Poems by Patrick White

POEMS BY PATRICK WHITE

John Olsen, Dry Salvages (1956)

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Although not known for his poetry, Patrick White published 52 poems during his lifetime, the majority collected in two volumes while he was a young man. These volumes are not commercially available, although some of the early poems are excerpted in David Marr’s biography, Patrick White: A Life.

(I should note here that there was a highly respected Canadian poet also named Patrick White; needless to say the two Patricks are separate people, although some book cataloguing websites fail to recognise this!)

White’s few mature poems were republished in Patrick White: Selected Writings.

(See also: unpublished works.)

The Tramp (1924)

Single poem

Published: under the name P.V.M.W (the author’s initials) in the Sep 1924 Tudorian, the magazine of PW’s last Australian school, when the author was 12.

Availability: Excerpt published in Marr, p.65

Thirteen Poems (1929)

Collection (13 poems)

Published: Sent home from Cheltenham, England, where Paddy White was at school. His mother Ruth had them published in 1929 in a print run of around 26 copies. Only a couple of copies are known to exist, with one selling for $65,890 at an auction in recent years. PW would have been happy for it to go missing forever.

Edition: Thirteen Poems by P.V.M. White. (24pp)

Availability: Until the 1960s, it was assumed that all copies of this were lost. Three copies appear to survive. The first is held at the National Library of Australia, and was reportedly found by the new lessees of Dogwoods after PW died, and sold for $25,000 in 1992. The NLA copy is available to view online. The second copy is held by the State Library of New South Wales, but is only available in microfilm form to protect the original.

Third copy was held at Fisher Library, University of Sydney, from the collection of the late Colin Breckelman (purchased in 1969). This second copy was reported missing in 1988 (SMH 10/17) and is still listed as missing on their website as of 2023.

Contents:

  1. A Rustic Eclogue: Dedicated to Mummy (1927) – excerpted in Marr, p. 80
  1. Long Ago: A Reminiscence (1928) – excerpted in Marr, p. 54
  1. Trees in Winter (1928)
  2. Shadow Play (1928)
  3. Susan (1928)
    About his sister
  1. The Window (1928)
  2. The death of Arabella Cheyne (1928)
  3. In nihil ibimus (1929)
  4. Requiem – excerpted in Marr, p. 85
  1. The Birds (1929) – excerpted in Marr, p. 85

“I am a stranger;
I must veil myself;
I must hide me.”

  1. Orchard Row (1929) – excerpted in Marr, p. 87

Published in ALS 6.4 (1974)

  1. Seraphita (1929)
  2. St Jacques, Dieppe (1929)
Copy of Thirteen Poems purchased by the National Library of Australia, 2015

The Ploughman and Other Poems (1935)

The Ploughman and other poems

Collection (33 poems)

Published: Sent home from England by Paddy while at school and university. Almost published by Ruth’s arrangement through P.R. Stephenson and Company (a vanity publisher but with some level of repute due to its well-known founder, P.R. “Inky” Stephenson). However the company went bankrupt, so Ruth had The Beacon Press (an imprint of Boylan & Company) print the volume instead. 72 pages. Published in 300 copies limited edition, each copy numbered, priced at 5 shillings. With 23 illustrations by L. Roy Davies.

“Dedicated to my Mother”.

Availability: PW said that he “burnt a suitcase full” of these later in life. (Berkelouw Books in Sydney helped collect them for him over the years). Nevertheless, the volume is stored in multiple libraries around Australia including the National Library and the State Libraries of NSW, QLD, and SA. (The University of Queensland’s copy appears to have belonged to Dorothea Mackellar.)

Contents:

  1. The Ploughman (Dec 1933)

First line: “I saw a ploughman against the sky”
Written in Polperro.

