The Bone Chanter: Unpublished Poems 1945–72

1976

Special Collections PR9641 B3 B6

Oxford: Oxford University Press

In his early poetry, James K. Baxter employed traditional poetic ideas and diction concerning the Muse, but, in his later verse, the ‘beautiful and gracious goddess of poetry’ becomes ugly and fearsome (Geoffrey Miles). In ‘The Muse’ (1961), Baxter borrows a darker image from The White Goddess: Graves describes the Muse as ‘the ancient power of fright … the female spider … whose embrace is death.’ Baxter’s poet wakes to the weight of his Muse sitting beside him on the bed, ‘An old black hag with red arachnoid eyes.’