S L A N G E D
by
Michael Small
Slanged is the author’s fifth full-length work. Early in 2003, I tried my hand at writing a poem in what I imagined to be the slang of the convicts who came to Australia in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The result was ‘Thirteen Vandemonian Woodcuts’, which eventually made the short list of ‘Westerly’. My second attempt, ‘The Crossing of Alexander Pearce’, was published by LiNQ in Queensland. Almost a year later, having written a handful of other poems in more conventional vein, I found myself gravitating back towards the convict theme and with gathering enthusiasm wrote a further twenty-one poems in six months in different voices and diverse styles. Now truly steeped in the project, I delved further into the underground slang spoken amongst the criminal classes in London in the early eighteenth century. Consequently, these first poems set in Britain should provide a fascinating background to the arrival of the First Fleet (‘Such A Riot And Rumpus’), for the pieces in this collection are arranged chronologically from about 1720 in London to the1860s in Williamstown, Victoria. Therefore I have endeavoured, thanks to the meticulously detailed 12-volume Oxford Dictionary and Eric Partridge’s ‘A Dictionary of Slang’, to make use of the language of the particular time in which each poem takes place.
Although I have conscientiously researched the historical setting and the lives of the historical personages who inhabit these pieces, my main purpose was to savour – indeed, preserve – the fresh and vivid imagery expressed in the stoical irony of defiance. Consequently, these convict stories may be grim, but the vigour and humour of their language is something to marvel at in the face of shocking adversity.
Nevertheless, the language used in these poems may at times seem difficult to comprehend, though I trust that the context will help to clarify the meaning. Sometimes I have employed the earlier eighteenth or nineteenth century spelling. In addition, I hope that the physical shape and sounds of a somewhat archaic lexicon will afford the reader some pleasure in themselves. In the early days of writing these pieces, I was gratified to discover Don Watson’s critique Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language, which chimed with my notion to find a ‘fresh’ diction to resuscitate metaphor from the dross of cliché.
I began my writing career in earnest in 1972, soon after emigrating from England. My first two short stories were published in ‘The Sun-News Pictorial’ Short Story Competition in 1973 and 1974. My first collection of short stories was published by Tamarillo Publishing in 1988 under the title of Her Natural Life and Other Stories. I resumed writing poetry in 1990 and have had many pieces published in Australia, Canada, England, India and the United States. My other books are as follows: Films: A Resource Book for Studying Film as Text’ with Brian Keyte, published by Longman Cheshire; Unleashed: A History of Footscray Football Club with John Lack, Chris McConville and Damien Wright, published by Aus Sport Enterprises, 1996; and Urangeline: Voices of Carey 1923 - 1997, published by Playwright Publishing, 1997.
As teacher of English, I have worked in England, Sweden, Canada and Australia. Currently, I reside in Melbourne, Australia.
I hope that you enjoy at least some of the pieces in Slanged.
Michael Small
August, 2009
