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12 EAD Poetry unit: Voices of Aotearoa
James K. Baxter – A brief biography
Family background
• James Kier Baxter was born 29th June 1926, south of Dunedin. He spent
first his 10 years in this district. The countryside was that of low hills,
streams, cliffs, beaches, farms & cottages. People in the district were
farmers, rural labourers, fishermen, many of Scottish descent.
• The Baxters had settled in Otago in the 1850s. J.K. Baxter grew up
surrounded by ancestors as well as relations. School was King's High,
Dunedin - single sex.
• J.K's father was Archibald Baxter, a man of strong principles. He was a
Quaker (sect known for their simplicity of worship and life-style, their
service to social justice and their pacifism – he was a conscientious
objector during WW1.) He was a hard working farmer with deep religious
convictions. He had a literary culture, was deeply emotional (strange and
other-worldly). He wrote the anti-war treatise We Shall Not Cease. He I
nfluenced JKB to stand up for his beliefs.
• Mother Millicent Baxter was an intellectual, a cosmopolitan (free from
regional/national prejudices). She was practical and cultural - and a
pacifist. Daughter of New Zealand’s first woman university graduate., and
a Cambridge graduate herself. She taught her son the Greek and Roman
myths.
The early years
• He played with his brother and cousins on the hills. The Otago landscape
(hills, wild coasts) sank deeply into his psyche. This provided him with
images for his poetry.
• He began writing poetry at age 7 and by age 18 was a published poet.
• As an adolescent, he struggled with his sexuality. He was torn between a
love of the sensual and guilt about lust.
• 1937: His family travelled to Britain and Europe, they spent 2 years away
from NZ.
• 1939: Family returned to Dunedin. James was unpopular at school
because of his father's pacifism. (But his sporting prowess was OK!)
• 1944: Otago University - university social life provided
opportunity to discuss literature with other
interested/interesting people. University =“Aphrodite,
Bacchus and the Holy Spirit were my tutors, but the goddess
of good manners and examination passes withheld her smile
from me”
• 1945: Beyond the Palisades - a successful poetry collection published. He
suddenly became widely known and highly regarded by writers in NZ.
• 1945 onwards: Baxter spent time in bars, at parties, coffee houses and
pubs around Dunedin. This strained his relationship with parents. He
began to develop his drinking problems.
The search for identity
• 1948: A turning point - he met Otago University student Jacquie Sturm and
married her. They moved and settled in Wellington. He said of his parents:
"don't know if either of them had met a Maori before."
• 1948: He joined the Church of England, met Denis Glover and Allen
Curnow. Baxter failed at University but did Greek history, Art and
Literature extramurally.
• 1949: They had a daughter, Hilary and
1952: son, John
• 1950s: Baxter was torn between family life and Bohemian existence that
he felt a poet should live (a carefree, non materialistic lifestyle). He was
disillusioned by domesticity, materialism, the nuclear family structure and
the puritanical morality he saw in NZ society.
• 1951: Baxter worked at a variety of jobs (freezing worker, postman)
before going to teacher training college.
• 1955: He completed his BA at Victoria University. He wrote of rural life
scenery, psychological and social problems. His poems became formal in
style and he made use of rhyme, rhythm and traditional devices.
• 1957: Baxter joined Alcoholics Anonymous to help overcome his addiction.
Rebel with a cause
‘One of the functions of artists in a community is to provide a healthy and
permanent element of rebellion; not to become a species of civil servant’
• 1958: He also joined the Catholic Church and wrote many poems devoted
to religious subjects. He visited India and Japan and was appalled by the
misery and poverty he saw. His writings were influenced by this
experience. He learnt to honour the poor.
• 1960s: His poetry became economical and sharp, frequently devoted to
politics and protest. Baxter was concerned with political protest
movements against the Vietnam war. He was angered by instances of
social discrimination against Maori. Was part of the “No Maori No Tour”
campaign during Springbok tour, anti- war and anti-nuclear campaigns.
• 1966: He gained a Burns Fellowship, returned to Dunedin to tutor and
write at Otago University. Many poems revisited the scenes and problems
of his youth. The tone was terse and sombre, they were short and to the

point. Baxter grew disillusioned with society and its materialism and
inequalities. He developed a strong desire to help the outcasts of society.
• He still mixed with his writer friends but began spending more time with
younger people, Maori and Pacific Islanders. He also talked with drug
addicts, street kids, prisoners and alcoholics (he visited drunks at the
Salvation Army). All people on the margins of society. He found Christ in
the “underworld” – a world of social outcasts and young people.
• 1968: He moved to Auckland and started a commune in Grafton. 2000
people passed through the doors - mainly drug addicts.
