Ever since memorizing ‘The Chiffonier’ for a speech and drama exam I’ve respected Adcock. Born in Papakura, the sister of writer Marilyn Duckworth. Educated in Britain and New Zealand, married to the poet Alistair Campbell and, later, to the infamous Barry Crump, she has had an undeniably eventful life.
After several decades of consistently powerful writing, and three years’ drought (while giving up smoking), Adcock has recently been awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry. Her work ranges from the cutting wit of ‘Smokers for Celibacy’ to the chilling science fiction poem ‘Gas’, to the famously direct ‘Against Coupling’. Not concerned with visually experimental poetry, Adcock’s writing reveals its strength in her skilful control of rhythm, rhyme and stanza, her clever use of observation, and her famous knack of capturing the anti-erotic in everyday relationships.
[ssba]
About the Author (Author Profile)
Salient is a magazine. Salient is a website. Salient is an institution founded in 1938 to cater to the whim and fancy of students of Victoria University. We are partly funded by VUWSA and partly by gold bullion that was discovered under a pile of old Salients from the 40's. Salient welcomes your participation in debate on all the issues that we present to you, and if you're a student of Victoria University then you're more than welcome to drop in and have tea and scones with the contributors of this little rag in our little hideaway that overlooks Wellington.Comments (1)
Subscribe
If you liked this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
i read the poem ‘the chiffonier ‘ without knowing who wrote it. by the time i reached the last stanza i had a catch in my throat and by the time i read the last 2 lines my eyes were brimming over with tears. it tuged my heart strings unlike any other poem.
dispite the seemingly informal conversational tone of the poem its rhyme and metre together with the memory and experience of womenkind does what many poems are unable to do – that is to share what most women will feel.