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y separately published work icon Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems selected work   poetry  
Alternative title: Collected Poems
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This harvesting of Vincent Buckley's work is a long overdue moment in Australian poetry. Not only was Buckley a profoundly original, steadily changing poet; he was also an intellectual leader in our culture during the politically demanding decades that followed World War Two. His poems, gathered here, bear witness to the conflicts of those years, to his Irish-Australian heritage, to interactions with modern American poetry and, above all, to his delicately lyrical sense of morality. A nervous energy pulses everywhere. The last volume of Buckley's poetry appeared in 1991, three years after his death. Roughly three-quarters of that collection carried his working title, 'A Poetry Without Attitude', signalling something essential about his later work. Having begun as a poet of haunting rhetorical power, he had gradually pumiced his verse so that it stood clear, without any intrusive sense of the poet's personality. His is poetry of unique temper, surely. Here you will find the full range of it, previously published and unpublished.' (Publisher's Blurb)

Notes

  • Editor's note: In this presentation of Vincent Buckley's poetry the complete texts of all his books have been included, except for the first two, which are represented by a selection of the strongest poems from that stage of his writing. There is also in this volume a large array of previously uncollected poems. Penelope Buckley's help has been invaluable, in scouring manuscripts for poems we could judge as having been brought successfully to conclusion. She and I had already done a good deal of this work in preparing the posthumous book, Last Poems (1991). The ordering of poems made for that book has been respected here.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Elwood, Caulfield - St Kilda area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: John Leonard Press , 2009 .
      image of person or book cover 8919675052050797646.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: xx, 522p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Foreword by Peter Steele (pp.xiii-xx).
      • Includes index.
      ISBN: 9780980526929 (pbk.)

Works about this Work

Vincent Buckley and His Land of No Fathers : The Irish Shadow on His Work John McLaren , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Shadow of the Precursor 2012; (p. 38-47)
‘Vincent Buckley maintained that as an Irish Australian he had grown up as a member of a persecuted minority. He also claimed that, although this minority was crucial in shaping the Australian identity, its members had failed to keep an imaginative connection with their homeland. Much of his work can be read as an attempt to rediscover this link, but his understanding of the Irish element changes over his career. In his earlier work, his concern is with the Irish tradition of WB Yeats and James Joyce, and with his own forefathers as people dispossessed by the heartless English. Later he becomes involved with the fate of the nationalists in Northern Ireland. This leads him both to take direct political action in Australia and to write some of his most significant poems. These show the influence of Seamus Heaney or John Kinsella rather than Yeats, but also bring to bear a distinctly Australian sensibility.’ (38)
Vincent Buckley's 'Collected Poems' : On Love, Conflict and Poetry Michelle Borzi , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Blast , Autumn/Winter no. 11 2010; (p. 39-48)
Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Edited by Chris Wallace-Crabbe Martin Duwell , 2009 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , vol. 4 no. 2009;

— Review of Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry
On the Road to Revelation Peter Craven , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 August 2009; (p. 32)

— Review of Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry ; Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography
At the Crossroads : Australian Poetry 2008-2009 Julian Croft , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 54 no. 1 2009; (p. 115-127)

— Review of The Golden Bird Robert Adamson , 2008 single work poetry ; View from the Lucky Hotel Sandra Hill , 2008 selected work poetry ; Theatre Alison Croggon , 2008 selected work poetry ; Letters to the Tremulous Hand Elizabeth Campbell , 2007 selected work poetry ; Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry ; True Thoughts Pamela Brown , 2008 selected work poetry ; The Other Way Out Bronwyn Lea , 2007 single work poetry ; Bark Anthony Lawrence , 2008 selected work poetry ; Divine Comedy : Journeys Through Regional Geography John Kinsella , 2008 selected work poetry prose ; Growing Up With Mr Menzies John Jenkins , 2008 selected work poetry ; Man Wolf Man L. K. Holt , 2007 selected work poetry ; Aria Sarah Holland-Batt , 2008 selected work poetry ; Autographs : 56 Poems in Prose Alex Skovron , 2006 selected work poetry ; Ambulances and Dreamers Bel Schenk , 2008 selected work poetry ; Speed and Other Liberties Andrew Sant , 2008 selected work poetry ; Therapy Like Fish : New and Selected Poems Marcella Polain , 2008 selected work poetry ; Sixty Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page , 2009 single work criticism ; Poems : 1980-2008 Jan Owen , 2008 selected work poetry ; The Incoming Tide Petra White , 2007 selected work poetry ; Southern Edge : Three Stories in Verse Barbara Temperton , 2009 selected work poetry
Buckley's Second Chance Alan Wearne , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , February vol. 4 no. 1 2009; (p. 22)

— Review of Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry ; Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography
Seductive Melancholy of a Poet's Last Works Carolyn Masel , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 9 April vol. 19 no. 6 2009;

— Review of Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography ; Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry
A Romantic Sensibility Peter Craven , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 9 May 2009; (p. 22)

— Review of Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry ; Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography
Buckley's Varied Voice Heard Again Geoff Page , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 July 2009; (p. 14)

— Review of Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography ; Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry
The Skull beneath the Skin Gregory Kratzmann , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 313 2009; (p. 17-19)

— Review of Vincent Buckley : Collected Poems Vincent Buckley , 2009 selected work poetry ; Journey Without Arrival : The Life and Writing of Vincent Buckley John McLaren , 2009 single work biography
Vincent Buckley's 'Collected Poems' : On Love, Conflict and Poetry Michelle Borzi , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Blast , Autumn/Winter no. 11 2010; (p. 39-48)
Vincent Buckley and His Land of No Fathers : The Irish Shadow on His Work John McLaren , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Shadow of the Precursor 2012; (p. 38-47)
‘Vincent Buckley maintained that as an Irish Australian he had grown up as a member of a persecuted minority. He also claimed that, although this minority was crucial in shaping the Australian identity, its members had failed to keep an imaginative connection with their homeland. Much of his work can be read as an attempt to rediscover this link, but his understanding of the Irish element changes over his career. In his earlier work, his concern is with the Irish tradition of WB Yeats and James Joyce, and with his own forefathers as people dispossessed by the heartless English. Later he becomes involved with the fate of the nationalists in Northern Ireland. This leads him both to take direct political action in Australia and to write some of his most significant poems. These show the influence of Seamus Heaney or John Kinsella rather than Yeats, but also bring to bear a distinctly Australian sensibility.’ (38)
Last amended 11 Feb 2021 14:14:36
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