• 1969: He left his wife and children and set up a community in Jerusalem
on the banks of the Wanganui River. He adopted a Maori name – Hemi -
and embraced many elements of Maori culture (learnt Te Reo, drawn to
Maori values - communal living, arohanui, korero). He identified with
Maori concepts of time and death. He became a guru figure to young
people who were in search of an alternative lifestyle. There he wrote the
Jerusalem Sonnets.
• 1971: Baxter returned to Wellington, then went back to Auckland.
• 1972: October 22nd he died of a heart attack on the North Shore, aged
46.
Influences and extended biography
Baxter believed in 'animism' - that is, natural things and objects have gods or
spirits, and that materialism and technology destroyed this concept for most
people. He included animism frequently in his poems by using mythology.
It is important to be familiar with details of Baxter's life because his poetry is
full of references to his own life and experiences. "It is characteristic of
James K. Baxter, however, that his personal life and presence is essential to his
poems: he constantly draws himself, as well as the particular people and places
around him and the things that happened to him, into his poems and indeed most
of his writing." (Introducing JK Baxter 1983 P.10).
Influences: Two important NZ poets, Denis Glover and Allen Curnow. He also
read many influential modern poets, primarily the Welshman Dylan Thomas, who
himself led a stormy, drunken, and at times, destitute life. Another vital influence
on Baxter was the Catholic Church - he in fact became a devout Catholic (more of
that later).
In 1948, in Christchurch, Baxter married Jacquie Sturm, a Maori short story
writer. When her mother died, Baxter attended the tangi and this seems to be the
point at which he began his exploration and love of Maoritanga and the
community life on the marae. At this point he became an Anglican. Baxter was
searching for something profound and spiritual, he was not content to live the life
of the intellectual. In Wellington he worked in a variety of jobs - freezing works,
postman, teacher but mid 1950s saw him associating with more poets - Johnson,
Alistair Campbell and Charles Doyle.
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This is where Baxter began to diverge from the New Zealand preoccupation with
writing about landscape and isolation - he began to write about social problems,
urban degeneration and alienation. These were, seen as a challenge to the
accepted view of New Zealand as 'paradise'- according to Baxter people needed
to be stirred out of their complacency. However, life for Baxter was hectic and
difficult for all those surrounding him, not least his wife. Alistair Campbell wrote
"...a poet whom quick success had made impatient and arrogant. He was brilliant
and spoiled and intolerable. Worst of all, neither one's booze nor one's woman
was ever quite safe from him." (P. 16 Introducing JK Baxter).
In 1958 Baxter had beaten his alcoholism and converted to the Catholic faith. The
reasons were personal, theological, and 'a reaction against the narrow
mindedness of the puritan and secular influences in New Zealand society.' (ibid, p.
20).
After spending some time in India he returns to NZ, living at the
family house in Wellington: “attending mass, writing, talking and
grumbling.” (see ‘Tomcat’.) He saw himself as a bohemian
spirit trapped in a suburban cage. He needed the shelter of
‘home’ but was not committed to humdrum domestic life.
“Domestic, equable, intelligent, / A life used up on maintenance
work / While the enigmas in their cages dying/ Rage, rage.”
The Ballard of Calvary Street caused great unrest in its depiction
of home life in New Zealand. Being a non-conformist was not
encouraged in the 50s, in fact it was actively discouraged. Baxter
struggled with this all his life, and suffered the consequences.
During the 1960s, important themes emerged in Baxter’s poetry. He was
concerned about the quality of modern life. Puritanism was, he thought, at
the root of modern day ills. Puritanism grew out of the theology of John Calvin
(1509-64). Their belief is that humans are basically evil and corrupt and so
separate from God. As part of his attack on puritanism in NZ society, he wrote a
poem in defence of ‘Mixed flatting’ while he was a Burns fellow at Otago Uni when
universities tried to prevent men and women from sharing flats. One of his poems
called ‘Falus’ contains the lines “the moral mainstay of the nation / is careful,
private masturbation.” However, he was conservative about other issues and was
a strong Catholic.
Many of his poems around this time deal with death – of hope, of childhood
innocence, religious aspiration, political justice and sexual love. A group of poems
dwells on love swallowed up by lust.
The powerful recurrent images are those of sexual loss. The symbols of
destroyed sexuality are always male – Labour Dad’s pitiable parsnip phallus in
‘Calvary Street’ . There are often images of threatening, malign female sexuality.
‘Woman is a door through which delights beckon and destruction enters. She
becomes the snake-haired Medusa, …or else the domestic deity, tyrannising from
the hearth, emasculating by triviality, imposing a deathlike order upon the

appetite.’… ‘They are both the source and the ending of life.’ (James K Baxter:
A Portrait, W.H Oliver)
He was both disenchanted with domesticity and fearful of women’s emergence
from it. He constantly depicts women as preoccupied with domestic life – the
hearth, drains, meals and vacuum cleaners – and forcing men to conform to
domestic roles with “sexual sanctions”. He believed women damaged both
themselves and men in the playing of these roles.
