In August 2000, Jennifer Strauss spoke to the Literature students at Toorak College for nearly two hours about her life and work, and how they intertwined. Some of the interesting things to come out of that discussion were:

• Her desire that students read 'around' the poem, not just read the poems selected for study. In that way, getting a copy of her 'New and Selected Poems' would be a good idea, rather than just using the poems from the anthology, 'Lines to Time'
• She talked about 'ambiguity' a lot; especially the ambiguity about reconciliation from personal loss
• She spoke of the 'cycles of human life' and how they are not as extended as the cycles of nature. This linked in to some of her recurring symbols such as seasons and the moon.
• She recommended we read 'Tending the Graves' another poem by her that dealt with loss and 'A Mothers Day Letter: Not for Posting'
• She said that one of the themes she often came back to was the 'unreliability of memory'
• She was interested in how words 'feel'
• She said she liked words that had a duality or a deliberate ambiguity, words such as 'innocence.
• She said that her poems often sought 'balance' and we could see that in her structures.
• The recommended we watch a documentary called 'The Official History' about the tyranny in Argentina which is at the center of some of the poems.
• She pointed out that whereas ye olde poets wrote in 2,4, or 6 line stanza forms, modern poets like her often wrote in 3,5, 7 or 9 line forms. 
• 'An End to Innocence' was written about the great bushfires of 1939
• She said that books make up part of your personality and life experience, 'a book is no more or less a part of life than a person'
• She was heavily influenced by Koestler's 'Darkness at Noon' and Orwell's '1984'
• She said that the idea for a poem is a kind of 'itch' and that titles are important in her poems. For example, 'Songs our mothers Teach Us' was originally going to be called 'The Syntax of Alienation'. The 'scenes from maternal life' title was inspired by Bergman's titles like 'Scenes from a Marriage'.
• Two social movements that affected her deeply were feminism and the Vietnam war experience.
• 'No more cruising' in 'Son and Moon' has a double-edged meaning; cruising for prostitutes and the cruise missiles that Canada was being encouraged to participate in a trial with the USA.
• She refers a lot to the BIG THREE culturally embedded references of our civilization: Shakespeare, the BIBLE, Greek myths (though she's worried just how culturally embedded they are now)

Poems for Study in 2000

• A Just Cause
• After a Death
• An End to Innocence
• Cold Anniversary
• A Migrant Woman on A Melbourne Tram
• Solstice
• Son and Moon: Scenes from Maternal Life
• Songs our Mothers Teach Us
• The Red Divan
• The Snapshot Album of the Innocent Tourist
• Tierra del Fuego
• Wife to Horatio

Note: All these poems are included in the anthology 'Lines to Time (Heinemann, 3rd Edition)

Exercises and Notes

1 Make careful notes about each of the poems as yo read it; set up a separate page for each of the poems, perhaps adding some kind of small visual clue (a picture of a tram) to help visualise the poem.

2. Summarise Strauss's views and values based on a reading of the key poems listed above. Give evidence of connections between the poems to back up your ideas.

3. What questions would you ask Jennifer Strauss if you could?

External Links

Jennifer Strauss reviews poetry in Australian Book Review. You might be able to deduce more about her views and values from this 1999 review of 'Everything Holy'

Jennifer Strauss reviews Veronica Brady's novel, 'South of My Days' for the AGE.

Other Sources

'A Woman's Voice' edited by Jenny Digby

Twelve of Australia's most significant poets are interviewed by Jenny Digby in this many-voiced collection. Thought provoking, funny and bold, their responses and reflections are as individual as the poets themselves.

"It is Jenny Digby's distinction to have perceived the creative core in each of these poets; she has gained their trust and drawn upon their responsiveness. Reading these interviews, we somehow feel that we have caught the poet At it."

Sylvia Plath was an important poet who may have influenced Strauss's work.