Michael Dransfield

Michael Dransfield
Michael Dransfield ca. 1972, pictured on the cover of Drug Poems

Michael Dransfield (12 September 1948 – 20 April 1973) was an Australian poet active in the 1960s and early 1970s who wrote close to 1000 poems.[1] He has been described as "one of the most widely read poets of his generation." [2]

Contents

Early life

Dransfield was born in Sydney, and educated at Sydney Grammar School.[3] He briefly studied English literature and language at the University of New South Wales and Sydney University before dropping out. He worked for some months as a clerk at the Australian Taxation Office before drifting into the counter-culture. From then on he worked intermittently, living mainly in Paddington, Balmain,[4] and Darlinghurst in Sydney, and in the north coast town of Casino, and he travelled frequently between Tasmania and Queensland, visiting his large group of friends and fellow poets.

Poetry

Dransfield wrote his first poem at the age of eight[citation needed] and began to write regularly at fourteen. He was a prolific poet, writing lyrical poems, which as his career progressed came to focus more and more on drug experiences. His poetry was first published in the mid-1960s.

Dransfield's poems were published in Meanjin, Southerly, Poetry Australia and Poetry magazine. His first published collection was Streets of the Long Voyage. He published two more books, including Drug poems (Sun Books, 1972).

Between 1967 and 1969, Dransfield corresponded and exchanged poems with Peter Kocan, who had been imprisoned for attempting to assassinate federal opposition leader Arthur Calwell, and who was then a patient at the Morisset Mental Hospital. The letters comprise drafts of poems by Dransfield, quotes of poems by other poets, and recommendations for books Kocan should read.

Themes

Dransfield's poems address "people marginalized by society" [5] "the relationship of the creative self to the outside world"[6] "personal identity, the family, the relationship between human beings and the natural world, poetry itself, and states of mind"[7]

Death

In his early twenties Dransfield was plagued by ill health. He died at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Sydney, on 20 April 1973, aged 24, leaving behind close to a thousand poems. Sources report conflicting causes of death, including that he died of a heroin overdose,[8][dead link] infection related to drug use[9] and a report that the coroner's finding on the cause of death was "acute broncho-pneumonia and brain damage".[10]

Legacy

Rodney Hall, who as poetry editor of The Australian newspaper had been among the first to publish Dransfield's poetry, edited and posthumously published several collections of Dransfield's poetry during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Collected Poems (UQP, 1987). In 2011 a poet character called "Michael" (evidently based on Dransfield) was featured in the second part of the ABC telemovie Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo.

Bibliography

  • Streets of the Long Voyage (1970)
  • The Inspector of Tides (1972)
  • Drug Poems (1972)
  • Memoirs of a Velvet Urinal (1975)
  • Voyage into Solitude (1978), ed. Rodney Hall
  • The Second Month of Spring (1980), ed. Rodney Hall
  • Michael Dransfield (1987), ed. Rodney Hall

References

  1. ^ Essential skills poetry workbook years 9-10 By Derek Lewis. p. 66
  2. ^ Voyages - The Poetry of Michael Dransfield Poetica. Producer/director Justine Lees. ABC National Radio. 15 April 2000.
  3. ^ Australian Poets and Their Works, by William Wilde, Oxford University Press, 1996
  4. ^ Voyages - The Poetry of Michael Dransfield Poetica. Producer/director Justine Lees. ABC National Radio. 15 April 2000.
  5. ^ Voyages - The Poetry of Michael Dransfield Poetica. Producer/director Justine Lees. ABC National Radio. 15 April 2000.
  6. ^ Michael Dransfield: a retrospective By Michael Dransfield, John Kinsella. p. xvii
  7. ^ Essential skills poetry workbook years 9-10 By Derek Lewis. p. 66
  8. ^ Louis Armand: "Still Life With Hypodermic: Michael Dransfield And The Poetry Of Addiction"
  9. ^ The Oxford companion to twentieth-century poetry in English By Ian Hamilton. p. 135
  10. ^ Patricia Dobrez Michael Dransfield's Lives : A Sixties Biography.

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Dransfield —   [ drænsfiːld], Michael, australischer Lyriker, * Sydney 12. 9. 1948, ✝ (Unfall) ebenda 20. 4. 1973. Nach seinem Tod wurde Dransfield zu einer Kultfigur der alternativen Kunstszene Australiens; er thematisierte in seinen Gedichten die Monotonie… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Dransfield — /ˈdrænzfild/ (say dranzfeeld) noun Michael, 1948–73, Australian poet; works include Streets of the Long Voyage (1970) and Drug Poems (1972) …  

  • List of drug-related deaths — The following is a list of notable people who have died from drug related causes. Criteria for inclusion are death from overdose, death from organ failure/illness due to or exacerbated by drug use, or death from suicide/misadventure under the… …   Wikipedia

  • Rodney Hall — OAM (born 18 November 1935) is an Australian writer. BiographyBorn in Birmingham, England, Hall came to Australia as a child after World War II and studied at the University of Queensland (1971) [ Australian Poets and Their Works , by William… …   Wikipedia

  • Peter Kocan — Peter Raymond Kocan (born 4 May 1947), Australian author and poet, is remembered in Australia for his attempt to assassinate federal Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell in 1966. Kocan was born Peter Raymond Douglas in Newcastle, New South Wales and… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Old Sydneians — The following is a list of notable past pupils of Sydney Grammar School (SGS). Former pupils of the School are known as Old Sydneians. Sydney Grammar School has educated seven High Court Justices and produced twenty eight Rhodes Scholars. In 2001 …   Wikipedia

  • List of Australian poets — The poets listed below were either citizens or residents of Australia and published the bulk of their poetry whilst living there.A B*Arthur Henry Adams (1872–1936) *Robert Adamson (born 1944) *Adam Aitken (born 1960) [cite web title = Adam Aitken …   Wikipedia

  • List of University of New South Wales people — This is a list of University of New South Wales, Australia, people, including notable alumni and staff.AlumniPolitics and Law*Bob Bellear, first indigenous judge *Bob Carr, former New South Wales premier *Kerry Nettle, Australian Greens senator… …   Wikipedia

  • New Oxford Book of Australian Verse —   …   Wikipedia

  • Sean Godley — Sean Godley, (born 17 November 1981), is an Irish Australian writer and poet. Born in Cavan, he is the son of John Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken and his second wife, Susan Heazlewood. He grew up mainly at the family s estate, Killegar House, in… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”