In 1968 Baxter adopted eccentric behaviour and appearance in accord with his
idea that a poet's purpose should be that of a prophet rather than an artist. He
began to be known as Hemi which indicated his preference for Maori 'communal'
values as opposed to the European ones he so much despised.
Auckland was his next move and he lived in Boyle Crescent, Grafton in a
community house. Many problems ensued because of the types the house
attracted. Whilst there Baxter wrote several protest poems (including
'Inscription for the Wall of a Power Station') which he called 'hand-grenades'. In
1970 Baxter moved to Jerusalem on the Wanganui River, set up a community
which again was very short lived, and here wrote his Jerusalem Sonnets. These
were written for his friend Colin Durning and consisted of thirty nine parts - to be
read as a single poem or as a sequence of separate poems. He suffered much
criticism, not least for having left his wife and family. This period is extremely
significant in Baxter's oeuvre.
For Baxter, Arohanui (the love of many) was fundamental to Christian doctrine,
and community living was conducive to this doctrine. Community living often
evolved out of poverty, a dominant theme in the Jerusalem period.
When he died, Baxter was a popular public figure and a respected poet.
"...His poetry is full of enigmas, flaws, contradictions...whatever your attitude to
morals, religion, society, the land, or human relationships, there is always
something to love and to hate in Baxter's work..” (Christopher Parr)
“...he does stand at the threshold of poetry in this country... so much in fact
that now and in its future it will be necessary for all New Zealand poets to work
out for themselves where they stand in relation to Baxter."
The Cave (1948)
In a hollow of the fields, where one would least expect it,
Stark and suddenly this limestone buttress:
A tree whose roots are bound about the stones,
Broad-leaved, hides well that crevice at the base
That leads, one guesses, to the sunless kingdom
Where souls endure the ache of Proserpine.
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Entering where no man it seemed
Had come before, I found a rivulet
Beyond the rock door running in the dark.
Where it sprang from in the heart of the hill
No one could tell: alone
It ran like Time there in the dark silence.
I spoke once and my voice resounded
Among the many pillars. Further in
Were bones of sheep that strayed and died
In nether darkness, brown and water-worn.
The smell of earth was like a secret language
That dead men speak and we have long forgotten.
The whole weight of the hill hung over me.
Gladly I would have stayed there and been hidden
From every beast that moves beneath the sun,
From age’s enmity and love’s contagion;
But turned and climbed back to the barrier,
Pressed through and came to dazzling daylight out.
Commentary – The Cave
It is important to understand the value that Baxter found in myth. Mythology is
really the dramatic presentation of different forces of life in the form of a story,
with various characters and events symbolising important exercises in life. An
example, the Greek myth of Persephone (or Proserpine, as the Romans and Baxter
called her) is a dramatic depiction of both the grief of a mother at the loss of a
child and the seasonal growth of the crops. Persephone daughter of Zeus and his
wife Dementer, goddess of all cultivated crops (Roman name Ceres = origin of
cereal) Persephone represented the fruits of the earth. One day Persephone whilst
picking flowers was kidnapped by Hades, king of the underworld to become his
queen. Dementer was horrified to learn that her daughter was imprisoned in
darkness and caused the earth’s fruits and crops to die. At length Zeus persuaded
Hades to allow Persephone to spend six months a year in the sun and fields. This
strange story is both a mythical presentation of the conflicting ties of marriage
and also of the seasonal burying of seeds before they spring up as fruits of the
earth.
Entering the cave, the poet isn’t just exploring a dark and secret place. He also
becomes aware in there of the mysterious power of fate, and the protecting
secrecy the cave offers. Well hidden beneath a broad-leafed tree and outcrop of
limestone rock, the cave makes him think of the underworld, ‘the sunless
kingdom’ where Proserpine was forced to live in the underworld with Hades and
‘the souls’ of the dead. Notice how his choice of words expresses his sense that
this is more than just an old cave. The first line is ordinary enough, but ‘stark and
suddenly’ tells us immediately that something is up. The ‘buttress’ and ‘crevice’
lead to a ‘sunless kingdom’, and the phrase ‘souls endure the ache’ isn’t at all
ordinary. All through the poem, as in most of Baxter’s poetry, his everyday

language is injected with words, metaphors, or unusual sentence structures which
imply that more is going on than you might see on the surface.
The early hint of doom soon becomes more definite. Inside the cave, ‘where no
man it seemed had come before’, he finds a small stream and the bones of
strayed sheep. Both remind him in some way of fate. The river ‘running in the
dark’ flows along silently without anyone knowing where it comes from or even
that it is there. Time is also like that: we don’t experience it as a ‘thing’ it remains
silent and mysterious, and yet it afflicts us all. The ‘water-worn’ bones of the dead
sheep remind us that time and death is bound together.
