"Train Journey" (1948) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright.
It was originally published in Meanjin in Winter 1948, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
Gazing out of a train window during a night journey the poet sees the stark Australian landscape illuminated under a bright moon. She sees both the inherent beauty of the scenery and the harsh realities of the trees that must forge an existence in the unforgiving ground.
Critical reception
Reviewing the 1950 version of the anthology The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse for The Age Michael Thwaites commented that Wright's poem "goes beyond description to interpretation and evocation." Calling Wright Australia's "best lyric poet now writing", the reviewer noted that she "shows the distinctive poetic faculty of using words so as to convey far more than their literal surface meaning."
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in Meanjin it was reprinted as follows:
The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch, Oxford University Press, 1950 The Gateway by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1953 The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by John Thompson, Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth, Penguin Books, 1958 Five Senses : Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963 Vision : A Magazine of the Arts, Science and Australiana vol. 1 no. 3 December 1963 Poetry from Australia: Judith Wright, William Hart-Smith, Randolph Stow edited by Howard Sergeant, Pergamon Press, 1969 Judith Wright : Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1971 The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry edited by Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Melbourne University Press, 1980 The World's Contracted Thus edited by J. A. McKenzie and J. K. McKenzie, Heinemann Education, 1983 My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer, Lansdowne, 1985 Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1988 A Human Pattern : Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1990 Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century edited by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann, Heinemann, 1991 The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Vincent Buckley, Faber, 1991 Collected Poems 1942-1985 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1990 Bridgings : Readings in Australian Women's Poetry edited by Rose Lucas and Lyn McCredden, Oxford University Press, 1996 The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009 Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011
Note You can read the full text of the poem at the All Poetry website.
See also 1948 in Australian literature 1948 in poetry
References