Kenneth Slessor

Kenneth Adolphe Slessor OBE (27 March 1901 – 30 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences into Australian poetry. The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is named after him.

Kenneth Slessor, 1949

Quotes

• How many mariners had made that choice
  Paused on the brink of mystery! ‘Choose now!’
  The winds roared, blowing home, blowing home,
  Over the Coral Sea. ‘Choose now!’ the trades
  Cried once to Tasman, throwing him for choice
  Their teeth or shoulders, and the Dutchman chose
  The wind’s way, turning north. ‘Choose, Bougainville!’
  The wind cried once, and Bougainville had heard
  The voice of God, calling him prudently
  Out of the dead lee shore, and chose the north,
  The wind’s way. So, too, Cook made choice,
  Over the brink, into the devil’s mouth,
  With four months’ food, and sailors wild with dreams
  Of English beer, the smoking barns of home.
  So Cook made choice, so Cook sailed westabout,
  So men write poems in Australia.
  • "Five Visions of Captain Cook" (1931), I