But an even more vivid image emphasises this thought. The dank, earthy smell is
‘like a secret language
/That dead men speak.’ The smell of this underworld brings to mind both death
and also the weight of history, the presence of the dead and their life and
knowledge which ‘we have long forgotten’. Baxter was a person with a very strong
sense of being part of a much larger world of space and time. It is for this reason
that mythology appealed to him, and one reason why he was later attracted to the
Maori way of life.
So far the feeling we have of the poet’s exploration is intense but rather doom-
filled. Then in the final stanza he suddenly tells us ‘Gladly I would have stayed
there.’ Despite the bones and smell, Baxter reveals the attraction of the cave; he
would be ‘hidden’ from the outside world, from having to deal with other beings,
and what he sees as the corrosion of age and time, and the disease of love. This
desire for seclusion is on one level a desire for peace, to be left alone. But the
poem leads towards deeper emotions too. One suspects he wishes to be part of
something larger than himself, ‘the whole weight of the hill’. There is something of
a death-wish in wanting to remain in the cave. And another mysterious primal
experience, of being ‘hidden …from age’s enmity and love’s contagion’ which the
cave suggests, is that of being in the womb. Baxter enjoyed psychological
associations like this, and the poem’s last line seems deliberately to suggest birth:
‘Pressed through and came to dazzling daylight out.’ This rebirth from the dark
mysteries of the underworld is a common theme in mythology, and is emphasised
by the fact the poem begins with the word ‘in’ and ends with the word ‘out’.
‘Dazzling’ light is what often greets a baby at birth, and here the word catches the
sense of daylight, the outside world as both overwhelming and exciting.
Exercises:
1. Alongside (or anywhere for that matter) each of the four sestets, sketch what is
happening.
2. From the commentary highlight the important themes and ideas that Baxter
seems concerned with and for each provide a supporting example from the poem.
3. Provide a possible reason for the use of sibilance in line two
4. Explain the simile in line 12 (use the notes to help)
5. Explain why Baxter uses the word ‘Gladly’ in line 20. Why does he want to stay
under the hill?
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6. Why do you think Baxter begins his poem with ‘in’ and finishes it with ‘out’? In
what way is his experience of going into and returning from the cave similar to the
story of Proserpine?
7. In his commentary of ‘The Cave’, renowned New Zealand writer and critic
Vincent O’Sullivan calls this poem a sexual allegory. Do you agree with this view?
Wild Bees (1953).
In the poem ‘Wild Bees’ Baxter tells the story of the pointless robbing and
botching of a hive. The evening raid complete with flaring torches and smoke
aptly enough recalls the fall of Carthage, the burning of Troy – and with it
highlights images of lust and destruction against what is ordered and civilized.
Often in summer, on a tarred bridge plank standing,
Or downstream between willows, a safe Ophelia drifting
In a rented boat – I had seen them come and go,
Those wild bees swift as tigers, their gauze wings a-glitter
In passionless industry, clustering black at the crevice
Of a rotten cabbage tree, where the hive was hidden low.
But never strolled too near. Till one half-cloudy evening
Of ripe January, my friends and I
Came, gloved and masked to the eyes like plundering desperadoes,
To smoke them out. Quiet beside the stagnant river
We trod wet grasses down, hearing the crickets chitter
And waiting for light to drain from the wounded sky.
Before we reached the hive the sentries saw us
And sprung invisible through the darkening air,
Stabbed, and died in stinging. The hive woke. Poisonous fuming
Of sulphur filled the hollow trunk, and crawling
Blue flames spluttered – yet still their suicidal
Live raiders dived and clung to our hands and hair.
O it was Carthage under the Roman torches,
Or loud with flames and falling timber, Troy!
A job well botched. Half of the honey melted
And half the rest young grubs. Through earth-black smouldering
Ashes
And maimed bees groaning, we drew out our plunder.
Little enough their gold, and slight our joy.
Fallen then the city of instinctive wisdom.
Tragedy is written distinct and small:
A hive burned on a cool night in summer.
But loss is a precious stone to me, a nectar
Distilled in time, preaching the truth of winter
To the fallen heart that does not cease to fall.

Exercises:
1. Why do you think Baxter includes the image of Ophelia drifting by in the
opening stanza?
2. Provide a possible explanation for the following adjectives as used in stanza
two: passionless’ and ‘wounded’.
3. How does Baxter change the pace of the poem in the third and fourth stanzas?
What effect is he trying to create?
4. From the poem find examples of the following poetic devices and for each
explain what effect you think Baxter is trying to create: simile(s), alliteration,
Lament for Barney Flanagan (1954)
Licensee of the Hesperus Hotel
Flanagan got up on a Saturday morning,
Pulled on his pants while the coffee was warming;
He didn't remember the doctor's warning,
"Your heart's too big, Mr. Flanagan."
