(27 March 1901 – 30 June 1971 / Orange, New South Wales)

poet Kenneth Slessor
#266 on top 500 poets

Quotations

  • ''And tried to hear your voice, but all I heard
    Was a boat's whistle, and the scraping squeal
    Of seabird's voices far away, and bells,
    Five bells. Five bells coldly ringing out.
    Five bells.''
    Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), Australian poet, journalist. Five Bells (l. 124-128). . . Poetry in Australia, Vols. I-II. Vol. I: From the Ballads to Brennan, T. Inglis Moore, comp.; Vol. II: Modern Australian Verse, Douglas Stewart, comp. (1965) University of California Press.
    11 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • ''These funeral-cakes of sweet and sculptured stone.''
    Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), Australian poet, journalist. Five Bells (l. 96). . . Poetry in Australia, Vols. I-II. Vol. I: From the Ballads to Brennan, T. Inglis Moore, comp.; Vol. II: Modern Australian Verse, Douglas Stewart, comp. (1965) University of California Press.
    7 person liked.
    		9 person did not like.
  • ''Time that is moved by little fidget wheels
    Is not my Time,''
    Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), Australian poet, journalist. Five Bells (l. 1-2). . . Poetry in Australia, Vols. I-II. Vol. I: From the Ballads to Brennan, T. Inglis Moore, comp.; Vol. II: Modern Australian Verse, Douglas Stewart, comp. (1965) University of California Press.
    9 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''Are you shouting at me, dead man, squeezing your face
    In agonies of speech on speechless panes?
    Cry louder, beat the windows, bawl your name!''
    Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), Australian poet, journalist. Five Bells (l. 20-22). . . Poetry in Australia, Vols. I-II. Vol. I: From the Ballads to Brennan, T. Inglis Moore, comp.; Vol. II: Modern Australian Verse, Douglas Stewart, comp. (1965) University of California Press.
    11 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.
  • ''Where have you gone? The tide is over you,
    The turn of midnight water's over you,
    As Time is over you, and mystery,
    And memory, the flood that does not flow.''
    Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971), Australian poet, journalist. Five Bells (l. 97-100). . . Poetry in Australia, Vols. I-II. Vol. I: From the Ballads to Brennan, T. Inglis Moore, comp.; Vol. II: Modern Australian Verse, Douglas Stewart, comp. (1965) University of California Press.
    3 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.

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Five Bells

Time that is moved by little fidget wheels
Is not my time, the flood that does not flow.
Between the double and the single bell
Of a ship's hour, between a round of bells
From the dark warship riding there below,
I have lived many lives, and this one life
Of Joe, long dead, who lives between five bells.

Deep and dissolving verticals of light

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