A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems

Collected poetry by Randolph Stow

A Counterfeit Silence : Selected Poems

First edition

Author| Randolph Stow
Language| English
Genre| Poetry collection
Publisher| Angus and Robertson

Publication date

| 1969
Publication place| Australia
Media type| Print
Pages| 76 pp
Preceded by| The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea
Followed by| Visitants

A Counterfeit Silence : Selected Poems (1969) is a poetry collection by Australian poet and novelist Randolph Stow. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1969.[1]

The collection consists of 65 poems, most of which were published in various Australian poetry publications.[1]

## Contents

[edit]

* "The Farmer's Tale"
* "Seashells and Sandalwood"
* "Sea Children"
* "Country Children"
* "As He Lay Dying"
* "The Recluse"
* "The Ship Becalmed"
* "Child Portraits, with Background : On Northern Downs"
* "Child Portraits, with Background : In Southern Forest"
* "The Conventional Young Man, at Springtime"
* "The Language of Flowers" - A Handbook for Victorian Lovers"
* "For One Dying : Miss Sutherland MacDonald, 1873-1956"
* "Socratic Dialogue"
* "Before Eden"
* "The First Monarch"
* "Madame Yuan Ying Disoriented"
* "Chorale for The Death of Icarus"
* "Rite of Spring"
* "A Fancy for His Death"
* "The Ghost at Anlaby"
* "In Praise of Hillbillies"
* "The Embarkation"
* "Dust"
* "The Utopia of Lord Mayor Howard"
* "Portrait of Luke"
* "Wine"
* "At Sandalwood"
* "Ruins of the City of Hay"
* "The Land's Meaning"
* "Strange Fruit"
* "The Dying Chair"
* "Sleep"
* "Kapisim! O Kiriwina"
* "Endymion"
* "Jimmy Woodsers"

* "Landscapes"
* "Convalescence"
* "Outrider"
* "The Calenture"
* "Landfall"
* "A Feast"
* "The Singing Bones"
* "A Wind from the Sea"
* "Western Wind When Will Thou Blow"
* "Ishmael"
* "Persephone"
* "A Man is Like This"
* Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations, sequence
* "The Dark Women Go Down"
* "Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : Forever to Remain. The Man"
* "Stations : Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : My Wish for My Land. The Woman"
* "Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : Here Also Let the Troubling Dream. The Youth"
* "Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : The Earth and World Besiege Us. The Man"
* "Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : The Garden Runs Wild. The Woman"
* "Stations: Suite for Three Voices and Three Generations : The Grief of Younger Brothers. The Youth"
* Thailand Railway, sequence
* "1. The Jungle"
* "2. Slaves"
* "3. The Track"
* "4. The Enemy"
* "5. The Sleepers"
* "6. The Fire"
* "7. Hands"
* "8. Fever"
* "9. Bring Your Piano"
* "10. The Children"
* "From The Testament of Tourmaline : Variations on Themes of the Tao Teh Ching"

|

## Critical reception

[edit]

Geoff Page, reviewing the collection in The Canberra Times, found a unique voice: "Randolph Stow is one of the few younger Australian poets who have found truly individual voices. It is a voice which will not please everyone for it can be high-pitched and contorted but it is unique, and that, these days, is a distinct achievement."[2]

While reviewing the book as a part of a survey of Australian poetry of the time, Ronald Dunlop noted: "Here, landscape slips into place. Randolph Stow’s poetry, strongly rooted in the earth, reaches out from it to the other world of humanity. Essentially the poetry of experience, its promise is great, its performance so far impressive."[3]

## Notes

[edit]

* Epigraph: "Even speech was for them a debased form of silence; how much more futile is poetry, which is a debased form of speech." Thornton Wilder: The Bridge of San Luis Rey[1]
* Dedication: To Jock Curle[1]

## See also

[edit]

* 1969 in Australian literature

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Austlit - A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems by Randolph Stow
2. ^ "A bard in full voice" by Geoff Page, The Canberra Times, 13 December 1969, p19
3. ^ "Receent Australian Poetry" by Ronald Dunlop, Poetry Australia, February 1970, pp50-57