Barney Flanagan, sprung like a frog
From a wet root in an Irish bog -
May his soul escape from the tooth of the dog!
God have mercy on Flanagan.
Barney Flanagan R.I.P.
Rode to his grave on Hennessy's
Like a bottle-cork boat in the Irish Sea.
The bell-boy rings for Flanagan.
Barney Flanagan, ripe for a coffin,
Eighteen stone and brandy-rotten,
Patted the housemaid's velvet bottom -
"Oh, is it you, Mr. Flanagan?"
The sky was bright as a new milk token.
Bill the Bookie and Shellshock Hogan
Waited outside for the pub to open -
"Good day, Mr. Flanagan."
At noon he was drinking in the lounge bar corner
With a sergeant of police and a racehorse owner
When the Angel of Death looked over his shoulder -
"Could you spare a moment, Flanagan?"
Oh the deck was cut; the bets were laid;
But the very last card that Barney played
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sibilance, rhyme, allusion(s), enjambment, informal language, archaism and any
others you find.
5. List the similarities between Troy and the hive.
6. If you haven’t done so already in number 4, explain the metaphor in the final
stanza.
7. Summarise what you consider to be the main theme of this poem.
8. complete a B.L.I.S.S.T.A.R summary of the poem
Was the Deadman's Trump, the bullet of Spades -
"Would you like more air, Mr. Flanagan?" The story not only flows naturally and swiftly, it is
told through the actions of the people around
The priest came running but the priest came late Barney, which is considerably more interesting than
For Barney was banging at the Pearly Gate. simply being told what happens to the publican
himself. Although the poem is dominated by the
St Peter said, "Quiet! You'll have to wait
For a hundred masses, Flanagan." ‘Angel of Death’, it celebrates the colour and variety
of life, even at the risk of offending strict morality.
In fact, quite surprisingly for Baxter this is quite a
The regular boys and the loud accountants happy lament, mainly through its vitality and the
Left their nips and their seven-ounces compassionate attitude to its characters. This is
As chickens fly when the buzzard pounces - especially the meaning of the final two lines, taken
"Have you heard about old Flanagan?" from the biblical book of Psalms and the liturgy for
the dead: Barney may not have lived a perfect life,
Cold in the parlour Flanagan lay the poet says but he still belongs to God’s colourful
Like a bride at the end of her marriage day. and good creation. Although at this point Baxter
The Waterside Workers' Band will play was still a member of the Church of England, the
A brass goodbye to Flanagan. characters in the poem are Irish, and it includes
several references to Roman Catholic mythology
While publicans drink their profits still. (‘the Angel of Death’, ‘the Pearly gates with St Peter
While lawyers flock to be in at the kill, in attendance) Between the ages of 17 and 25
Baxter was an alcoholic. At the same time as
While Aussie barmen milk the till
We will remember Flanagan. ‘Barney Flanagan’ hints, he was becoming attracted
to the rituals and beliefs of Roman Catholicism.
For Barney had a send-off and no mistake. Baxter here runs the comic and the serious
together. In a stanza form of three rhyming
tetrameters, and a shorter final line concluding
He died like a man for his country's sake; always with the sepulchral echo of the publican’s
And the Governor-General came to his wake. name, Baxter balances fantasy and genuine feeling,
Drink again to Flanagan! colloquial speech and sustained elegiac. If the men
who helped drink Flanagan to his grave were adapt
Despise not, O Lord, the work of Thine own hands at rhyme, then this, one certainly feels is how they
And let light perpetual shine upon him. would record their grief.
Commentary BALLAD
This poem is as good a depiction of small town New A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four
Zealand pub culture as any in our literary canon. It
lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can
is also one of New Zealand’s best ballads. originate from a wide range of subject matter but
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frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends.
The plot is the dominant element, dealing with a
single crucial episode, narrated impersonally, with
frequent use of repetition. They are written in
straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but
always with graphic simplicity and force. Most
ballads are suitable for singing and, while
sometimes varied in practice, are generally written
in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic
tetrameter and iambic trimeter with the last words
of the second and fourth lines rhyming an xbyb
rhyme scheme.
