Poetry
Parallax
John Tranter · 1970
Synopsis
A substantial collection which, according to the Contemporary Poets entry reproduced by Encyclopedia.com, opens up to recent American formal experiments and to drug culture, beneath a still well-behaved façade. AustLit lists several pieces: the title poem, which opens in the ward of the agitated, where words are air struck with flint, and “The City, the Tree”, where the city leaves trees only a little room, as well as “Fragments” and “The Wall”.
Context
The collection, its author's first book, appeared in June 1970 in Sydney from South Head Press, as issue 34 of the journal Poetry Australia, according to AustLit; according to Contemporary Poets, the journal had taken it in after the Commonwealth Literary Fund refused to finance its publication. The author already appears in it as a poet of the city. Louis Armand returned to it in 2023 in the journal Overland.
Who it is for
A substantial collection of poems in English, in a quick, clipped language; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
For Contemporary Poets, a reproach addressed to orthodox conservatism, despite a façade that is still cautious.
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