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Chapter 1 Douglas Stewart CHAPTER 1 DOUGLAS STEWART: THE EARLY YEARS 1925-1938 Throughout the many scholarly works that focus on Stewart’s place in Australian literature, the word that recurs in respect of Douglas Stewart’s creative work is ‘versatile’. One of its first appearances is in Nancy Keesing’s Douglas Stewart, which begins with the precise statement: ‘Douglas Stewart is the most versatile writer in Australia today ⎯ perhaps the most versatile who ever lived in this country. He is a poet whose poetry and nature as a poet are central to everything in which he excels’.93 Stewart was not only a poet whose early philosophy that the closer one moves towards nature the closer one moves towards the spirit of the earth, developed as a line of continuity which contributed to his total philosophy; this chapter focuses on Stewart’s life and poetic ambition in New Zealand until his move to Australia as an expatriate in 1938. As a mature poet he was then concerned to apply this pantheism to modern responses regarding humans and their experiences. The purpose of the introductory part of this chapter is to clarify the theme of the dissertation ⎯ Douglas Stewart’s creative impulse; the second part involves a discussion of the poet’s visit to England where he met poets Powys and Blunden. At this time he also journeyed to his ancestral home in Scotland. Upon his return to Australia in 1938 he was offered a position with Cecil Mann at the Bulletin. Stewart was also a distinguished verse dramatist, a successful editor, particularly of the Red Page of the Bulletin from 1940 to 1960,94 and a participant of some repute in journalism and publishing. Some of his literary criticism was published in two volumes: The Flesh and 93 Keesing, N., op. cit., p. 3. 94 Ballyn, S., and Doyle, J., Douglas Stewart: A Bibliography, Goanna Print, Canberra, 1996, p. l. 35 the Spirit: An Outlook on Literature95 and The Broad Stream96, following which he has written and published three autobiographical works: Springtime in Taranaki,97 The Seven Rivers,98 and Fishing around the Monaro99. His diary, Douglas Stewart’s Garden of Friends,100 was published posthumously by his daughter, Meg Stewart. The autobiographies enlighten the reader about the impulse behind much of the poetry. At the same time, it is from the poetry itself, and Letters Lifted into Poetry (1946-1979),101 that Stewart’s personal philosophy is evinced. Stewart’s preference for ‘impulse’ over ‘stimulus’ is influenced by R.D. FitzGerald, who admits in his essay that he admires Stewart’s sizeable literary output as well as its ‘unremitting quality’ in a life-long effort to show his readers ‘our own world ⎯ to which we are largely blind ⎯ and also, indeed, ourselves’.102 FitzGerald recognises the many sides to Stewart’s work and views this work ‘within the outer framework of its versatility’. His definition has been extremely helpful: This versatility is of the utmost importance when considering the matter of motif ⎯ by which is meant the impulse behind theme, the directive force that develops the thought in a poem. Motif, although not necessarily or entirely the reason why a particular theme may have been chosen by the writer, is yet the reason why the chosen theme takes the shape it does; it brings the poem from an arbitrary beginning to an end determined by the temperament or cast of mind of the author himself”.103 So, ‘impulse’ is the force that develops creative thought, and this is the reason for choosing this term instead of ‘stimulus’, which is more generally understood as an incentive, an enticement, that provokes the poet into action but does not necessarily develop his creative 95 Stewart, D., The Flesh and the Spirit: An Outlook on Literature, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1948. 96 Stewart, D., The Broad Stream: Aspects of Australian Literature, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1975. 97 ________ , Springtime in Taranaki:An Autobiography of Youth, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1983. Note. All References to Springtime in Taranaki: An Autobiography of Youth appear as (S.T.). 98 _________, The Seven Rivers, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1966. 99 _________, Fishing around the Monaro,1966, reprinted from The Seven Rivers, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1978. 100 _________, Douglas Stewart’s Garden of Friends, Penguin, Ringwood, 1987. 101 Persse, J., editor, Letters Lifted into Poetry (1946-1979), National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2006. 102 FitzGerald, R.D., op. cit., 1963, p. 26. Reprinted in Considerations, ed. B. Kiernan, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1977, pp. 143-168. 103 ibid, p. 144. 