Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells has frustrated and eluded me for years. In this episode I wrestle with its strange legacy, entertaining the idea that this poem isn’t so much an elegy for a specific person as it is a lament for lost potential among artists in Australia more generally.

Show notes

• Radio National’s Poetry Special on Five Bells
• Slessor’s description of Joe Lynch’s death
• Ep 60. On John Blight
• John Olsen’s Five Bells