'Western mythology traditionally offered sparse, negative readings of things related to earth, as a prison-like entity guarded by the god Hades (Cirlot, Grillet). This paper traces motifs of dirt and soil in several early poems by James McAuley (1917-76). “Envoi” (1938), an inland landscape from McAuley’s stay in Bungendore, rural NSW, attributes to the “soil, the season and the shifting airs” the “faint sterility that disheartens and derides.” Similarly, “The Tomb of Heracles” (1947-49) reiterates motifs of aridity and sterility in imagery of dry landscape: “Blind light, dry rock, a tree that does not bear.” Nonetheless, a differentiation occurs in “Envoi,” in introducing the motif of suppressed fertility and “good chance” in the “artesian heart,” in which earth is reluctantly recognised as the eventual, vital water bearer.
'This paper traces the important formative influence of T.S. Eliot, notably “The Waste Land” and Australia’s own agency of modernism the Jindyworobak movement, with its original environmental manifesto (1937) and celebration of Australia’s dry interiors and indigenous values. It traces other, desolate encounters with earth in McAuley’s war-time reading of early Portuguese chronicles of voyage reflected in his explorer poem “Henry the Navigator” (1944)— “These roots of stunted bushes scrabble earth/Like withered birds […].” The poem adverts to later European “discovery” of Australia’s reportedly arid coasts.
'The paper also identifies the return to a more accepting reading of motifs of dry earth-scapes “Harsh, dry, abrasive, spikey, rough” in McAuley’s later poems depicting the Coles Bay nature reserve in eastern Tasmania: “By no stretch [..] a locus amoenus” (Bush Scene”, 1974).' (Publication abstract)
James McAuley
South Melbourne
:
Oxford University Press
,
1992
Z90326
1992
single work
criticism
James McAuley
South Melbourne
:
Oxford University Press
,
1992
Z90326
1992
single work
criticism
The Heart of James McAuley : Life and Work of the Australian Poet
Sydney
:
Wildcat Press
,
1980
Z126437
1980
single work
criticism
'The Heart of James McAuley examines the work of the famous poet, editor, critic, and political thinker. It places the poetry in its biographical context from his anarchistic and avant-garde youth to the libertarian conservative and Catholic convert of later years. It takes a new look at the great Ern Malley hoax, his profound essays on the decolonization of New Guinea, his association with such major figures as B.A.Santamaria and Sir John Kerr, his involvement with the Industrial Groups in the ALP and with the DLP, his founding of the magazine Quadrant, and his response to a number of controversies from the CIA scandals to the New Left assaults on the universities. No other biography of McAuley encompasses all the wide-ranging activities of this great poet.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Connor Court ed.)
