Continuum by Allen Curnow
Background : Allen Curnow was one of New Zealand’s most celebrated poets. He died in 2001 and
once said that some of his poetry tried to explore “the private and unanswerable”.
Vocabulary: try to match each word from the poem with its definition
Word
Query
unaccountable
Planking
Demiurge
litter
underfoot
stealthily
Meaning
1) Unpredictable and strange 2) not responsible for results or consequences
A question expressing doubt or requiring information
Cautiously, surreptitiously, so as not to be seen or heard
1) Garbage 2) an untidy collection of things lying around
Planks (of wood) used for flooring or as part of a boat
1) Creator or Maker of the world 2) a craftsman working steadily at his
trade for the use of the public.
1) Under one’s feet 2) constantly present and in the way
Introductory Activities
1) Dramatic reading: In groups of three, break up the poem as if you were doing a Word for
Word reading of it. One member of the group will start reading and the next person will
continue when you feel the “voice”/idea/urge changes in the poem or where there is a
switch of some kind. You may break it up as you see fit, there is no one way to do this. Be
ready to present and justify your interpretation of the different “voices” .
2) Listen: go to http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=134
Follow the link and listen to Allen Curnow reading his own poem.
3) Write a short summary of what you think the poem is about.
Close study of the poem
Stanzas 1 &2
1) Consider the mood of the first two stanzas. What adjectives can you provide to describe it?
Justify with quotes.
2) What are your first impressions of the speaker of the poem?
3) There is a personification in Stanza 1. What does it reveal? What does the speaker’s
identification with the moon reveal about him?
4) What do you think about the meaning and effects created by sound in the phrase “better
barefoot it out…”? What is he trying to escape from?
5) What is the speaker’s main “problem” in Stanza 2?
Stanzas 3&4
6) What is the technique being used by Curnow in the beginning of the 3rd and 4th Stanzas?
Why do you think he did this? Read lines 6-7 and 9-10 and listen carefully. What is the
effect of this technique?
7) Make a list of what the man actually does from the beginning of the poem to the end of
Stanza 3.
8) What interpretation can you give for the “washed-out creation” and “a dark place” that the
speaker sees? What do these descriptions reveal about the speaker’s mood?
9) a) The speaker observes the two clouds in the sky and says “one’s mine/the other’s an
adversary”. Why is one cloud his and in what way?
The word adversary is defined as: 1) opponent in a contest or conflict, 2) a force that
opposes or attacks, 3) enemy.
b) Which of these meanings do you feel is the most suitable here and why?
Stanzas 5, 6 &7
10) What indications are there that the poem is about the difficulty of writing a poem?
Explore the following quotations and do a mini PQC on them using the question above as
your prompt:
“A long moment stretches, the next one is not/on time”
“Not unaccountably the chill of/the planking underfoot rises/in the throat,”
“…for its part the night sky empties/the whole of its contents down”
11) What is the “night sky’s” part in all of this?
Stanza 7
12) In the last stanza of this poem, who does the speaker seem to be describing? Can you give
an adjective to qualify the way in which he does this?
13) What is the action performed on the person described?
14) Pick out the words the speaker uses to describe the author and comment on their effects.
Go back to the beginning of this worksheet and look at the different meanings of the word
“demiurge”.
15) Why is he “cringing” line 19?
16) Consider the following phrases and try to define and comment upon them:
“his litter and his tools”-what is this?
“stealthily in step”-what does this suggest about the poet’s state of mind? (look back at the
beginning of the worksheet at the definition of the word “stealthily”)
17) Who is the speaker observing throughout the poem? Go back to Stanza 1 and look back at
the personification and speaker’s identification with the moon. What can you add to these
ideas now that you have read the whole poem?
Go back to the Introductory Activities done on the poem and look at your answer to Question 3
(sort summary of what the poem is about). Would you change what you wrote now that you
have studied the poem in greater depth? Can you add to what you said before?
Structure and Meaning
1) Look at the structure of the poem. How would you describe it? Can you make a connection
between the structure and the meaning? Consider the use of enjambment in your answer.
Interpretations
1) There is a strong idea of conflict in the poem. Can you identify different elements
conflicting?
2) Look at the title of the poem. Can you suggest how the title is linked with the ideas,
struggles, conflicts in the poem?
Links with other poems
What thematic links can you make between Continuum and some of the other poems on the
program? Justify your answer.
Exam practice: How does Allen Curnow vividly portray the difficulty of the creative process in his
poem “Continuum”? Support your ideas with details from the poem.
*Sources: Cambridge International Examinations Website www.cie.org
Oxford English Dictionary
www.poetryarchive.org