Poetry

Singing Light and the Beckoning Brindabellas

Item: Unfinished Journey
Author: Philip Harvey

by Philip Harvey •

February 2005, no. 268

Unfinished Journey: Collected Poems 1932-2004 by Michael Thwaites

Ginninderra Press, $25pb, 174pp

Poetry

Singing Light and the Beckoning Brindabellas

by Philip Harvey •

February 2005, no. 268

Gentleman also write poems. Michael Thwaites, winner of the King’s Medal for poetry back in 1940, is resolutely old school: set subjects, square metrics, good manners. He is a quiet achiever. Even his voice is quiet, though not so quiet that you can’t hear it. Solid statements, with a minimum of flourish or divertimenti, are his rule.

Unfinished Journey: Collected Poems 1932–2004 is divided into five chronological sections, so you can follow the story of a life lived. ‘Milton Blind’, an earnest construction, wins the Newdigate Prize for 1938. There is his wartime classic, ‘The Jervis Bay’, the narration of a 1940 sea battle in the North Atlantic, which borrows from British imperial action verse while interleaving Murrayesque graphics:

Philip Harvey

By this contributor

Philip Harvey is a Melbourne poet, essayist, reviewer, and editor. His day job involves running libraries. He is the Poetry Editor of Eureka Street. His most recent chapbook is a-Z (Honeyeater Press, 2015).