Kenneth Slessor Interview
Writing Australia’s leading poetry: An interview with Kenneth Slessor
Interviewer: Today we are hearing from the renowned poet Kenneth Slessor and his journey that has gotten him to where he is today. This man has written some of Australia’s finest poems and literature, please welcome him to join us in today’s discussion to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of his poetry. Morning Mr. Slessor how are you today?
Kenneth Slessor: Thank you for that wonderful introduction I can’t thank my readers enough for how far they have gotten me. I’m very well thank you, how are you?
Interviewer: I’m excellent, I’m sure everyone listening can’t thank you enough for your inspiration to them either. Now your career started quite early I believe, and you grew up living in rural NSW.
Kenneth Slessor: Yes that is correct. I grew up in Orange, then spent my early years in England and soon moved back to Sydney. I wrote my first piece of work when I was only 16, which was a dramatic monologue and that made an appearance in the bulletin magazine at school.
Interviewer: What a great start, I understand that later on in your life you grew fond of living in Sydney and you really enjoyed the beauty of Sydney Harbour and Manly Beach.
Kenneth Slessor: Oh yes! I love Sydney, it’s a beautiful city, and I often mention a few sentences of admiration about it into my poems.
Interviewer: I remember in one of your finest and most successful poem’s ‘Five Bells’, you had a whole Stanza on the beauty and enlightenment that you see in Sydney, even when it was hard for you to find any kind of relief from pain and frustration. So tell us what it is about these poems that make them so widely acknowledged?
Kenneth Slessor: Well I write to express my own feelings and thoughts on the life and society we live in. I’ve gotten reviews that people enjoy my work because they can relate to the grief, the angry frustrated grief with the absence of religion. Some say that my poetry
Interviewer: Today we are hearing from the renowned poet Kenneth Slessor and his journey that has gotten him to where he is today. This man has written some of Australia’s finest poems and literature, please welcome him to join us in today’s discussion to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of his poetry. Morning Mr. Slessor how are you today?
Kenneth Slessor: Thank you for that wonderful introduction I can’t thank my readers enough for how far they have gotten me. I’m very well thank you, how are you?
Interviewer: I’m excellent, I’m sure everyone listening can’t thank you enough for your inspiration to them either. Now your career started quite early I believe, and you grew up living in rural NSW.
Kenneth Slessor: Yes that is correct. I grew up in Orange, then spent my early years in England and soon moved back to Sydney. I wrote my first piece of work when I was only 16, which was a dramatic monologue and that made an appearance in the bulletin magazine at school.
Interviewer: What a great start, I understand that later on in your life you grew fond of living in Sydney and you really enjoyed the beauty of Sydney Harbour and Manly Beach.
Kenneth Slessor: Oh yes! I love Sydney, it’s a beautiful city, and I often mention a few sentences of admiration about it into my poems.
Interviewer: I remember in one of your finest and most successful poem’s ‘Five Bells’, you had a whole Stanza on the beauty and enlightenment that you see in Sydney, even when it was hard for you to find any kind of relief from pain and frustration. So tell us what it is about these poems that make them so widely acknowledged?
Kenneth Slessor: Well I write to express my own feelings and thoughts on the life and society we live in. I’ve gotten reviews that people enjoy my work because they can relate to the grief, the angry frustrated grief with the absence of religion. Some say that my poetry