Remittance Man (poem)

{{Short description|Poem by Judith Wright}} {{Use Australian English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox poem |name = "Remittance Man" |image = |image_size = |caption = |subtitle = |author = Judith Wright |original_title = |original_title_lang = |translator = |written = |first = |illustrator = |cover_artist = |country = Australia |language = English |series = |subject = |genre = |form = |meter = |rhyme = |publisher = ''The Bulletin'', 15 March 1944 |publication_date = 1944 |publication_date_en = |media_type = |lines = |pages = |size_weight = |isbn = |oclc = |preceded_by = |followed_by = |wikisource = }}

"'''Remittance Man'''" is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright.<ref name=Austlit>{{cite web|title= "Remittance Man" by Judith Wright|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C15995|access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref>

It was first published in ''The Bulletin'' on 15 March 1944<ref>{{cite web|title="Remittance Man" |publisher= The Bulletin, 15 March 1944, p4|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-535264395 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> and later in several of the author's poetry collections and a number of other Australian poetry anthologies.

==Outline==

The "remittance man" of the title has been disgraced in Britain and sent by his family to make a new life in Australia. There he would receive a regular payment from the family back home. This will be enough to feed him though he will have to keep seeking casual employment to ensure he lives in some sort of comfort.

==Critical reception==

While reviewing the poet's collection ''A Human Pattern : Selected Poems'' critic Beverley Brahic commented that "As Heaney reveals rural Northern Ireland to us, so Wright trains her refreshingly flinty eye on the settlers of rural Australia. 'Remittance Man' is not Heaneyesque in its irony or in its way of telling rather than evoking with sensuous detail and rich music, but it too delineates the contours of life in a place most people who aren't natives of that place don't think much about. These poems with their laconic jibes have an anvil ring of truth".<ref>{{cite web|title="A Human Pattern: Selected Poems" |publisher= Poetry, Vol 197, Issue 5 (Feb 2011)|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/855743940|access-date= 28 December 2024|id= {{ProQuest|855743940}}}}</ref>

In his commentary on the poem in ''60 Classic Australian Poems'' Geoff Page noted "At one level it is simply a character sketch of someone she knew about. At another, it is a microcosm of how British 'settlers' came to terms emotionally with Australian landscapes."<ref>''60 Classic Australian Poems'' edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp 104-106</ref>

==Further publications== After its initial publication in ''The Bulletin'' in 1944, the poem was reprinted as follows:

* ''The Moving Image'' by Judith Wright, Meanjin Press, 1946 * ''Five Senses : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Five Senses : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1805955 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''Judith Wright : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Judith Wright : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3078867 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''Silence Into Song : An Anthology of Australian Verse'' edited by Clifford O'Brien, Rigby, 1968<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Silence Into Song : An Anthology of Australian Verse'' edited by Clifford O'Brien |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2092703|access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''Australian Kaleidoscope'' edited by Barbara Ker Wilson, Collins, 1968<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Australian Kaleidoscope'' edited by Barbara Ker Wilson, Collins |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2544945|access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''Judith Wright : Collected Poems 1942-1970'' by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1971<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Judith Wright : Collected Poems 1942-1970'' by Judith Wright|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2655308 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''A Human Pattern : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1990<ref>{{cite web|title= ''A Human Pattern : Selected Poems'' by Judith Wright|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1377981 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''A Treasury of Bush Verse'' edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991<ref>{{cite web|title= ''A Treasury of Bush Verse'' edited by G. A. Wilkes |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3007113|access-date= 2 March 2026}}</ref> * ''Collected Poems 1942-1985'' by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1994<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Collected Poems 1942-1985'' by Judith Wright|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/24297 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now'' edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2006<ref>{{cite web|title= ''80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now'' edited by Geoff Page |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3663628 |access-date= 28 December 2024}}</ref> * ''60 Classic Australian Poems'' edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009<ref>{{cite web|title= ''60 Classic Australian Poems'' edited by Geoff Page |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4462573|access-date= 23 December 2024}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Remittance Man}} Category:Poetry by Judith Wright Category:1944 poems