Time Allen Curnow

Background Allen Curnow, who died in 2001, is one of the most celebrated New Zealand poets. This poem was written while he was still resident in Christchurch. However, it is included in his collection Early Days Yet which was published in 1997. These poems, both old and recent, had a thematic connection. They appear in reverse chronological order and are introduced by a quotation from Samuel Butler’s Erewhon: ‘The Erewhonians say that we are drawn through life backwards; or again that we go onwards into the future as into a dark corridor.’ Allen Curnow once said that some of his poetry tried to explore ‘the private and the unanswerable’. This poem might answer this description.

Questions Discuss the metaphor/simile of the mountains and the mist. Why has the poet compared the images of the first four stanzas to ‘mist’? What does the last line of the poem mean? What does the poet mean by the phrase ‘conscious carrier’? Go over the first four stanzas and look at all the images. Examine what do the images represent and how do they appeal to the senses. Consider the tenses in the poem. It is set resolutely in the present with ‘I am’ – but are there anywhere references to the past and the future? What are the implications of this exploration of Time? Look at the alliterative patterns in the verse and consider their effects. Write down a statement entirely in your own words about what the poem has communicated to you about Time. Does Curnow’s phrase: 'the private and unanswerable‘ seem unfair to you? Or is it the nature of poetry?