You Will Know When You Get There'

You will Know When You Get There
ALLEN CURNOW
Allen was born in Timaru, New Zealand. He
taught English in the age of 39 at Auckland
University till the age of 65. At St John’s
Theological College (1931 - 1933) he published
his first poems. He also contributed to the Caxton
Press where he submitted some of his other
poems.
What the inspiration was for his poems:
His categorisation as a "national" or "regional"

poet was, in fact, misleading; his poems were
Allen Curnow (1911 - 2001) "New Zealand" poems because that happened to
be the place he knew best.
You will Know When You Get There
ALLEN CURNOW
Nobody comes up from the sea as late as this is a hesitancy of the earth rolling back and away
in the day and the season, and nobody else goes down behind this man going down to the sea with a bag
the last steep kilometre, wet-metalled where to pick mussels, having an arrangement with the tide,
a shower passed shredding the light which keeps the ocean to be swallowed three point seven metres,
pouring out of its tank in the sky, through summits, one hour’s light to be left, and there’s the excrescent
trees, vapours thickening and thinning. Too moon sponging off the last of it. A door
credibly by half celestial, the dammed slams, a heavy wave, a door, the sea-floor shudders.
reservoir up there keeps emptying while the light lasts Down you go alone, so late, into the surge-black
fissure.
over the sea, where it ‘gathers the gold against
it’.The light is bits of crushed rock randomly
glinting underfoot, wetted by the short

shower, and down you go and so in its way does
the sun which gets there first. Boys, two of them,

turn campfirelit faces, a hesitancy to speak
Summary of the Poem
You Will Know When You Get There will be seen to possess a unity of mood and purpose, but Curnow has
not called it a ‘sequence’ – perhaps wishing to leave these poems distinct and the unity to take care of itself.
The book includes two long poems, each arising from a deepened sense of human fate, sustained by irony and
wit. In one of these he finds a ‘fellow being’ in the career and times of the historical Dr Rayner, of Auckland;
the other enacts a funeral rite, the movements of a dance in which life and death, fable and fact, are the
partners.Shorter poems, no less than the long ones, reveal an unslackened attention to his world and to the
possibilities of poetic form. The New Zealand perspectives are as unmistakable as ever, yet everything here is
precisely and purposefully charted – a beach at Karekare or in Sicily, an embassy party in Washington, a
windy autumn in Auckland or a wet summer in Paris. Readers of a widely admired poet welcome this
testimony to the force of his mind and the resources of his art.
Sentence 1 (3 Stanzas)
In the first stanza ‘Nobody comes up from the sea…’ it tries to show that no one would dare to venture out the
sea late in the day so that means no one will sink.
In the second stanza ‘the last steep kilometre…’ it is saying that at the last few kilometres of the sea where it is
rough, ‘a shower passed...’ which might mean that there was a storm and the poet is trying to get out of this
storm
In the third stanza ‘pouring out of its…’ the storm as mentioned before is getting more worse and more worse as
time carries on.
Sentence 2 & 3 (3.5 Stanzas)
In the fourth stanza ‘ Too credibly…’ it says the reservoir keeps emptying which must mean that the reservoir
also gets filled up by the storm
In the fifth stanza ‘over the sea…’ it might mean that the sunshine is reflecting from the sea, so it has the gold
colour.
In the sixth stanza ‘glinting underfoot…’ the rocks and the environment are all covered by the sunshine and then
a ‘short shower’ which might mean a drizzle occured in the ground.
In the seventh stanza ‘...the sun which gets there first.’ whihc means that when you are travelling in the sea, the
sun will shine the entire area before you can travel far enough.
Sentence 4(4 stanzas)
In the seventh and eighth stanza ‘Boys, two of…’ which might mean that the two boys mentioned in the poem,
are scared of what awaits them as they are doing a task which is collecting mussels and when they saw out on
the sea they were terrified of what might happen to them.
In the ninth stanza ‘having arrangement…’ it might mean that the tide wasn’t as terrible so it was shallowed.
In the tenth stanza ‘one hour’s…’ it means that night time is arriving and it is growing bigger and bigger every
second
Sentence 5(1 stanza)
In the last stanza ‘slams, a heavy…’ shows that suddenly a wave came out of nowhere and caused destruction
and you go deep down in the the narrow chasm all alone.
Language
Imagery - There are many examples of Structure - The poem is shown to be in
imagery in this poem such as couplets except for the final stanza which
includes 3 lines.The sentences don’t end
‘a shower passed shredding the light at the end of a stanza. The poem has 5
which keeps pouring out of its tank in the sentences which have been divided into
sky’ 11 stanzas.
‘’...and there’s an excrescent moon
sponging off the last of it.’
Themes - One theme could be that you have to get through life’s difficulties until you finally
reach your goal.
Sources
https://www.poemhunter.com/allen-curnow/biography/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1358269/Allen-Curnow.html
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/allen-curnow
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/26188129?q&versionId=31534085
https://www.google.com
https://thefoxandtheraven.deviantart.com/art/Walking-Away-270000577
Group 2 Members
Ismail Shariff
Malaika Chokhandiwala
Nazeera Van Zyl
Shiham Rahman

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You will Know When You Get There

What the inspiration was for his poems:

His categorisation as a "national" or "regional"

glinting underfoot, wetted by the short

the sun which gets there first. Boys, two of them,

Nazeera Van Zyl

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