Cirrus@Austlit

'Presently my bookshelves house twentyone anthologies of Australian Poetry and I reckon to have read twice that number in the period since 1970 when my serious interest began. Moreover, I'm aware of the same figure again that I have either disdained or neglected to consult; sixty-three claimant new assemblies of Oz Poetry in forty-two years, which is to say 1.5 per annum. While several take a theme (Religious, Family, World War One) and one or two have been annuals, each makes an identical pitch: Reader, we present you with this latest version of your Poetry scene. You will be convinced by our authority and might well come under the more pervasive trance of the thing itself, Poetry. Browse where you like among the anthologies of the past forty years - Heseltine (1972), Murray (1986) Lehmann-Gray (1991, 2011), Tranter-Mead (1991), Buckley (1991), Porter (1996), Leonard (1990, 2001, 2009), Kinsella (2009), and so on - this tendency to have a Poetry scene showcased before that of the intrigue of a singular poetic world appears to prevail in the discourse on Australian Poetry.' (Abstract)