Continuum - Allen Curnow
Interpretation
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insomnia due to writer’s block
religion/metaphysical
nature
rational versus the irrational
why do we write poetry?
“The moon rolls over the roof and falls behind…” - like the mind rolling aimlessly,
continuum roll - never ending struggle to write.
Fall = negative = failure ?
“or something” - casual ending - can’t be bothered to finish the stanza properly,
incapable of finishing his poem
regular length of stanzas - could reflect monotony/boredom , no possibility of
improvement in the near future BUT no rhyme perhaps shows further failure - poetry
is supposed to rhyme...
enjambment = his wandering thoughts
First 2 lines quite powerful, strong then cut off, inspiration halted, creative ideas
ruined
‘I’m talking about myself’ - destroys the expressiveness - sarcasm about how
pretentious poets can be? Mocking tone?
Curnow uses extremely confusing, jumbled and nonsensical writing throughout the
poem, which symbolises the chaos and disarray of his mind; his inability to form his
thoughts into anything coherent, understanding or rational.
“The night sky empties all its contents down on me…” he is being showered with
inspiration - sarcasm about melodramatic/pretentious poets. Mocking?
Furthermore, when he says ‘it’s not possible to get off to sleep or the subject or the
planet’, he is describing things which literally are impossible to do – one cannot
physically get off to sleep. Perhaps he is being humorously critical of the way in
which poets never simply say what they mean; they instead employ clichés and
metaphors to make things sound more profound.
Power of nature is needed to write poetry.
Concepts of poetry, creation and imagination are all inexplicably linked with nature.
For example, in the second/third stanza, he decides he ‘better barefoot it out the front
door’, which indicates how poets look towards the outdoors and the natural world for
inspiration.
‘Barefoot’ also has connotations of freedom, suggesting how freedom of thought,
thought without constraints, is key to writing poetry.
Written at night - rational world paused.
freedom from the civilised world during the night/dawn provide creative power to
write.
Nature must not be absent nor interfered with, in order for poets to be able to write,
and how imperative its presence is.
Curnow explores the notion of the rational and the irrational world:
equal, regular stanzas and line length = constraining boundaries of the rational world
upon poets.
but the unordered and chaotic writing within this rigid structure represents the
creative ideas and imagination trapped within the boundaries of rational thought.
Moreover, as he goes outside in stanza three, the writing becomes less clearly
structured:
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the stanzas no longer end with completed sentences and full stops
they overflow into the next verse.
may represent the irrationality that nature and the outdoors provides.
The blank verse used could represent the freedom of irrational thought.
The phrase ‘lean from the porch’ is interesting as he isn’t actually stepping off the
porch, as if he cannot escape the limitations of the rational world.
‘Porch’, ‘privets’ and ‘palms’ are all symbolic of the suburban= uniformity and
compartmentalisation. They are symbols of the restraints of the rational world.
The word ‘porch’ = an extra boundary between the house and the outdoors; a
boundary between the house and freedom of thought.
‘Privets’ = hedges, and hedges = boundary, of separation, and to limit our space,
constricting us to one specifically measured area.
‘Palms’ = large, wealthy suburban houses surrounded by imported palm trees that
don’t belong in western neighbourhoods, thus suggesting the way that humanity
yearns for the tropical and exotic, the wonder and mystery of the unknown.
Alliteration in “p” help to link all three together as one idea: that suburbia is
restricting his imagination. It is indeed ‘a dark place’ as he says in the final line of the
stanza.
Metaphysics and religion
explain some of its more obscure lines.
There seems to be the idea of two personas: one being the author and the other being
the human.
For example, he says ‘may depend on the wind’. Only the author can control the
weather and thus write away the wind.
Also, ‘the author…paces me back to bed’. This shows how the author has total
control over the other persona.
The author of a story creates and dictates the life of his character- links with how
religious Curnow was.
Perhaps he is suggesting that God is the ultimate storyteller, the playwright of our
scripts, the poet of our emotions and the author of our actions.
He has control over our lives in the end, no matter how in control we believe we are.
In the line ‘the night sky empties the whole of its contents down’, ‘sky’ connotes the
heavens, thus linking to the notion that God provides his inspiration, that this is where
Curnow’s inspiration, creativity and imagination come from – his faith?
The idea of God writing our lives could support Curnow mocking the whole
pretentious nature of writing poetry – as if poets believe they have the equal extent of
creative genius as God.
Moreover, there are seven stanzas in this poem – one for each day and night of the
creation of the universe. They could represent the six days and nights it took for the
‘demiurge’ (God) to create the universe, with the seventh day as a day for rest.
‘And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.’ Genesis 1:31. ‘And on
the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh
day from all his work which he had made. (Genesis 2:1,2)
In the final stanza the ‘demiurge’ goes ‘back to bed’, just like God taking the final day
(final stanza) for rest.
Furthermore, the line ‘close the door behind on the author, cringing demiurge’ could
perhaps be representative of Curnow shutting the door on being a priest, thus ‘closing
the door on God, ‘the author’.
‘Demiurge’ literally denotes the creator of the universe, so here is one moment where
Curnow may actually be literal.
‘Cringing’ could suggest how the author/God believes Curnow made the wrong
choice (in not being a priest?), maybe Curnow feels he disappointed God?
Alternatively, ‘close the door behind’ could be describing how he closes the door on
the outdoors and nature, thus closing the door on his deep, irrational and poetic self,
because of the limitations of the human, rational world.
Limitations:
 time, (he has to go back to bed before morning, we are all locked into a system
of time by which the entire world operates – a literal restraint of the rational
world),
 temperature, (‘the chill’ he is cold, he has to go back in) and the human
instinct for sleep.
These all result in him losing his creative power. It’s the conflict between two
conflicting personas which we see here:
 One is the imaginative inspired ‘author’ who’s driven by a creative urge.
 The other is that of man, driven by the animal urge to sleep, to go inside.
 The conflicting urges could represent the limitations of the rational world.
Conclusion:
 obscure,
 slightly self-indulgent, as other than the patronising third line, ‘I’m talking
about myself’, he doesn’t attempt to make the poem easy to understand.
 this intentional obscurity serves a purpose in reflecting how the ideas within
the poem are not easy to understand either. The confusing style of writing
seems over-exaggerated in order to slightly mock the nature of poets, himself
included.
 Parallel to religion When you spend time on it becomes clearer and fills you
with clarity and perspective.
 However only people who are willing to spend time and give themselves fully
to this poem/religion will understand the beauty and power of its messages.