"The Killer" (1947) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright.

It was originally published in the literary journal Southerly in December 1947, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.

Synopsis The poet wanders down by a creek to take her rest and to get a drink of water. She is surprised by a black snake and lashes out to defend herself.

Critical reception

Andrew Taylor, in his book Reading Australian Poetry, commented that "the poem is an articulation of guilt – not so much simply guilt at having killed something presumed innocent, but guilt at having failed to recognise the 'nmble enemy' as being within herself, and this having killed."Reading Australian Poetry by Andrew Taylor, University of NSW Press, 1987, p88

In a review of the poet's collection A Human Pattern : Selected Poems in Poetry Beverley Bie Brahic noted that parts of this poem might owe something to Emily Dickinson, though she went on to add: "if the corseted stanzas, with their inversions and apostrophes ('O move in me ...'), have a whiff of the hand-me-down, Wright's subjects are brand new. As Heaney reveals rural Northern Ireland to us, so Wright trains her refreshingly flinty eye on the settlers of rural Australia."

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in Southerly it was reprinted as follows:

Woman to Man by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1949 An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1952 Australian Poets Speak edited by Colin Thiele and Ian Mudie, Rigby, 1961 Five Senses: Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963 Judith Wright : Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963 The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen, Macmillan, 1973 Judith Wright : Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1971 A Human Pattern : Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1990 The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry edited by John Tranter and Philip Mead, Penguin, 1991 Collected Poems 1942-1985 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1994 Poetry Unlocked: An Anthology Arranged in Themes edited by Elaine Hamilton and Robin Farr, FarrBooks, 2006

See also 1947 in Australian literature 1947 in poetry

References