After four years of this blog, reprinting a different poem each day, I've decided to bring it to a close. It's been fun but it's time to move onto something else.
Not sure what just yet.
Recently in Personal Category
Each year I get to this point and think I've just about done all I can with this blog and its rationale. The first two years were a bit of a mish-mash but gave a good coverage of various Australian poets. This past year, 2013, has concentrated on C.J. Dennis and, while some of the poems reprinted have been a bit ropey it did succeed in showing all sides of that poet - I hope.
So I've decided to follow that approach again in 2014 with the variation this year being that I will concentrate on four different poets, all women and all, in my mind, sadly neglected. The four poets in question will be: Zora Cross (1890-1964), Mabel Forrest (1872-1935), Myra Morris (1893-1966) and Kathleen Dalziel (1881-1969).
I had hoped to confine the scope of the selections to two or maybe three of these but kept running into the odd day or two for which I couldn't find anything to reprint so I expanded things a little and came to the conclusion that four poets was a happy compromise.
This coming year, 2014, will most probably be this blog's last though I seem to have that view every year. I have a bit of a soft spot for the works of Edward Dyson and W.T. Goodge which might extend this blog for another year - we'll see. In the meantime time I hope you enjoy the poems I've found and will reprint here.
For a while earlier this year I had thought that this poetry reprint blog would end its run this year. It's been a fair amount of work and my vague plans for 2013 didn't fit with the current structure. I had come to realise that I had been neglecting my long-term work on the writings of C.J. Dennis and had decided to concentrate solely on his work.
And then, of course, I had the idea that maybe I could combine the two: this blog and C.J. Dennis.
So 2013 will be a full year of Dennis: each day I will be publishing a new poem by the poet on the anniversary of the day on which it was first published. There shouldn't be a problem with this as Dennis published so much poetry during his working life that I have multiple items to choose from each day, though I do have to admit I was worried about one day in early January when I could only find one piece.
Most of the poems I publish next year will not have been seen since their original publication which I think is a bit sad. Hopefully you'll find something you can enjoy here next year, and, just maybe, gain a bit of an appreciation of the range of Dennis's material. If either of those occurs I'll be happy.
Have a good festive season.
The basic idea behind this weblog started a few years back when I contemplated producing a reprint collection of poems for a member of my family. This collection would feature entries that all related to a specific day - the birthday of the relative in question. The subject date is not one of those iconic calendar events such as January 26 or April 25, rather it is fairly non-descript with a few interesting space exploration events occurring on the day, but little else to differentiate it from most other days of the year.
So, with nothing major to commemorate, I decided to concentrate on poems that had been first published on that date. They had to be Australian and had to have appeared in a newspaper or magazine with the exact date on the cover. As much as possible I wanted to avoid using poems from monthly magazines that had only a month specified and no exact day.
I still think it's a good idea but it isn't going to happen any time soon. But the idea kept on niggling away at me and has led, finally, to this weblog.
If you don't like Australian poetry, especially that which is out of copyright (ie 1788-1952), then I fear you won't find anything of interest here. This will feature reprints only, with occasional other entries that I find interesting.
The first poem will appear tomorrow - January 1, 2011.
So, with nothing major to commemorate, I decided to concentrate on poems that had been first published on that date. They had to be Australian and had to have appeared in a newspaper or magazine with the exact date on the cover. As much as possible I wanted to avoid using poems from monthly magazines that had only a month specified and no exact day.
I still think it's a good idea but it isn't going to happen any time soon. But the idea kept on niggling away at me and has led, finally, to this weblog.
If you don't like Australian poetry, especially that which is out of copyright (ie 1788-1952), then I fear you won't find anything of interest here. This will feature reprints only, with occasional other entries that I find interesting.
The first poem will appear tomorrow - January 1, 2011.
