The Auschwitz Poems

The Auschwitz Poems
AuthorLily Brett
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherScribe
Publication date1986
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages139 pp
Awards1987 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, winner
ISBN0908011105

The Auschwitz Poems is a collection of poems by Australian poet Lily Brett, published by Scribe in 1986.[1]

The collection contains 59 poems from a number of literary publications, such as Overland, with many published here for the first time.[2] The volume also contains a number of illustrations by the poet's artist husband David Rankin.[1]

It was the winner of the 1987 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry.[3]

Contents

  • "To the Left"
  • "Children I"
  • "Children II"
  • "The Life"
  • "Invisible"
  • "Sleep"
  • "Soup"
  • "Possessions"
  • "After a Year"
  • "Sport"
  • "Their Bodies"
  • "Musselmanner (Moslems)"
  • "Conjuring"
  • "Another Selection"
  • "Breasts"
  • "Selection"
  • "No Flies"
  • "Arbeit Macht Frei (Freedom Through Work)"
  • "Body Count "
  • "An Image"
  • "The Toilet"
  • "Possessions of the Rich"
  • "Hot Soup"
  • "Marilla"
  • "Canada"
  • "What Was Left"
  • "The Market"
  • "Trading"
  • "Renya's Baby"
  • "The Sonderkommando"
  • "The First Job"
  • "The Guarantee"
  • "Overload"
  • "Someone"
  • "The Hospital"
  • "In the End"
  • "The Last Day"
  • "Buna (Auschwitz III)"
  • "A Graduate"
  • "The Vistula"
  • "My Grandmother"
  • "Marketing"
  • "Hanka"
  • "We Watch"
  • "The D.P. Camp"
  • "Arriving in Australia"
  • "Three Days Later"
  • "Our House"
  • "Linen Sheets"
  • "Everything Looked Normal"
  • "In the Kitchen"
  • "An Ordinary Meal"
  • "For Breakfast"
  • "Dinner"
  • "Father"
  • "By Yourself"
  • "Rooshka's Dream"
  • "I Wear Your Face"
  • "Even the Sea"

Critical reception

Reviewing the collection for The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper Judith Rodriguez noted that these poems are based on life in the Auschwitz concentration camp as revealed by the poet's parents. She continued: "Though this is territory often traversed, it is done with a personal intensity that ravels statements out into threads of poems".[4]

Notes

Soon after the book's publication the poet was interviewed by Anna Murdoch for The Age newspaper.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Auschwitz Poems by Lily Brett". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
  2. ^ "Austlit — The Auschwitz Poems by Lily Brett". Austlit. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  3. ^ "Fiction turns into $15,000 fact for Bail". The Age, 17 September 1988, p15. ProQuest 2521428921. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
  4. ^ ""Perspectives on the grim reaper"". The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1986. ProQuest 2526645731. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
  5. ^ ""A child of 'survivors' looks back in awe"". The Age, 30 August 1986. ProQuest 2521395433. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.