Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Edited by Rachel Blau DuPlessis Professor Emerita of English at Temple University, USA

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1 Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Edited by Rachel Blau DuPlessis Professor Emerita of English at Temple University, USA Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics promotes and pursues topics in the burgeoning field of 20th and 21st century poetics. Critical and scholarly work on poetry and poetics of interest to the series includes social location in its relationships to subjectivity, to the construction of authorship, to oeuvres, and to careers; poetic reception and dissemination (groups, movements, formations, institutions); the intersection of poetry and theory; questions about language, poetic authority, and the goals of writing; claims in poetics, impacts of social life, and the dynamics of the poetic career as these are staged and debated by poets and inside poems. Topics that are bibliographic, pedagogic, that concern the social field of poetry, and reflect on the history of poetry studies are valued as well. This series focuses both on individual poets and texts and on larger movements, poetic institutions, and questions about poetic authority, social identifications, and aesthetics. Language and the Renewal of Society in Walt Whitman, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and Charles Olson The American Cratylus Carla Billitteri Modernism and Poetic Inspiration The Shadow Mouth Jed Rasula The Social Life of Poetry Appalachia, Race, and Radical Modernism Chris Green Procedural Form in Postmodern American Poetry Berrigan, Antin, Silliman, and Hejinian David W. Huntsperger Modernist Writings and Religio-scientific Discourse H.D., Loy, and Toomer Lara Vetter Male Subjectivity and Poetic Form in New American Poetry Andrew Mossin The Poetry of Susan Howe History, Theology, Authority Will Montgomery Ronald Johnson s Modernist Collage Poetry Ross Hair Pastoral, Pragmatism, and Twentieth-Century American Poetry Ann Marie Mikkelsen (Re:)Working the Ground Essays on the Late Writings of Robert Duncan edited by James Maynard

2 Women s Poetry and Popular Culture Marsha Bryant Poetry After the Invention of América Don t Light the Flower Andrés Ajens, translated by Michelle Gil-Montero, introduction by Erin Moure and Forrest Gander New York School Collaborations The Color of Vowels edited by Mark Silverberg The Poetics of the American Suburbs Jo Gill The Afro-Modernist Epic and Literary History Tolson, Hughes, Baraka Kathy Lou Schultz Delmore Schwartz A Critical Reassessment Alex Runchman The Poetics of Waste Queer Excess in Stein, Ashbery, Schuyler, and Goldsmith Christopher Schmidt US Poetry in the Age of Empire, Piotr K. Gwiazda Global Anglophone Poetry Literary Form and Social Critique in Walcott, Muldoon, de Kok, and Nagra Omaar Hena Modernist Legacies Trends and Faultlines in British Poetry Today Edited by Abigail Lang and David Nowell Smith Writing Australian Unsettlement Modes of Poetic Invention Michael Farrell

3 Writing Australian Unsettlement

4 Available online or contact the author: ode ode BREAK ME OUCH a raiders guide Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets (co-edited with Jill Jones) thempark thou sand open sesame enjambment sisters present same! same! same! same! the thorn with the boy in its side Long Dull Poem Cocky s Joy roughly proofed

5 Writing Australian Unsettlement Modes of Poetic Invention Micha el Fa r r ell

6 WRITING AUSTRALIAN UNSETTLEMENT Copyright Michael Farrell, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. Some chapters have been published in earlier versions as below: A Poetics of the Plough: Ned Kelly s The Jerilderie Letter published Southerly, Volume 72, Number 2, (Ch. 2) An Unsettled Community: Harpur s Carnival, Harris Assonance, Mackellar s Code published Republics of Letters. Robert Dixon and Peter Kirkpatrick eds., Sydney: Sydney University Press, (Chs. 4 / 5) Unsettling the Field: Christopher Brennan and Biodiversity published JASAL, Volume 12, Number 1, (Ch. 6) The Colonial Baroque in Australia: On drover boab texts; Wiradjuri clubs; Charlie Flannigan s drawings. (Ch. 8) Criticism, forthcoming. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Farrell, Michael, 1965 Writing Australian unsettlement : Modes of Poetic Invention, / Michael Farrell. pages cm. (Modern and contemporary poetry and poetics) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: This book rewrites the history of Australian literature, through reading the unorthodox poetics of colonial life writing, from letters to tree carvings. Farrell examines page, punctuation and grammar to present a new version of Australian literature, including texts by poets, bushrangers, Indigenous stockmen, a Chinese miner and migrant women Provided by publisher. 1. Australian literature 19th century History and criticism. 2. Australian literature 20th century History and criticism. 3. Colonists Australia History. 4. Australian literature Minority authors Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PR F dc A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September

7 For Ma r t in

8 Contents A ck n o w l e d g m e n t s xi I nt ro duc t ion 1 Chapter 1 The Hunted Writer: Ned Kelly s The Jerilderie Letter and Bennelong s Letter to Mr Philips, L ord Syd ne y s St e w a rd 13 Chapter 2 An Australian Poetics of the Plough: The Jerilderie Letter 39 Chapter 3 Unnecessary Inventions: Jong Ah Sing s The Case 63 Chapter 4 Open Secrets: Dorothea Mackellar s Coded Diaries and Norman Harris s Letter to Jim Bassett 85 Chapter 5 Boredom: Charles Harpur s Note to the Song of Good Night and Mary Fullerton s Bromide 107 Chapter 6 Unsettling the Field: Ngarla Songs and Christopher Brennan s Musicopoematographoscope 129 Chapter 7 Writing to Order: Gladys Gilligan s The Settlement 153 Chapter 8 Homelessness: Ann Williams s and Sarah Davenport s Travelling Diaries; Drover Bush Texts; Wiradjuri Club Drawings; Charlie Flannigan s Baroque Drawings C onc lu sion 195 B i b l i o g r a p h y 199 In d e x 215

9 Acknowledgments For humor and faith thanks go to my PhD supervisor Dr Justin Clemens. For support and grammatical advice, my associate PhD supervisor Professor Ken Gelder. For intellectual and personal support, Ann Vickery and Eddie Paterson. For encouragement and feedback, Kate Fagan and Martin Harrison. For chapter feedback, Fiona Hile, Beryl Langer, Stuart Cooke, Antonia Pont, Jessica Wilkinson, Matt Hall, Ella O Keefe. For reading tips, Gareth Jenkins and James Field. For collegial support, Duncan Hose, Corey Wakeling, Tim Wright, Astrid Lorange, Sarinah Masukor, Sam Langer, Oscar Schwartz. I would also like to thank the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne for supporting me during some of the revision of this book.