POETS CORNER

 

For many years, residents have used the term ‘Poets’ Corner’ to describe places in Elwood.  But where exactly is Poets’ Corner?  The original ‘Poets’ Corner’ is actually in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, London.  It houses British poets laid to rest over many centuries, starting with Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400), as well as memorials to other poets, authors, actors and musicians.  Many of these poets are also immortalised in the street names of leafy Elwood, particularly around the poetic triangle of Glenhuntly, Tennyson and Barkly Streets.  Street names here include English and some Australian poets including, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dryden, Browning, Ruskin, Milton, Addison, Cowper, Spenser, Thackeray, Southey, Lindsay, Byron, Goldsmith, Scott, Shelley, Rosetti, Keats, Meredith, Coleridge, Burns, Mason and Dickens, Bronte, Marlowe, Daley, Gordon and Lawson.   

Perhaps the name stems from ‘Poets’ Corner Reserve’ painted by Elizabeth Parson in about 1885 (see rear cover).  Today this green wedge (Dawkins Reserve) is located at the corner of Broadway, Milton and Goldsmith Streets, Elwood.  An Art Deco block of flats (1939)at 38 Mitford Street is also named ‘Poets’ Corner.’  It just into the intersection of Southey and Mitford Streets like the prow of a great liner.  The poet, Edward George Dyson (1865-1931), lived opposite.  For some residents, this intersection is the real ‘Poets’ Corner’.  The most likely inspiration for the poetic street theme is the name of the suburb itself as Thomas Ellwood was both poet and secretary to the bard John Milton, author of ‘Paradise Lost’