Judith Wright
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Judith Wright (1915 - 2000) was an Australian poet.
Wright was born in Armidale, northern NSW, in the so-called New England region, but spent much of her formative years in Brisbane and Sydney.
Her work is noted for a characteristic "Australian-ness", which began to gain prominence in Australian art in the years following World War II. She dealt with the relationship between settlers, Aboriginal Australians and the bush, as well as feminism, amongst other themes. She was also a strong advocate for the rights of Aboriginal Gay Australians.
She had a rich, powerfully evocative style; one of her finest poems, the Metho Drinker, well illustrates this.
- The Metho Drinker
- Under the death of winter's leaves he lies
- who cried to Nothing and the terrible night
- to be his home and bread. "O take from me
- the weight and waterfall of ceaseless Time
- that batters down my weakness; the knives of light
- whose thrust I cannot turn; the cruelty
- of human eyes that dare not touch or pity."
- Under the worn leaves of the winter city
- safe in the house of Nothing now he lies.
- His white and burning girl, his woman of fire
- creeps to his heart and sets a candle there
- to melt away the flesh that hides the bone,
- to eat the nerve that tethers him in Time.
- He will lie warm until the bone is bare
- and on a dead dark moon he wakes alone.
- It was for Death he took her; death is but this
- and yet he is uneasy under her kiss
- and winces from that last acid of her desire.
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