AustLit

Wright examines Harpur's unpublished poetry and prose to demonstrate that (in 1965) Harpur has been underrated for too long because of the slightness and editorial interventions of the 1883 edition of his poetry. Wright argues that Harpur deserves more attention because of the quality of poetry and prose found in his manuscripts and because his life and work personify the attempts of a young Australia to assert its own identity while still exhibiting the influences of English tradition. But Wright recognizes that Harpur's exploration of controversial themes such as physical evolution were not favoured by his only possible audience, partly explaining the unpublished state of much of Harpur's poetry and prose.

Compared with Charles Harpur, Wright sees Kendall as a minor poet, pointing to his vast output of poor verse as a testament to this judgement. While Harpur consistently offers poetry of the highest quality, Kendall's frequent "occasional" verse does not support a similar reputation. Wright sees the poem, 'To a Mountain' as Kendall's strongest because it rises to the level of Wordsworth's pantheism with a form and feeling far superior to most of his work.

Wright offers a very useful introduction to Brennan's poetry, arguing that "There are few figures in literature so convincing, so deep in their conception and so towering in their realization, as Brennan's dreadful and ambiguous figure of Night".