image of person or book cover 4714312089066691706.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Infernal Topographies selected work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 Infernal Topographies
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The infernal topographies of the title are more psychological than geographical, though physical travel and the infusing of the past into the present are also at issue. Driven in part by the anxieties of time and mortality that have always been at the root of lyric, these poems are also shaped by the pressure of the likely collapse of the current social order, and by impending and current extinctions. Weaving the domestic, the oneiric and the outside worlds, these are poems that try to find a place from which to speak and think when so much seems to be ending.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Carlton, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Melbourne University Press , 2020 .
      image of person or book cover 4714312089066691706.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 100p.
      Note/s:
      • Published April 2020
      ISBN: 9781760801205

Works about this Work

Kiran Bhat Reviews Graeme Miles’s Infernal Topographies Kiran Bhat , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May no. 101 2021;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In Infernal Topographies, Graeme Miles traverses mythology, landscape and notions of selfhood to reveal moments of approachability and tenderness that are rare in Australian poetry. The poems are not so self-referential, nor overtly ambitious. Miles wants to get lost in the musicality of the moment, or the surrender of a second, and so his poems tend to read like reflections on an event that would have otherwise been lost to the everyday eye. Such is the charm of his words. When one reads Infernal Topographies, one reads them not to witness an act of innovation, or sound and image taken to completely new directions, but to meditate on one singular Tasmanian’s relationship to selfhood and tradition.' (Introduction)

Meaning Can Catch on Anything : John Bartlett Reviews Graeme Miles ‘Infernal Topographies’ John A. Bartlett , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , November no. 30 2020;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In approaching a new collection of poetry, a reviewer hopes that a series of themes or poetic preoccupations will quickly emerge to give the necessary “hooks” for said reviewer to arrange some neat conclusions. With Infernal Topographies this task is not quite so simple or straightforward. In this third collection by Miles, clear themes and resolutions are not so apparent and often meanings are left dangling.' (Introduction)

Graeme Miles : Infernal Topographies Martin Duwell , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 15 2020;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In a poetic culture where individual poems often seem to be cut from slabs of discourse spun out from a recognisable set of obsessions, Graeme Miles’s poems stand out as having a strong individual integrity. They are poems (this is his third book after Phosphorescence and Recurrence) which, in other words, you have to live inside a bit before they begin to suggest their power. The “recognisable set of obsessions” is there but because each poem tries to be a free-standing event, it might be better to call them interests. It does pose a problem for a reviewer since the default approach is usually to search out underlying themes. I’ll be doing this in the case of the poems from Infernal Topographies but at the back of my mind is always the knowledge that the best approach to poems like this (as in the case of the poems of Peter Porter, say) would be to look at a few in detail and comment fairly obliquely on their shared themes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make for a good or readable review for readers looking for some overall sense of what a book is doing. So I’ll look mainly for patterns of themes but compensate by calling them “interests” to try to take away some of their usual dominance. If I’ve space, at the end I’ll look at one or two poems in detail.' (Introduction)

Graeme Miles : Infernal Topographies Martin Duwell , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 15 2020;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In a poetic culture where individual poems often seem to be cut from slabs of discourse spun out from a recognisable set of obsessions, Graeme Miles’s poems stand out as having a strong individual integrity. They are poems (this is his third book after Phosphorescence and Recurrence) which, in other words, you have to live inside a bit before they begin to suggest their power. The “recognisable set of obsessions” is there but because each poem tries to be a free-standing event, it might be better to call them interests. It does pose a problem for a reviewer since the default approach is usually to search out underlying themes. I’ll be doing this in the case of the poems from Infernal Topographies but at the back of my mind is always the knowledge that the best approach to poems like this (as in the case of the poems of Peter Porter, say) would be to look at a few in detail and comment fairly obliquely on their shared themes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make for a good or readable review for readers looking for some overall sense of what a book is doing. So I’ll look mainly for patterns of themes but compensate by calling them “interests” to try to take away some of their usual dominance. If I’ve space, at the end I’ll look at one or two poems in detail.' (Introduction)

Meaning Can Catch on Anything : John Bartlett Reviews Graeme Miles ‘Infernal Topographies’ John A. Bartlett , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , November no. 30 2020;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In approaching a new collection of poetry, a reviewer hopes that a series of themes or poetic preoccupations will quickly emerge to give the necessary “hooks” for said reviewer to arrange some neat conclusions. With Infernal Topographies this task is not quite so simple or straightforward. In this third collection by Miles, clear themes and resolutions are not so apparent and often meanings are left dangling.' (Introduction)

Kiran Bhat Reviews Graeme Miles’s Infernal Topographies Kiran Bhat , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 May no. 101 2021;

— Review of Infernal Topographies Graeme Miles , 2020 selected work poetry

'In Infernal Topographies, Graeme Miles traverses mythology, landscape and notions of selfhood to reveal moments of approachability and tenderness that are rare in Australian poetry. The poems are not so self-referential, nor overtly ambitious. Miles wants to get lost in the musicality of the moment, or the surrender of a second, and so his poems tend to read like reflections on an event that would have otherwise been lost to the everyday eye. Such is the charm of his words. When one reads Infernal Topographies, one reads them not to witness an act of innovation, or sound and image taken to completely new directions, but to meditate on one singular Tasmanian’s relationship to selfhood and tradition.' (Introduction)

Last amended 12 Mar 2020 09:01:06
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X