Cirrus@Austlit

Clarke investigates Kendall's 'private myth' in Poems and Songs in which the poet seeks a maiden who has crossed a sea and entered a strange land. In later volumes, Kendall's expansion of this myth anticipates the symbolists because of his exploration of the "conception that human existence is an absence from the Divine, and Time a deprivation of Eternity". Clarke concludes that Kendall needs to be considered in terms other than "Australian" to appreciate the full impact of his poetry, his borrowings and anticipations.