Hugh
Tolhurst was born in
Melbourne. Educated at Carey Grammar, Taylor’s College and at
Deakin
University and the University of Melbourne. Although his academic
studies have involved reading English Literature and Philosophy, he has
a strong interest in Ancient History, particularly military history; he
became the Australian champion of ancient miniature wargaming at the
age of sixteen. His poetry has appeared in newspapers and in Australian
and American literary journals in the 1990s and on. In that time he has
worked as a bookseller, a bindery hand, a fundraiser, a proofreader and
a supermarket shelf-stacker. In 2004 he was the recipient of an
Australia Council grant to write full-time. He has also also been the
recipient of an Australia Council Skills and Arts Development overseas
studio residency grant, once in 2001 for Rome and in 2006 for the
Cité
Internationale des Arts in Paris.
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Author - Filth & Other Poems
(From
Artery,
9 July 1997)
You live in a kind of appropriate area for a poet. I looked up your
address in the Melways, and you’re surrounded by Milton St,
Byron St…
Yeah, I
haven’t lived this close to
the poet streets for a while. I’ve never lived in one. I
looked for a
flat in Byron Street once. There’s a poem in the book that
has about
three of the names of these streets in it.
Did the love of poetry and the desire to write inspire you to study
literature at Melbourne University, or was it the other way around?
I guess writing came
first. I think I
study because it feeds the writing. I just like the way it makes your
brain tick over. When you sit down to write poetry you’re
used to
playing around with ideas.
Have you studied much poetry as part of the course?
I guess, although my
readings of
modern poets tend to be outside the course, because it takes a while
for the university to catch up. If you want to study people who have
written in the last twenty years you do it privately. There are very
few poets on courses at university that are alive.
It would be interesting to consider the potential scenario if the
author you were studying could be invited to the lectures on their
work…
That sometimes happens
with
novelists. But a lot of contemporary poets are set as secondary texts.
The likes of Forbes and Tranter are secondary VCE English, or whatever
the New South Wales equivalent is, and presumably they go to schools
and read occasionally.
I guess that would allow you to respond directly to an author if you
liked, or even didn’t like their work.
Actually, I know a poet
called
Dimitris Tsaloumas who’s just been set on the VCE here.
He’s been
complaining about getting lots of letters from students.
There’s one
poem called ‘Antigone’ which mentions a pub, but
they couldn’t
understand how a poem set in classical Greece could mention a pub,
because they didn’t have pubs in those days. Dimitris
wasn’t going to
tell them.
Have you ever been asked to explain your poetry?
Oh, I guess it happens.
I sometimes
get asked by friends, in which case I might do it, but generally the
answer is that it’s not the poet’s job to tell you
what it’s about.
Perhaps if it needs to be explained, the poet hasn’t done a
good job?
Well, I like fairly
clear, direct
poetry, but I think very often a poet might use an enigmatic line as an
effect and that’s totally legitimate. But to explain it would
spoil the
whole nature of the poetic effect. It might even be a completely
irrational line. Somehow or another you might chance on a particular
conjunction of words. It may not have an explicit meaning, but it works
and if it works, it’s good.
The section of
Filth…
called
Horse Lyrics was a poetic response to the Dirty Three album
Horse Stories. Had
you had any
previous connection with the band prior to writing those poems?
Well, I’d seen
them perform and I had
their CD but otherwise, no. Basically I just had the idea to write some
poems to the music. I was actually having a party - I was meant to be
cleaning up the house but I got on the typewriter for four or five
hours with the CD blaring. The next day when I had the hangover I got
back on the typewriter and finished the job. So they were written in a
fairly short space of time. Once I had the idea it was just a matter of
getting them down.
And then you presented them to the band?
The next time they were
in town I
went along to the soundcheck and said ‘I like your music and
I wrote
some poems about it.’ They were really nice, they put me on
the door
for the next night. About six weeks later I got a phone call from
Warren Ellis and he came along to see me at the Barwon Club. It just so
happened that months later there was a Canadian film crew in town and
they liked the music too. Someone told them about the poems and they
contacted Shock Records and I was asked to stand in more or less for
the band as part of this Canadian special on Australian music.
Admittedly I got the job because the band were out of town but they
filmed me reading the poems to the music at Flinders Street Station. It
was fun.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m reading
some poetry for an essay
I’m writing at the moment. I’m reading on the
poetry of Ernest Dowson,
who wrote the immortal line ‘They were not long the days of
wine and
roses’, and Arthur Symons, who was a music hall
reviewer involved
with various dancers, actors and snake-charmers. Their poetry concerns
itself, in Dowson’s case, with alcohol and whores and in
Symon’s case,
alcohol, ballet dancers and actors.
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Biography