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The Ballad of Calvary Street

The Ballad of Calvary Street is an analysis of the New Zealand suburban family
trapped inside its mortgages and gender stereotypes and decayed morality. The
two old souls in the poem are Roman Catholics (which didn’t help his popularity in
some circles at the time.) But his point was that there is a rottenness in our
society which even his own faith does not always avoid or prevent. He identified
the rottenness as the rigidity and unforgiving judgemental view of Puritanism
which is far more ready to condemn what it sees as wrong in people than to love
what is good and hopeful. Love, he is saying would end up crucified on Calvary in
our suburbia as much as in ancient Jerusalem. But the behaviour he satirises is
quite familiar to most people. This is not a happy nor popular picture of home life
in New Zealand. The only signs of life ‘giant parsnip’ and ‘little Charlie on his trike’
are quickly repressed as is any hint of sex, which is regarded as ‘dirt’. Punishment
and ‘trained endurance’ mark everything in the family’s lives, enforcing the ‘habit’
which ‘clogs them dumb’. The result is that love, which should be the spirit of
marriage and family and Christian faith, has no place in their lives. The Chinese
symbol in which Yin and Yang, the female and male elements in life, lie
interlocked is broken, and we are left with ‘Two birds that peck in one fouled nest.’

Student exemplars With close reference to two or more poems you have studied,
consider how subject matter and theme are conveyed through imagery
In James K. Baxter's Pig Island Letters 2 and Ballad of Calvary Street, theme and
subject matter are conveyed through imagery. Themes of cultural oppression are
expressed through images as are subject matter relating to the rigidity and
falseness of the nuclear family.
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It is a bitter dig at two birds who peck in one foul nest expressing the
separateness of family life and the unhappiness of this home. Images like the
oven spits with rage reflect the inner turmoil of the people in the poem. While on
the outside they might appear as bright as blood inside there are only repressed
emotions simmering on and on. Baxter's line habit, habit clogs them dumb sums
up his attitude towards the subjects of the poem. The image of a clog is very
powerful, they are unable to get past their habits of repressing emotions and
those of the people around them because they are held in this rut by the clog of
generations before them.

In Baxter's poem Pig Island Letters 2, much imagery is used to convey subject In James K. Baxter's poems Pig Island Letters 2 and Ballad of Calvary Street, he
matter. This is of the family as an ineffective unit and a place of isolation for its uses a number of images to convey themes of cultural oppression and isolation,
members. To express the lack of cohesion in the household, Baxter uses images including descriptions of mundane and conformist life. Subject matter related to
to convey feelings of either conformity or repressed rebellion which exist within the deceptive appearances of the family unit is also aided by strong images of the
the family. The man of the house is said to be grousing in the pub and discussing family as separate entities.
sales of yearling lamb. These images encourage the reader to class the father as a
conformist with a mundane outlook on life. Her daughter is reading in her room a Commentary:
catalogue of dresses and will vote on the side of the bosses. This indicates too This shows comprehensive knowledge of the poems. Well supported with apt
that she is a conformist who has not been encouraged to think any opposing way illustrations. It is lucid in style and organisation and shows perception. However,
other than that which has been drummed into her. you could have used contrasting imagery - two different themes OR contrasted
the poems more. You needed to address the subject matter more specifically.
However her son has seen an angel with a sword and is prepared to split the
house like a totara log but he is still just waiting for the word. These images that Mark: A - 17/20
Baxter creates contribute to the subject matter of the uncommunicative family but
also, they play a large part in contributing to understanding of the theme of the
poem, which is the inherent cultural oppression which crushed young New
Zealanders, and New Zealanders in general, into a lull of conformity and
repressed emotions. Although the son Baxter talks about is quite ready to split the
house he will refrain, quite unconcerned until he gets word, because of the
repercussions of breaking the mould of conformity which has been nurtured in his
family.

It is the old adage of not rocking the boat, while dealing with the inevitable
disillusionment which so often accompanies social isolation. Baxter's key image in
this poem plaits ropes of sand adds a somewhat defeatist tone to the idea of how
hard it is to get out of that mould.

In another of Baxter's poems Ballad of Calvary Street he deals again with the
subject of the family unit and the stark difference between appearance and
reality. He conveys this through the use of images in the poem. Each Saturday
when full of smiles, the children come to pay their dues shows how sterile and
rigid the family has become. It also expresses Baxter's cynicism over the falseness
of appearances versus reality, they do not want to be there but they come
anyway to pay their dues! The constant imagery throughout the poem referring to
Christ's crucifixion, such as women bear the cross of woe expresses the bitterness
which can develop through years of unaccounted-for resentment and the
monotony of conformist domestic roles. The theme of Calvary Street is conformity
and rigidity of years of personal isolation crushing love and personality.

Pig Island Letters
(from Introducing James K Baxter by Christopher Parr
• Collection of 13 best poems between 1961-1966 titled by number
• Pig Island = slang for South Island but used to suggest all of NZ
• For those looking to prepare the poetry of Baxter for the short text
question, Letters 2 & 9 are probably the most use, particularly when
compared with the ‘Ballad of Calvary Street’ and ‘Lament for Barney
Flanagan’.
