The Killer (poem)
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| "The Killer" | |
|---|---|
| by Judith Wright | |
| Written | 1947 |
| First published in | Southerly, December 1947 |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Lines | 28 |
"The Killer" (1947) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright.[1]
It was originally published in the literary jounal Southerly in December 1947,[1] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.[1]
The poet wanders down by a creek to take her rest and to get a drink of water. She is surprised by a black snake and lashes out to defend herself.
Critical reception
Andrew Taylor, in his book Reading Australian Poetry, commented that "the poem is an articulation of guilt – not so much simply guilt at having killed something presumed innocent, but guilt at having failed to recognise the 'nmble enemy' as being within herself, and this having killed." [2]
In a review of the poet's collection A Human Pattern : Selected Poems in Poetry Beverley Bie Brahic noted that parts of this poem might owe something to Emily Dickinson, though she went on to add: "if the corseted stanzas, with their inversions and apostrophes ('O move in me ...'), have a whiff of the hand-me-down, Wright's subjects are brand new. As Heaney reveals rural Northern Ireland to us, so Wright trains her refreshingly flinty eye on the settlers of rural Australia."[3]