The Talking Clothes: Poems

The Talking Clothes : Poems (1966) is the ninth poetry collection by Australian poet William Hart-Smith.[1] It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry,[1] in 1966.

The Talking Clothes : Poems
AuthorWilliam Hart-Smith
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Genrepoetry collection
PublisherAngus and Robertson
Publication date
1966
Media typePrint
Pages96 pp
Preceded byPoems of Discovery 
Followed byMini-Poems 

The collection consists of 86 poems, some of which had been previously published in various Australian magazines and journals, and the rest of which are published for the first time in this volume.[1]

Contents
  • "Fly"
  • "Birth"
  • "Jigsaw Puzzle"
  • "The Castle"
  • "Schoolboy"
  • "Trafalgar"
  • "On the Beach"
  • "Death by Drowning"
  • "Meeting"
  • "Spirit-Child"
  • "Cicadas - Sestina"
  • "Hibiscus"
  • "Aaron's Rod"
  • "On Being Vulnerable"
  • "Crickets"
  • "Pattern on as Pavement"
  • "The Talking Clothes"
  • "Postage Stamp"
  • "Scatterling"
  • "Via Crucis"
  • "Filius Matris"
  • "Rock-Lizards"
  • "St Francis"
  • "St Anthony"
  • "Journey from Gomorrah"
  • "Termite Hill"
  • "Candle"
  • "Notes in Pencil"
  • "Black Crow"
  • "Nature Study"
  • "Man in the Moon"
  • "Observation"
  • "Armageddon"
  • "Visitor Macabre"
  • "Recurrence"
  • "Triolet"
  • "Renovations"
  • "Reasons"
  • "Brief Apodosis on a Voyage of Discovery"
  • "Ambrosia"
  • "Man"
  • "Mouse"
  • "Otters"
  • "Rhinoceros"
  • "Golden Pheasant"
  • "Mud Skipper"
  • "Razor Fish"
  • "Hunted Hare"
  • "Death of a Swan"
  • "Limpets"
  • "Crabs"
  • "Spiders"
  • "Eloquence"
  • "Leaves (1)"
  • "Leaves (2)"
  • "The Coming of the Flowers"
  • "Galahs"
  • "Triantelope"
  • "Vapour Trail"
  • "Seven Cows"
  • "Bird in the Saucepan"
  • "Heat - Outback"
  • "The Dam"
  • "Flies"
  • "Honeysuckle"
  • "Moth in the Rain"
  • "Shivery Grass"
  • "Cities are Inevitable"
  • "Geologist"
  • "Peruvian Rugs"
  • "Sinbad"
  • "The Castaways of Port Stephens"
  • "Number"
  • "Storms"
  • "Boy with Bubble Pipe"
  • "Untidiness"
  • "Opposite Land"
  • "The Jivaros"
  • "Humpty Dumpty"
  • "Spider and Fly"
  • "Judas"
  • "Praying Mantis"
  • "Intellect"
  • "Fishing : Russell, Bay of Islands"
  • "A Folk Tale"
  • "Man into Trees"

Critical reception

Rodney Hall in The Bulletin notes that in this collection the poet "does not seem to be addressing the solitary reader, nor haranguing the crowd. He uses a middle voice, quiet yet public, as if talking to a small groups of friends and admirers." And concludes: "These poems, with their charm and compactness, make a cogent argument against the charge that all modern verse is obscure."[2]

In The Age, in a combined review of seven poetry collections, Dennis Douglas opines that this collection places "the poet as a mediator between the reader and the world of phenomenal objects...The incursions of phenomena are precariously held at bay in Mr. Hart-Smith's collection by the lightness of tone in his work and the use of the poet as observer."[3]

Awards
gollark: I like* how you talked about how confident you were but then (allegedly) totally changed guesses.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Did any fiction end up anticipating the general-purpose-ness of our modern computers?
gollark: Apparently E-ink is a brand name and E-paper is the general term.
gollark: I don't think I would actually enjoy subsistence farming and the worse housing/consumer goods of the past.

See also

References
  1. Austlit - The Talking Clothes : Poems by William Hart-Smith
  2. "The Miniature Zoo" by Rodney Hall, The Bulletin, 29 October 1966, p42
  3. "Poets in review" by Dennis Douglas, The Age, 12 March 1966, p23
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