Under Berlin

1988 poetry collection by John Tranter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under Berlin : New Poems 1988 is a collection of poems by Australian poet John Tranter, published by Angus and Robertson in Australia in 1988.[1]

AuthorJohn Tranter
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherUniversity of Queensland Press
Quick facts Author, Language ...
Under Berlin : New Poems 1988
AuthorJohn Tranter
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherUniversity of Queensland Press
Publication date
1988
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages119 pp.
Awards1988 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, winner; 1989 NSW Premier's Literary Award – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, winner
ISBN0702221376
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The collection contains 68 poems from a variety of sources.[2]

The collection won the 1988 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry,[3] and the 1989 NSW Premier's Literary Award – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.[4]

Contents

  • "Backyard"
  • "House and Home : Country Veranda : 1 : Dry Weather"
  • "House and Home : Country Veranda : 2 : Rain"
  • "The Pool"
  • "The Bedroom Mirrors"
  • "North Light"
  • "Widower"
  • "South Coast After Rain, 1960"
  • "Luck"
  • "Breath"
  • "Sammy's Song"
  • "Crocodile Rag"
  • "Debbie & Co"
  • "Moonie"
  • "Voodoo"
  • "The Guides"
  • "Fine Arts"
  • "Bathyscape"
  • "Cabin Fever"
  • "Shadow Boxing"
  • "Cruising Height"
  • "Braille"
  • "The Creature from the Black Lagoon"
  • "Spark"
  • "High School Confidential"
  • "Stratocruiser"
  • "Glow-Boys"
  • "Letter to America"
  • "On Looking into the American Anthology"
  • "Laminex"
  • "Having Completed My Fortieth Year"
  • "Lufthansa"
  • "Shadow Detail"
  • "Parallel Lines"
  • "Those Gods Made Permanent"
  • "During the War"
  • "1 : Childhood"
  • "Boarding School"
  • "Papyrus"
  • "After the Dance"
  • "Party Line, 1956"
  • "Haberdashery"
  • "Poolside"
  • "Spin-the-Bottle"
  • "Three Hand - Coloured Photographs"
  • "Crosstalk"
  • "At the Newcastle"
  • "The Little Engine"
  • "Sonnet: Country Music"
  • "Affairs of the Heart"
  • "Delirium"
  • "Lullaby (Sonnet : Lullaby)"
  • "Trolley"
  • "Life Class"
  • "Dirty Weekend"
  • "Khaki"
  • "Modern Art"
  • "Malaya, 1926"
  • "La Pulqueria"
  • "Hack Writer"
  • "The Subtitles"
  • "Californian Poppies"
  • "Sail Away"
  • "Halothane"
  • "The Latin Motto"
  • "Uniform"
  • "Alexandria"
  • "Cicada Gambit (in Memoriam Martin Johnston)"

Critical reception

Reviewing the collection in The Sydney Morning Herald Heather Cam commented: "In a world where reactor alarms, radar screens, and military control panels play such a crucial role, inanimate technological devices assume a new and alarming significance. Tranter's poems are menacingly alive with these latter-day toys. He has the knack of endowing things with an uncanny, yet utterly convincing life of their own."[5]

In The Age Tony Linterman noted that there are some "beautiful poems" in this collection. He went on: "Sometimes the dominant tone of a poem is ruptured by an intrusive self-consciousness, self-parody which deliberately distances the reader. The best poems here trust themselves, fly straight from the troubled heart without the safety nets of irony or mocking bravura."[6]

Awards

See also

References

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