Allen Curnow was a celebrated New Zealand poet who explored private and unanswerable themes in his work. In his poem "Continuum", a man is unable to sleep and looks out at the night sky from his porch, seeing it as a "washed-out creation" and "dark place". He observes two clouds, perceiving one as his and the other as his "adversary", suggesting a sense of internal conflict or opposition within himself.

1. CONTINUUM

2. Background
• Allen Curnow was one of New Zealand’s most
celebrated poets. He died in 2001 at the age
of ninety. He once said that some of his poetry
tried to explore ‘the private and
unanswerable’.

3. Personification
• The second and third stanzas capture a certain
restlessness and the man’s inability to sleep or
‘think thoughts’. From his porch he looks
across the privets and palms of his garden at
the night sky, ‘a washed-out creation’- ‘a dark
place’. Both of these phrases have
metaphorical associations as well as literal
meaning.

4. • He observes two clouds: ‘one’s mine / the
other’s an adversary’. Why is one cloud his,
and in what way? In respect of the other
cloud, dictionary definitions of ‘adversary’ are
helpful: ‘opponent in a contest or conflict’, a
force that opposes or attacks’, ‘enemy’. Which
of these meanings do they feel is more
suitable here, and why?