Pig Island 1
• Title sequence is dedicated to Maurice Shadbolt. In it he identifies with his
friend’s despondency at the loss of creativity in NZ society. As the letters
develop we see a collection of Baxter’s own failed endeavours, the
mourning of wasted youth and the movement towards the social prophet
that Baxter will become as we see his diagnosis of society’s problems
through the examination of his own experiences and the society he sees
around him.
• Themes of this poem link to poems we have discussed; it provides some
excellent links with feelings of desolation/disillusionment
• Demonstrates lovelessness and corrupt values of the family unit during
the 1950/60s, and his weariness with the world as a whole.
• ‘gap’ = disintegration/breakdown of our society. Absence (lack of
creativity / conformity in our society) space in which one discovers their
true self.
• Metaphors that illustrate this sense of disillusionment = menopause of the
mind, man is a walking grave,
• Vocabulary: labia,
Pig Island 2
• Vocabulary: malady = disease; parody = humorous exaggerated imitation
of a writer, text , gaunt = lean, grim, desolate; sullen = resentful, sulky;
grousing = complaining;
• Note the conformity of mother, father + sister contrast with son.
• Contains some of Baxter’s best known lines including the devastating
‘Love is not valued much in Pig Island’. An obvious comparison should be
made with the ‘Ballad of Calvary Street’, especially in its use of the family
pattern to expose social attitudes, which suggests the extent of Baxter’s
distrust of domestic normality.
• THEME: As above + The son’s apocalyptic vision of his house and city
being overturned by an avenging angel is symbolic of Baxter’s rejection of
inflexible social attitudes and the cultural oppression that prevents young
people growing through experience and learning from their mistakes.
• STRUCTURE: Use of rhythm and line is more varied than in the Ballad of
Calvary Street.
9
• TONE/ATTITUDE: Mocking satire of ‘Calvary Street’ has been replaced
with repugnance. It is the love-lessness of Pig Island that disgusts him
most, and modern families, through their rigidity and loss of spirit, show
this feeling. The image of the ‘brisk gaunt woman’ with ‘her man’ and
conservative daughter and moody son is more caustic and abrasive than
the family ‘Calvary Street.’
Pig Island 9
• Pig Island sequence and in particular 9 highlight his disillusionment with
the isolated, suburban, nuclear family unit. As we have seen in ‘Calvary
Street’ Baxter regarded the modern NZ family unit as being far too rigid in
its age and sex roles and stifled by domestic materialism.
• Exploration of contradiction that Baxter feels in himself between the
contentment of the ‘family man’ and the renegade ‘convict self’ of the
artist who struggles with disorder and death,
• Vocabulary: hydatids = condition found in dogs caused by a type of
tapeworm , oedema = excess fluid in body tissues leading to swelling ,
lupin = plant with spikes of flowers,
Questions:
Pig Island Letters 1
1. Explain in your own words what you think the gap is.
2. Provide a list of quotes/phrases that help to show the disillusioned view
that Baxter has of society.
3. Explain the following metaphors: menopause of the mind, man is a
walking grave,
Pig Island Letters 2
1. What do you think is the ‘walking parody’ of love that we admire is?
2. What motivates the woman in stanza 2?
3. Explain how the mother, father and daughter are all conformists
4. Provide a possible interruption of the image of the angel
5. Explain the metaphor in the final stanza.
Pig Island Letters 9
1. What is the subject of the poem? What is he concerned about?
2. Describe the two personalities that exist within the poet. What problems
or frustrations does this create?
3. What is Baxter’s attitude to this poem?
4. What is meant by the final line of the poem?

1.
Choose two or more poems by one poet you admire, and with close reference to
the poems, write an essay to justify your choice.
One poet I admire is James K. Baxter, because this New Zealand poet deals with
the issues of the society he lived in, using various techniques to reiterate thise
themes. He divided themes into social and economic issues apparent in both
Lament for Barney Flanagan and Crossing Cook Strait,n both there is constant
reference to the life styles and cultures of New Zealanders. Crossing Cook Strait
deals with parallel concerns but is set on a ship crossing the Cook Strait, as of
course, the title tells us! Lament for Barney Flanagan deals with small town New
Zealand mentality.
One important theme that Baxter deals with is that of the economic infrastructure
of New Zealand. The sky was bright with new milk tokens in Lament for Barney
Flanagan is doused with irony. Once milk tokens were given to needy members of
society which in turn they would exchange for milk. One questions how these
underpriviliged people can afford to spend their time and money in a pub. This
further raised the question as to whether the pub provides a sanctuary for these
people or whether they are a mockery of the economic system.
In verse 7 of Crossing Cook Strait
I walked forth gladly to find the angers, who are my nation, discovered instead
The gluttonseagulls squabbling over crusts"
Baxter deals with the economic injustices. The first word that sprung to mind while
reading this was capitalism. The tone Baxter uses is that of utmost disgust. One
can further see Baxter's dislike of capitalism through the establishment of
Jerusalem in 1970. This area situated on the Wanganui River has no monetary
system and only cared that its inhabitants had enough to survive. Each member
was treated equally and I see it as having positive communistic tendencies.
