Book Review of "Orpheus in the Undershirt" by Kevin Densley. Port Adelaide, Australia, Ginninderra Press, 2018. ISBN 9781760415013

Journal Contribution ResearchOnline@JCU
McDermott, Tenille
Abstract

[Extract] A series of contrasts—visual, thematic and temporal—lie at the heart of Orpheus in the Undershirt. The very title of this, Kevin Densley’s third collection of poetry, is evocative of the two types of poems found within its pages. The image of the mythological Orpheus clad in the accoutrements of the blue-collar Australian is a playful one, a simultaneous contradiction and consolidation of classical and working-class conceptions of masculinity. Such contrariety prefigures many of the poems in the collection, which propose a series of unexpected comparisons and contrasts that are, by turns, playful and wry. Orpheus is, however, also a reminder of the power of poetry and music to move and provoke, and other poems in this volume draw inspiration from art, history and place in order to demonstrate poetry’s capacity to serve as a channel for unique insight.

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Sudo Journal

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1

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2652-1776

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3

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Sudo Journal

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