Country Towns

Country towns, with your willows and squares,
And farmers bouncing on barrel mares
To public houses of yellow wood
With "1860" over their doors,
And that mysterious race of Hogans
Which always keeps the General Stores....

At the School of Arts, a broadsheet lies
Sprayed with the sarcasm of flies:
"The Great Golightly Family
Of Entertainers Here To-night"–
Dated a year and a half ago,
But left there, less from carelessness
Than from a wish to seem polite.

Verandas baked with musky sleep,
Mulberry faces dozing deep,
And dogs that lick the sunlight up
Like paste of gold – or, roused in vain
By far, mysterious buggy-wheels,
Lower their ears, and drowse again....

Country towns with your schooner bees,
And locusts burnt in the pepper-trees,
Drown me with syrups, arch your boughs,
Find me a bench, and let me snore,
Till, charged with ale and unconcern,
I'll think it's noon at half-past four!

Stanza 1

• Addresses the country towns - is generalising and universalising the country town
• Willows and pepper trees withstand drought - squares: village squares near shops; where fairs are held
• Bouncing on barrel mares' - fat sturdy little horse; we can hear the trot of the horse coming to the pub. The farmers still ride in on horses - nothing has changed in this town
• Public House - hotel; yellow wood shows age; deliberately uses old terminology to show it is old in Australian terms (and fits into the rhythm of the line!). Note the vivid imagery built up of the town from these first few lines.
• General Store - an everything shop designed originally to simply serve the need of the community. Hogan is an Irish surname - many early migrants to Aus. were Irish, and always seemed to own General Stores. (mysterious - why did they always seem to own General Stores?)
• First Stanza Note: Note rhyme scheme, strong rhythm, one single sentence, then drifts off as poet's gaze drifts off - establishes sleepy, laid back atmosphere.

Stanza 2

• School of Arts - another major public building, where concerts etc were held. The reference emphasises how small the place is; its rural isolation.
• Broadsheet - a poster has fallen off the wall, sprayed with the sarcasm of flies: it has fly poo on it, sending up the family somewhat. Note use of colon - makes us pause to consider this sarcasm. lies is a pun; it lies on the floor, but also tells a lie about the performance "To-night" (ie it will not be).
• Note capital letters and inverted commas to quote from poster, and the dash at the end of the 4th line which makes us pause to consider what has been said, and see that the broadsheet does lie; makes us see the amusing side to it.
• carelessness - without care, emphasises relaxation and sleepiness of town; the town doesn't want to offend anyone by taking down their posters.

Stanza 3

• Note plural forms of nouns (verandas, faces, dogs etc) - these universalise; no names or personalities.
• baked - hot, invokes a smell of heat like from oven; summarises Australian summer.
• musky smell of dust and haze of dust, eucalypt oils from leaves baking.
• Mulberry faces - purple of sunburn, drinking, heat - people are baking too.
• dozing deep - shows depth of sleep; 'd' sounds deep to hear.
• dogs - we can see what the dogs are doing; a shaft of light hits the veranda, and the dogs when panting, appear to be licking up the sunshine. Like paste of gold - this simile suggests preciousness of afternoon, image, sunlight. If the dogs aren't licking up sunlight, they're listening to far-off buggy wheels which make them awake, sit up and listen, then go back to sleep. The town is trapped in a syrup of time, nothing moves, time is sluggish.
• Sense of carelessness and floating, note d sounds are sleepy - dozing, deep, dogs, drowse.
• Sentence drifts off again....

Stanza 4

• The narrator's voice picks up again, talking to the towns as if they understand him. The narrator wants to be a part of the town, not just an observer.
• Schooner bees' - a schooner is a ship with big sails that is fairly slow moving. The bees are slow, and you can hear their buzzing. locusts are cicadas, the burnt is referring to the intense chorus that assaults the ears in summer. This buzzing intensifies the heat and that there is no movement - stillness of trees (not usually much wind when cicadas call).
• syrups - alcohol, but slow - golden, easy, slow, relaxed, careless.
• charged - full of ale, perhaps drunk to the point of sleep? unconcern - carelessness

General Notes

• The poet finds the sleepiness seductive - this sensuous poem appeals to sight, smell, and hearing, emphasised by the sentence/stanza structure, one sentence per stanza.
• There are many colours and images; no tricky poetic techniques, only one simile - all sound and repetition.
• Time is a recurring theme of Slessor's; he studies the effect of time on humans and things they create. (yellowed wood, poster etc). The seeming lack of time is seductive, but time passes no matter how much you trick yourself - time is blind.
• However, this slightly more serious theme underlies the humour of the poem.

Study Questions

1. Slessor is often described as being a 'detached observer'. Is there any evidence of the poet as observer in this poem? Is the observer 'detached'? Why or why not?
2. Comment on the effect of
   • visual imagery in the poem
   • repetition of words, phrases and sounds
   • the rhyme scheme of the poem.
3. How does the poet evoke the effect of the climate on the town and its inhabitants?
4. Explain in your own words the last line of the poem and the use of the word unconcern.

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