The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse

The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse
Title page for The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (1918)
EditorWalter Murdoch
LanguageEnglish
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
1918
Publication placeU.K.
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages294 pp.

The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (1918) is anthology of poems by Australian and New Zealand poets edited by Walter Murdoch. It was originally published in hardback by Oxford University Press in London in 1918.[1]

After the original publication by Oxford University Press in 1918,[1] the anthology was reprinted in 1924,[2] 1945,[3] and 1950.[4] The contents were changed with each edition.

The anthology includes 192 poems by various authors in the 1918 edition, 186 poems in the 1924 edition, 205 poems in the 1945 edition, and 216 poems in the 1950 edition.[4]

Contents of the 1918 edition

The 1918 edition of the anthology contained the following poems:

Critical reception of 1918 edition

A writer in The Sydney Morning Herald noted: "The inclusion of Australia in the 'Oxford' series is welcome, and no better editor than Professor Walter Murdoch could have been found for the Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. The name of our poets is legion, their fertility is enormous, and perhaps for that very reason Australian poetry shows to better effect in an anthology than in a library. Professor Murdoch has been wide in his range and judicious in his choice...Professor Murdoch is as discriminating in his selection from those whose names are household words with us. But this anthology has one disability which, though he is not responsible for it, prevents it from being wholly representative of Australian poetry. The 'inexorable necessities of copyright' have compelled him to omit many flowers from his garland. An anthology which contains nothing of the work of Daley, Brunton Stephens, Essex Evans, John Farrell, Barcroft Boake, Major Paterson, Mr. Henry Lawson, Mr. W. M. Ogilvie, and Miss Zora Cross, to name only a few, does not give to the world the best fruits of Australian poetry."[5]

In The Argus, from Melbourne, a reviewer stated: "Those who have an intimate knowledge of Australian verse will as he expects miss some poems and wonder why others were included but many beautiful things will be found and for its purpose of making Australian verse better known in Great Britain the book deserves the success which it is likely to find."[6]

Contents of the 1924 edition

The 1924 edition of the anthology contained all of the poems in the 1918 edition with the following additions and deletions.

Poems added to the 1924 edition

Poems not included in the 1924 edition

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (1918)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  2. ^ "The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (1924)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  3. ^ "The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse (1945)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b "The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse". Austlit. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Australasian Verse". The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 October 1918, p8. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  6. ^ "New Books". The Argus, 19 October 1918, p6. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.