London Mercury 30 June 1934, pp.104-105
Literary Digest (NY) 11/8/1934
Selected for The Best Poems of 1935 (Jonathan Cape)
Featured in The Modern Student, Volume 3 Number 2, Feb 1935 [page 2]

  1. Meeting Again (Jan 1934)

    First line: “Still, my heart, for I am not afraid”
    Written in Winchester.

    London Mercury ,30 June 1934, pp.104-105
  1. Lines Written on Leaving the Scilly Islands (Jan 1933)

    excerpted in Marr, p. 117
    First line: “I have been happy here, happier than…”
    Written onboard the S.S. Scillonian, off St. Mary’s.
  1. If I Could Tell You (Mar 1933)

    excerpted in Marr, p. 117
    First line: “If I could tell you how much pain…”
    Written on St. Mary’s Island.
  1. Isles of Scilly (Dec 1932)
    First line: “The world ignores you, and the sea flows by”
    Written on St. Martin’s Isle.
  2. Futility (Christmas 1932)
    excerpted in Marr, p. 118
    First line: “The air, the earth, and the sea…”
    Written on St. Mary’s.
  1. Lovely, Lovely You May Be (Oct 1933)
    excerpted in Marr, p. 119
    First line: “Lovely, lovely you may be”
    Written at Cambridge.
  1. Rain in Summer (Jul 1933)
    First line: “O, these days when it rains…”
    Written in Heidelberg. Also appears in Poets of Australia: An Anthology of Australian Verse (ed: George Mackaness), Angus & Robertson, 1946
  1. If You Would See (Jul 1933)
    First line: “If you would see that I love…”
    Written in Heidelberg.
  2. I Walked in the Garden (Jul 1933)
    First line: “I walked in the garden of the sky…”
    Written in Heidelberg.
  3. After Rain (August 1933)
    excerpted in Marr, p.121
    First line: “To-day the trees…”
    written in Hanover.
  1. Bitter were the tears she wept (Dec 1933)
    First line: “Bitter were the tears she wept…”
    Written in Zennor.
  2. Lament in Winter (Dec 1933)
    First line: “Wind upon snow; bracken that bows its head…”
    Written in Zennor.
    Excerpted in Marjorie Barnard, The Four Novels of Patrick White, 1956
  1. Trio (Feb 1934)
    First line: “Now when light is softer than sleep’s wing…”
    Written at Cambridge.
    excerpted in Marr, p. 126
  1. Interlude (Sep 1934)
    excerpted in Marr, p. 126
    First line: “Even as the swallow into Africa…”
    Written in London.
  1. Oram’s Grave (Sep 1934)
    excerpted in Marr, p. 129
    First line: “There is no monument to Oram…”
    Written at Salisbury.
  1. To A Gull Blown Inland by the Storm (Aug 1934)
    First line: “Linger at my window, bird…”
    Written at Corfe Castle.
  2. O Cold, Cold Rain (Nov 1933)
    First line: “O cold, cold rain that patters on my face…”
    Written at Cambridge.
  3. When Thoughts are Still and Formless (Aug 1933)

First line: “There are days when thoughts are still and formless…”
Written in Hanover.
Also appears in Poets of Australia: An Anthology of Australian Verse (ed: George Mackaness), Angus & Robertson, 1946

20. He Looked for Love (Oct 1933)
First line: “He looked for Love…”
Written at Cambridge.

Excerpted in Marjorie Barnard, The Four Novels of Patrick White, 1956

21. Lines Written after an Encounter with Death in a Country Lane (Dec 1933)
First line: “This great mystery is too much for me…”
Written at Polperro.

