Leopard-Skin
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| "Leopard-Skin" | |
|---|---|
| by Douglas Stewart | |
| Written | 1959 |
| First published in | Australian Letters |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | December 1959 |
| Lines | 14 |
"Leopard-Skin" (1959) is a poem by Australian poet Douglas Stewart.[1]
It was originally published in Australian Letters in December 1944, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.[1]
The poet examines the self-invented adolescent who owns a number of pairs of leapoard-skin underpants which he spies drying on a backyard clothes line.
Critical reception
In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page stated that that at the basic level this poem "presents no problems. It's like a good cartoon". He goes on to note that the poem's simplicity hides the way it plays with the basic form of the sonnet, adding extra syllables as if it "does not want to fit into the cage designed for it."[2]