Baxter portrays to us in this verse the fact that the poor are neglected. He draws
attention to the fact that by metaphor the fact that the rich compared to seagulls
are scavaging for crusts when they already have bread! The wealthier members of
society are the ones that have the crust but do not need them. This again brings
in capitalism because in this society, people gather up as much as they can for
themselves, instead of sharing and having a balanced society.
And policies made and broken behind locked doors is the last lime od verse 7 in
Crossing Cook Strait, and it shows Baxter's mistrust in government. The locked
doors prevent any member of society from participating in agreements, when in
fact it affects them the most. Baxter uses an alliteration in broken behind to draw
attention to this theme as well as to create a rhythm which creates unity.
10
In both poems Baxter draws attention to the social setting of New Zealand. He makes
us aware of stereotypes, self-congratulation, egocentricity and complacency. Baxter
makes us aware of the stereotypes assembling in a small pub but on a large scale the
stereotypes apparent in New Zealand.
"the regular boys and the accountants....
As chickens fly as the buzzard pounces"
Again Baxter brings in imagery of scavengers only this time through the use of simile.
The scavengers are not the wealthy but those who once surrounded Barney Flanagan. He
emphasises that they are scavenging through destructive gossip over Flanagan, not only
in a small town but throughout the world.
Two verses later as Baxter begins to close:
"While publicans drink their profits still, While lawyers flock to be in at the kill,
While Aussie Barmen milk the till, We will remember Flanagan;"
Baxter makes us aware that society will continue their cycle. The publican, lawyers and
Aussie barmen are portrayed as having no compassion for the fact that Flanagan died,
and only see the financial benefit. This interlinks with capitalism and each member of
society looking after themselves.
"Drink down hemlock with sugared tea" makes us aware of how gullible society is. The
taste of hemlock, a poisonous plant which lead to severe concussion is disguised by
sugared tea. Baxter tells us how society is disillusioned by outward appearances and fails
to search deeper to find the truth. Society will continue to "ask for no second meal, vote
and pay tribute" Baxter uses a juxtapositon here by placing two contrasting images next
to each other to draw attention to this theme.
I admire Baxter and his poetry as it has made me aware of the social and economic
issues apparent not only in New Zealand but throughout the world. He raises questions
that are rarely answered, which in turn leaves the reader to interpret. The techniques
he uses and the way he approaches the subject in a cynical manner highlight these theme
to an even larger extent.
Commentary:
This shows good knowledge of the poems. Supported with frequent and appropriate
illustrations. Shows perception. There is a need to be more logical and concise in the
development of arguments. Address the 'why I admire' part a little more, rather than
 11
just in the conclusion. You needed to introduce a change of poems to clarify writing
about Lament for Barney Flanagan and to state what the "parallel concerns" re Crossing
Cook Strait are. Likewise clarification needed as to what Baxter was saying about NZ's
"economic injustices"

Mark: B - 14/20

6ty
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Questions for KLONK
g
1. What is Baxter’s middle name? Kier
2. Name Baxter’s mother and father’s name? Millicent and Archibald
3. In which region of NZ was Baxter raised?
4. Name Baxter’s wife Jackie Sturm
5. Name one job that Baxter had other than poet: freezing worker, postman
6. What major event happened to Baxter in 1958? Converted to Catholicism
7. To fully understand The Cave you must be aware of which classical myth?
Persephone/Proserpine.
8. Name both of her parents; zeus and dementer
9. What concrete noun does Baxter see in the cave?
10. In a simile in the poem, the river is compared to what elusive concept? Time
11. What major idea is revealed as a result of being in the cave: redemption, longing
of belonging to something bigger, hidden from the outside world, desire for
seclusion
12. from wild bees find an example of sibilance ‘stabbed and died in stinging,
13. Name two allusions that Baxter draws upon in this poem: Ophelia and Carthage
14. Name three religious allusions from the Ballad O.C.S.: title, blood (connotations)
Tree of life, sinm
15. what is the rhyme scheme of the poem: ababcc
16. Name three techniques that Baxter uses other than allusion in this poem:
alliteration, repetition, rhyme
17. Explain the theme of B.O.C.S
18. Provide one metaphor that Baxter used in Pig Island Letter 1 to show his
disillusion with NZ society: Man is a walking grave, menopause of the mind.
19. From Pig Island letter 2 what is the most famous lines in all of baxter’s poetry:
love is not valued much on Pig Island/though we admire its walking parody
20. What is the major theme prevalent in PI2?
21. Provide a language technique used in the poem with eg.: metaphor ; plait sand,