On 'Remittances' from England: Judith Wright: Those 'Aunts in the close' and the 'Remittance Man'

Abstract

In her early poem 'Remittance Man' (included in her first collection, 'The Moving Image, 1946), Judith Wright causes her hero to recall one aspect of the life left behind in England, his formal and respectable relatives -"The spendthrift, disinherited and graceless, accepted his pittance with an easy air, only surprised he could escape so simply from the pheasant shooting and the aunts in the close." (11.1-4)From there on the poem is largely concerned with Australia, apart from the glances back to 'the country ball' (1.16), 'the nursery window' (1.19) and 'the squire his brother' (1.22), who vaguely regrets the reported passing of his younger brother. Most readers of the poem have felt the phrase 'the aunts in the close' to be vaguely felicitous, but have left the association there.