22. Resurrection (Dec 1933)
First line: “I have long wondered how you canons, deans…”
Written at Winchester.

23. They Held out Their Hands to Me (Oct 1933)
First line: “They held out their hands to me…”
Written at Cambridge.

24. Second Life (Nov 1993)
First line: “Once in my far, untutored days…”
Written at Cambridge.
Excerpted in Marjorie Barnard, The Four Novels of Patrick White, 1956

25. Alone (Jan 1934)
First line: “Now I know Death, eternity…”
Written at Cambridge.

26. Godstow Abbey (Jan 1934)
First line: “If they were wont to pray for peace…”
Written at Oxford.

27. The Bells (Feb 1934)
First line: “Never have the bells…”
Written at Cambridge.

28. The Bridge (Feb 1934)
First line: “So wide this sea…”
Written at Cambridge.

29. Wisdom for the Wise (Mar 1934)
First line: “When wise men nod their heads and say…”
Written in Hanover.

30. October (Oct 1934)
First line: “October fanned the woods to flame…”
Written in London.

31. Early Autumn (Oct 1934)
First line: “This is the third year…”
Written at Cambridge.

32. Dirge (Sep 1934)
First line: “The slow bell chimes…”
Written at Wimborne.

“Dirge.
The slow bell chimes.
Here in the twisted chancel of the limes
here in the golden afternoon,
the slow bell stealing,
reeling,
out of the funnel of my peace.
I cannot lift my eyes.
Soon they will be gilded,
monkish pictures on a chapel wall;
and from the limes will fall
harvest of gold
just where this body lies,
this body that is dead of peace
and laid in the coffin of the afternoon.”

33. Morning Soliloquy (Aug 1934)
First line: “To wake and find that silent, dappled light…”
Written at Corfe Castle.

Reviewed:

“To say that they are without promise would be unfair; to say that they are adequate within their field would be unkind but true. They are presentable in a conventional way. They comprise a few unconvincing love songs and a number of ‘thoughts upon’ various: subjects, all in a minor key.”

Marjorie Barnard, Meanjin, 1956
  • SMH, 23/2/1935, “Shorter notices”
  • Arthur D. Wylie, Bulletin 10/7/1935, “New Australian Verse”:

The style is in the free, modern manner, scorning shackles of rhythm and metre… The imagery is in places a trifle obscure, and almost every piece exudes a melancholy and soul-weariness that ring rather more artificially in vers libre than they would in sestina or pantoum.

  • A.D.C.(?), “Brilliant Young Australian Produces First Volume of Poems”, Opinion: The Australis topical and literary magazine, May 1935 (single issue magazine)

The House Behind the Barricades (1938)

First line: “Desert now the hall where we ate peaches in their season…”

Background: New Verse was a pivotal magazine for young British poets, which was connected to Cyril Connolly’s Horizon. Mark Williams notes that the poem sits well with the novels of the middle period, examining the relationship of the individual to the political and the social. The influence of the magazine’s editor, Geoffrey Grigson, finally found PW his first publishing contract, when he sold Happy Valley to Harrap.

Published: New Verse 30, Summer 1938

Published in Selected Writings.

Lines from Egypt (1941)

Reflections on life in Alexandria, where PW was stationed during the early years of the war.

Published: Australia (magazine), 1/9/1941

Published in Selected Writings

Nine Thoughts from Sydney (1970)

A series of vignettes. Written c. 1970, the poem was unpublished until collected in Patrick White Speaks. It was then excerpted in Sydney Review 15 (August 1989) and Adelaide Review 67 (September 1989). It was collected again in Selected Writings. Also published in Sydney Review August 1989.

Perhaps most notably, the poem received a public airing when it was quoted by NSW Senator Marise Payne in her maiden speech in the Australian Senate in 1997. Payne would serve for 26 years, becoming Australia’s longest-serving female senator.

Defending the Right to Offend (1985)

A short poem on his relationship with a fictitious (but perhaps drawn from life) fellow writer. This was written for the One Hundredth issue of Overland (Sep 1985) which also featured pieces from Dorothy Hewett, Judith Wright, A.D. Hope, Frank Dalby Davison, Geoffrey Blainey, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Max Harris, Elizabeth Riddell, Rosemary Dobson, David Malouf, and Stephen Murray-Smith. Published in Selected Writings.

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