Story: Perceptions of the landscape

‘Towards Banks Peninsula’

Denis Glover was one of the writers who came of age in the 1930s and began to explore the meaning and mythology of the land. In this extract from his 1958 poem ‘Towards Banks Peninsula’, he describes a walk from Port Levy to Pigeon Bay. The photo looks across Lyttelton Harbour to Banks Peninsula, echoing Glover’s description of the ‘lava fingers’ of land and the ‘clay balaclava’.

Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero (Denis Glover reads own poems/Reference number T5851 tk4)

Permission to reproduce poem courtesy of the Denis Glover literary estate and Pia Glover.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by Jock Phillips

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Perceptions of the landscape - Landscape and identity: 1930s–1960s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/speech/14405/towards-banks-peninsula (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 24 Sep 2007