'The Sydney surveyor and poet R.D. FitzGerald (1902-87) played a role in leading Australian writers out of the era of the balladeers to seek a more poised and mature attitude towards Australian identity and our place in the world community of letters. he enjoyed a long career from the roaring twenties to the swinging sixties, and during the 1930s he shared with Kenneth Slessor the mantle of 'the leading poet in Australia.' (From author's introduction, p. 82)