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Kenneth Slessor's Poem, 'Sleep' And The Concept Of Change

TEXT: ‘SLEEP’ – KENNETH SLESSOR

1. The Context in which the piece was composed and the intended Purpose and Audience.

It has been said that Kenneth Slessor’s work basically falls into three consecutive periods, beginning with the first in pre 20th century Australia where poetry was dominated by images taken directly from the convict experience and from the struggles of pioneers carving out their lives in the Australian bush. It was at this time that Slessor’s poetry was dominantly concerned with legend, history and fantasy. The second period of work was a transitional stage where Slessor developed a more modernist approach to expressing his ideas, and started to concentrate his work on topics that his readers could relate to more easily. In the third period of Slessor’s poetic career Sleep was created. Sleep uses Slessor’s fully developed themes and techniques to create contemporary and vivid images with change, the passing of time and impermanence referred to throu...

Posted by: William Katz

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