* v
* t
* e

Grace Leven Prize for Poetry

1947–1949|

* Pacific Sea by Nan McDonald (1947)
* A Drum for Ben Boyd by Francis Webb (1948)
* Woman to Man by Judith Wright (1949)

1950–1959|

* No award (1950)
* The Great South Land : An Epic Poem by Rex Ingamells (1951)
* Between Two Tides by R. D. Fitzgerald (1952)
* Tumult of the Swans by Roland Robinson (1953)
* Thirty Poems by John Thompson (1954)
* The Wandering Islands by A. D. Hope (1955)
* A Vision of Ceremony by James McAuley (1956)
* Elegiac and Other Poems by Leonard Mann (1957)
* Antipodes in Shoes by Geoffrey Dutton (1958)
* The Wind at Your Door by R. D. Fitzgerald (1959)

1960–1969|

* Man in a Landscape by Colin Thiele (1960)
* Time on Fire by Thomas Shapcott (1961)
* Southmost Twelve by R. D. Fitzgerald (1962)
* The North-Bound Rider by Ian Mudie (1963)
* All the Room by David Rowbotham (1964)
* The Ilex Tree by Les Murray and Geoffrey Lehmann (1965)
* The Talking Clothes: Poems by William Hart-Smith (1966)
* Collected Poems 1936–1967 by Douglas Stewart (1967)
* Selected Poems 1942-1968 by David Campbell (1968)
* A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems by Randolph Stow (1969)

1970–1979|

* Letters to Live Poets by Bruce Beaver (1970)
* Judith Wright: Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright (1971)
* Collected Poems 1936-1970 by James McAuley (1971)
* Head-Waters by Peter Skrzynecki (1972)
* A Soapbox Omnibus by Rodney Hall (1973)
* Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems by David Malouf (1974)
* Selected Poems (1975) by Gwen Harwood (1975)
* Selected Poems 1939–1975 by John Blight (1976)
* Selected Poems by Robert Adamson (1977)
* Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 by Bruce Dawe (1978)
* The Man in the Honeysuckle by David Campbell (1979)

1980–1989|

* The Boys Who Stole the Funeral by Les Murray (1980)
* Nero's Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero by Geoffrey Lehmann (1981)
* Tide Country by Vivian Smith (1982)
* Collected Poems by Peter Porter (1983)
* The Three Fates and Other Poems by Rosemary Dobson (1984)
* Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert Gray (1985)
* The Amorous Cannibal by Chris Wallace-Crabbe (1985)
* Washing the Money : Poems with Photographs by Rhyll McMaster (1986)
* Occasions of Birds and Other Poems by Elizabeth Riddell (1987)
* Under Berlin by John Tranter (1988)
* A Tremendous World in Her Head by Dorothy Hewett (1989)

1990–1999|

* No award (1990)
* Dog Fox Field by Les Murray (1991)
* Empire of Grass by Gary Catalano (1992)
* Peniel by Kevin Hart (1992)
* The End of the Season by Philip Hodgins (1993)
* No award (1994)
* New and Selected Poems by Kevin Hart (1995)
* Flying the Coop : New and Selected Poems 1972-1994 by Rhyll McMaster (1995)
* Path of Ghosts: poems 1986-93 by Jemal Sharah (1995)
* No award (1996)
* The Undertow: New and Selected Poems by John Kinsella (1997)
* No award (1998)
* No award (1999)

2000–2009|

* No award (2000)
* Darker and Lighter by Geoff Page (2001)
* Versary by Kate Lilley (2002)
* Lost in the Foreground by Stephen Edgar (2003)
* Totem by Luke Davies (2004)
* Next to Nothing by Noel Rowe (2005)
* The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 by Alan Gould (2006)
* The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert Adamson (2007)
* The Australian Popular Songbook by Alan Wearne (2008)
* No award (2009)

2010–present|

* Phantom Limb by David Musgrave (2010)
* No award (2011)
* Another Fine Morning in Paradise by Michael Sharkey (2012)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template