of the poem, then play them the recording.

Some of the poets, one has to admit, sound distinctly plummy and odd at this distance in time (Fairburn and Brasch, for example); others (such as Mason and Janet Frame) are quite vernacular and plain. You might tell your students that their own recorded voices will sound a bit strange in twenty or thirty years. Or else just let them laugh. After all, it’s not a crime. Some of them do come across as pretty weird, even to me.

The more they listen, though, the less attention they’ll pay to all that. The content of some of the poems (different ones for each person, I would imagine) is just too compelling to be ignored.

Make sure you go through what each poem means in literal terms. Are there any difficult words? Any allusions needing to be explained?

Try to elicit general reactions from the class. Do they like the poem? Does it interest them? Are there are other approaches to the material they’d prefer the writer to have used?

Write up the material generated by the discussion on the board, grouping it into a kind of mindmap of the various reactions (negative / positive; specific / general).

Depending on how much time you have, at this point you might want to get the class to try and write their own poems on the same theme (either individually or in groups). Get them to write them on posters and/ or read them out loud when they’ve finished.

Alternatively, if you have internet access in the classroom, you could get your students to research particular writers and find pictures and information about them.

The best place to begin would be at one of the following websites:

• Authors. The New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre.
  http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/index.asp

(A select but valuable list of major NZ poets with pictures, recordings, and critical reactions).

• Homepage. Auckland University Press.
  http://www.auckland.ac.nz/aup/

(Details of books and other publications by a number of the authors in the anthology).

• New Zealand Literature File. University of Auckland Library Website.
  http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/authors.htm

(This has very thorough bibliographies for most major New Zealand writers).

• Smithyman Online. Mudflat Webworks.
  http://www.smithymanonline.auckland.ac.nz/

(The final text of Kendrick Smithyman's Collected Poems, edited with copious notes and chronologies by Margaret Edgcumbe and Peter Simpson. The first substantial presentation of a major New Zealand poet's works on the internet. Hopefully it will be followed by many more such sites).

• Twelve Taonga. The New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre.
  http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/taonga/index.asp

(A brief account of the creation of the 1974 and 2004 recorded poetry archives, which were the main source for this book).

• New Zealand Writers. The New Zealand Book Council Website.
  http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/index.html

(This has pictures and short biographical and critical summaries adapted from Roger Robinson & Nelson Wattie's Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998), but with updated information and supplementary entries on more recent writers).