He once allegedly used the floor of parliament to tell Australia's second prime minister, Alfred Deakin, that "at least Judas had the decency to hang himself!" resulting in cries of "dreadful! dreadful!" from the speaker of the house who collapsed in shock, and died, never regaining consciouness.
Her recollections of that awful December remain vivid: her father's dreadful sobs as he cried out like a wounded animal; my grandmother lying in the bed her son woke up in that morning, placing her head in the Vitalis-stained imprint still fresh on the pillow; and the rainstorm that flooded Uncle Paul's grave before the coffin could be lowered and covered in soil.
In "1964", a series of vignettes from the poet's childhood, we're confronted by "a fox / nailed to a fence-post: the tricked god / hanging from his wounds"; boys scrap viciously among the graves in the kirkyard; and cats cry in "that dreadful way they have, / like the sound of babies singing / lullabies to other babies".
The eventful second half was a far cry from a dreadful opening 45 minutes, which was devoid of action and flouted its billing as entertainment in front of a crowd of more than 82,000.
"He laughs at me in such a dreadful way sometimes, until I am crying & trembling with terror".
'F***, f***, that's dreadful.' I think she might be crying.
Already I was heartbroken; here was a gentleman who was crying for help and enduring a dreadful way of life – one he certainly didn't sign up for.
When he heard the dreadful word, he emitted a shrill, heart-rending cry of despair, looked around him, as though eagerly seeking something, then turned to flee and rushed with outspread arms against a wall of the court, writhing, and scratching it as though trying to force an entrance between the stones, like a [polyp] clinging to a rock.
And she said: 'Thank God you're there.'" "Then I went out on Sunday and got the Observer and there was their epitaph … I went to a friend's house and rang a friend and we were both crying on the phone saying 'what a dreadful, dreadful waste, what a dreadful thing'".
And please try not to cry, as it will set everyone off and make an already dreadful event even worse".
