The "Bounty" story
p. 99 · Read in the full issue
in blank verse
The Pacific’s most famous story, The mutiny on the Bounty has been turned into a film on four different occasions. It has been depicted on the stage. It has provided several novelists with profitable themes. And it has been the subject of countless factual books and articles.
But it is only now that an epic poem has been made of it.
The poet is Dr. I. M. Couper, a Scot, who came to Australia in 1951 and now holds the post of Senior Lecturer in English at Macquarie University, Sydney.
Dr. Couper’s poem, called The Book of Bligh, runs to 88 pages of blank verse. Here is a sample: Bligh eyed his men in the bowels [of the boat, their scattered dumb despair, their limbs and [other limbs at odds, all comfortless, like [slag of shale or slate askew, slid into a [quarry on Exmoor where the brisk Roman traders [came, so smart, their galleys below in the bay, but [now neglect oozes and festers no better than [dough in the rain.