Simon West

Dear Muses? John Forbes and a classical heritage in contemporary Australian poetry

Oracles and the Intellect: James McAuley in the Centenary of his Birth

''In turning to McAuley's own poetry for alternatives to what he had so passionately denounced in The End of Modernity, I find myself disappointed. Not that the poetry is bad. His best work is excellent and deserves a central place in the history

Auden’s Skirmish With The Real

‘For Auden the writing of literary non-fiction prose, which largely consists of reviews, prefaces, and lectures, was far from hack work. The two volumes in question total well over a thousand pages. It is striking how consistently measured and tho...

Great Poem Hoax: The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood

In the case of a selective anthology such as The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood, both the adjective and the magical number have a trace of the ludicrous. One would like to think that Harwood had reached a level of importance where gratuitous boost...