Brief Biography

Charles Harpur was born in 1813 of convict parents and later raised in the Hawkesbury River district of New South Wales. He started his working life as a sheep farmer before moving on the position of assistant gold commissioner at Araluen in 1859. During his lifetime Harpur published Thoughts: A Series of Sonnets in 1845, The Bushrangers, A Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems in 1853, and The Tower of the Dream in 1865, along with several other smaller works. Charles Harpur is considered the first Australian born poet of consequence.

Bibliography

Poetry Collections
Thoughts: A Series of Sonnets 1845
Songs of Australia, First Series 1850
The Bushrangers, A Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems 1853
A Poet's Home 1862
A Rhyme 1864
The Tower of the Dream 1865
Poems 1883, edited by H.M. Martin
Selected Poems of Charles Harpur 1944, edited by K.H. Clifford and D.F. Hall
'Rosa': Love Sonnets to Mary Doyle 1948, edited by C.W. Salier
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur 1984, edited by Elizabeth Perkins
Charles Harpur, Selected Poetry and Prose 1986, edited by Michael Ackland

Drama
Stalwart the Bushranger 1987, edited by Elizabeth Perkins

Biographies
Charles Harpur, An Australian 1962, by J. Normington-Rawling
Charles Harpur 1963, by Judith Wright

Selected Poetry

You can read the full text of the following Harpur poems:

A Basket of Summer Fruit
Bush Justice
The Creek of the Four Graves
Dawn and Sunrise in the Snowy Mountains
A Flight of Wild Ducks
Marvellous Martin
A Midsummer Noon in the Australian Forest
Modern Poetry
Never Mind
A Sonnet Dedicated to Sir George Gipps
This Southern Land of Ours
Wellington
Words

This page and its contents are copyright ©2002-04 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: October 31, 2004.