“Hark, hark, the dogs do bark”: Is Children’s Poetry Threatening Janet Frame in An Autobiography?

Janet Frame is best remembered as a novelist and autobiographer even though she has also published two collections of poems, The Pocket Mirror being the most notorious: “When compared to her uncanny novels and compelling short stories, these works are relatively flat.” (Tinkler 108) Although her poetry is frowned on by critics, her works of fiction are often interrupted by verses, sometimes nonsensical like at the end of A State of Siege, and more often than not included whimsically (Living i...