Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells has frustrated and eluded me for years. In this episode I wrestle with its strange legacy, entertaining the idea that this poem isn’t so much an elegy for a specific person as it is a lament for lost potential among artists in Australia more generally.
Show notes
- Radio National’s Poetry Special on Five Bells
- Slessor’s description of Joe Lynch’s death
- Ep 60. On John Blight
- John Olsen’s Five Bells
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