36 thought. With the idea of this meaning of ‘impulse’ in mind and the way it affects creative thought, ‘Douglas Stewart: The Early Years’, follows this line of thinking and the poet’s observation of images of the New Zealand landscape. Stewart develops its colours and moods, symbolism, mysticism and spirituality ⎯ as well as metaphysical, sometimes surreal descriptions that are often Romantically inclined in his early poems, in keeping with the poetry of past masters such as Yeats and Wordsworth. As with his later poems, when considered together they constitute the framework of a philosophy of mysticism,104 even though, as Brian Kiernan says in his introduction to Considerations, ‘Instead of asserting a philosophy they ironically and teasingly raise issues of the significance of life.’105 Stewart’s philosophy is a personal philosophy that promotes the idea that mankind and nature are one, comprising the spirit of the earth. Notable biographical accounts of Douglas Stewart’s literary achievement as well as important and interesting parts of his life have been included in books and essays of literary criticism by Nancy Keesing, Clement Semmler and David McCooey. In Douglas Stewart: Australian Writers and their Work,106 Keesing includes a short biography, but as a friend and colleague of Stewart, she was mainly interested in discussing his creative work, so her biography is short and factual. This is understandable, especially as it was written as an appreciation before she had the advantage of Stewart’s autobiographical works. Clement Semmler begins Douglas Stewart with a biographical sketch before launching into an appreciation of Stewart’s literary works.107 Although Stewart and Semmler were friends, the introductory biographical account follows the pattern set by Keesing, whereas David 104 Semmler, C., Douglas Stewart, Twayne Publishers, New York, 1974. 105 Kiernan, B., ed., Considerations, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1977, p. xx. 106 Keesing, N., op. cit., 1969. 107 Semmler, C., op. cit., 1974. 37 McCooey’s essay written in 2002, ‘Douglas Stewart 1913-1985’,108 had the advantage of Stewart’s autobiographical works as a guide, so he is able to enlarge and develop the works of Keesing and Semmler. However, it is through Stewart’s own tales of his life and creative works that a considerable wealth of information emerges and contributes to a greater understanding of his work as a whole. In The Uncertain Self, Harry Heseltine argues ‘That the accomplishments of Australian literary prose have broadened as well as deepened during the past two decades is attested by the new excellence discovered in autobiography’.109 Earlier autobiographies in Australia, ‘either exist in isolation or retain interest chiefly as a social observation’. Since the 1950s, there has been ‘an abundant and continuing harvest’.110 As well as referring to Alan Marshall’s I Can Jump Puddles, (1955), and This is the Grass, (1962), as important works of the period under discussion, Heseltine cites other recent autobiographies such as those of Douglas Stewart111. He also mentions Katherine Susannah Prichard,112 Martin Boyd,113 and Colin MacInnes,114 all of whom ‘write with the assurance that Australian life has become dense enough to make an account of growing up worth telling for its own sake, as well as for its representative quality’.115 Donald Horne,116 and Hal Porter117 are also mentioned as two autobiographers whose work is worthy of praise. Stewart’s love of fishing in both New Zealand and Australia is the subject of the ‘Foreword’ to The Seven Rivers: Though there is a chapter about swordfish in this book, another about snapper, and 108 McCooey, D., ‘Douglas Stewart 1913-1985’, Australian Writers, 1915-1985, S. Samuels, editor, Gale Group, Detroit, 2002, pp. 355-366. 109 Heseltine, H., The Uncertain Self, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1986. 110 ibid, p. 19. 111 Stewart, D., op. cit., 1983. An Imprint Lives edition was published by Collins Angus & Robertson Sydney, 1991. References throughout this thesis are to this publication. 112 Prichard, Child of the Hurricane,Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1963. 113 Boyd, M., Day of My Delight, Lansdowne, Melbourne, 1965. 114 MacInnes, C., To the Victors the Spoils, MacGibbon and Kee, London, 1950. 115 Heseltine, op cit., 1986, p. 19. 116 Horne, D., The Education of Young Donald, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1967. 117 Porter, H., The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony, Faber, London, 1963,. 38 even a piece about pig-hunting, it is mostly a book about trout-fishing in Australia and New Zealand, and mostly meant for fishermen. It contains very little expert advice, for I don’t claim to be an expert. I wrote it simply for the pleasure of going fishing again in retrospect along my favourite rivers. It is also perhaps a kind of nature book, since you do meet a lot of interesting birds, beasts, bugs, and human beings when you are walking up the trout streams; and it is also a kind of autobiography … but only of those parts of my life which I consider really important and significant, such as catching a lot of kahawai at Kawhia, or losing that ten-pounder in the Badja.118 In his memoir of fishing, Stewart suggests that subjects of his observation of the natural world contribute to his creative impulse; that is, the natural world he describes here in 1966 is a clear statement of his total philosophy that there is a spiritual relationship with nature if one seeks it, as he does throughout this thesis.
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