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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Lesbia Harford (1891–1927) has occupied only a small place in Australian literary history – for decades, she was utterly forgotten – yet when she died, at thirty-six, she left behind three notebooks containing some of the finest lyric poems ever written in Australia.
Harford’s writing looks both forwards and backwards, blending Pre-Raphaelite influences and plain-speaking with unusual subtlety. At the same time, Harford was bound inextricably to the period in which she lived: war in Europe, changing attitudes to religion, the suffrage movement, and widespread social upheaval all helped make her one of the first truly modern, urban figures in Australian poetry.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
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Epigraph:
– such a price
The Gods exact for song'
To become what we sing.
–Matthew Arnold
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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'[L]ove and Hate,/Irreconcilable,/Yet Can Mate': Reading Lesbia Harford's Collected Poems, Edited by Oliver Dennis
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Journal , vol. 6 no. 1 2016; (p. 116-122)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
Review : Collected Poems: Lesbia Harford
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 2 2016; (p. 280-289)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
Poet of the Women's War
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , November vol. 59 no. 11 2015; (p. 103-105)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
She Knew What She Was Doing
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Foam:e , March no. 12 2015;
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
Satisfaction Diluted by Collection's Broad Sweep
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 21 February 2015; (p. 26)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry
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Render It Barely
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2014; The Australian Face : Essays from the Sydney Review of Books 2017; (p. 98-113)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry'When Lesbia Harford died in 1927, she left behind three thick and neatly-lined exercise books full of handwritten poetry. These, now housed in the Mitchell Library, provided the basis for Nettie Palmer’s The Poems of Lesbia Harford (1941) and, in 1985, Drusilla Modjeska and Marjorie Pizer’s expanded collection, published under the same title.' (Introduction)
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Fresh Appreciation of a Poet of Urban Reality
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 October 2014; (p. 20-21)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
Review Short: Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford, Edited by Oliver Dennis
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , November no. 48.0 2014;
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
'Little Fresh Songs' : The Slender, Wiry Lyrics of Lesbia Harford
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 366 2014; (p. 63-64)
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry -
‘I Prefer Inchoate Beauty’ : A Review of Lesbia Harford’s Collected Poems
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Writ Poetry Review , December no. 2 2014;
— Review of Collected Poems : Lesbia Harford 2014 selected work poetry