Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Preface
- Foreword By John Lucas
- Prologue
- To Tasmania with Mrs Meredith
- On the Right Side of the Earth
- We meet at last
- I've been wanting to ask …
- Dear Mr Simpson
- Taking things in
- A Bummer
- Swanport
- And for the Record
- Fax from Launceston to Michael
- A Hasty Rejoinder
- Something you can't deny
- The Interview
- In Mount Field National Park
- News of a Death
- On the Answering Machine
- In Flowerdale
- Hadn't we the Gaiety?
- About as far as we can go
- Your art Mrs Meredith
- The Princess Theatre, Launceston, 18th October, 1995
- Threads
- Journal entry for Tuesday, 31st Oct.
- Dangerous I know
- A Poem for Wybalenna Chapel
- Making an Exhibition
- A Last Glimpse
- Epilogue
- Melbourne Central Cemetery
- Select Bibliography
The Princess Theatre, Launceston, 18th October, 1995
from On the Right Side of the Earth
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Preface
- Foreword By John Lucas
- Prologue
- To Tasmania with Mrs Meredith
- On the Right Side of the Earth
- We meet at last
- I've been wanting to ask …
- Dear Mr Simpson
- Taking things in
- A Bummer
- Swanport
- And for the Record
- Fax from Launceston to Michael
- A Hasty Rejoinder
- Something you can't deny
- The Interview
- In Mount Field National Park
- News of a Death
- On the Answering Machine
- In Flowerdale
- Hadn't we the Gaiety?
- About as far as we can go
- Your art Mrs Meredith
- The Princess Theatre, Launceston, 18th October, 1995
- Threads
- Journal entry for Tuesday, 31st Oct.
- Dangerous I know
- A Poem for Wybalenna Chapel
- Making an Exhibition
- A Last Glimpse
- Epilogue
- Melbourne Central Cemetery
- Select Bibliography
Summary
What with the allusions I've been planting,
here's a fine coincidence! The Tempest on
in Launceston.
(Mrs M launched out of Sydney
into storms; bolts of lightning shook the wings
when I took off from there).
In the opening scene
sou'westers, heaving ropes, woofered winds
drowned the poetry and I slumped back in snootiness,
more so when Prospero like a terminal Gielgud led off
with fruity tremors and Miranda too zealously twitched
at every word; then Ms Ariel's see-through nipples
and tippy-toe walk! But when Ferdinand, bereft,
lamented the King his father's wrack, the play began
to move in every sense and when those lager-louts
Stephano and Trinculo bounced on it was uproarious circus
and I was i’ th’ isle for sure.
(Mrs M adored theatre,
produced plays in Hobart. Remember The Masques
of Christmas in 1866? Not with ivy garlands —/
Not with shadowy yew—/ Not with holly berries/
Ruddiest of hue:/ But with Summer's wealth of Roses
In the noontide of the year,/ Ripe corn, sweet fruit
and posies/Crown we our Christmas here.)
No tongue! all eyes! Revels, Mrs M.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cutting the Clouds Towards , pp. 51Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999