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Judith Wright




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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