Publisher's synopsis

OUT OF PRINT

First full collection of the work of one of Australia’s most prominent 20th century poets.

Since the publication of her first book in 1944, Rosemary Dobson has built a reputation as one of Australia’s most important poets. This volume collects and celebrates the work of her long and distinguished career, bringing together a vast and striking body of work. The poetry ranges from the exquisitely lyrical, with its clarity of observation, to delicious wit and playfulness. Ground-breaking poems about domestic lives, especially motherhood, have influenced many younger poets, while translations and poetry about the visual arts are equally distinctive.

Dobson herself has spoken of her poetry as ‘part of a search for something only fugitively glimpsed, a state of grace which one once knew, or imagined, or from which one was turned away. Surely everyone who writes poetry would agree this is part of it – a doomed but urgent wish to express the inexpressible.’ Now in her nineties, Rosemary is still producing new work and having it published.

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