Greg McCart, ed., Recent Queensland Poetry

Abstract

Greg McCart, ed., Recent Queensland Poetry. Deception Bay (Old.): Refulgence
Publishers, 1975.

The poems in this anthology were written between 1970 and 1975 by poets then resident in Queensland. A belated review can be justified on the ground of the high quality of the verse included, and secondly because the specifically regional nature of the anthology raises a significant theoretical issue.

Although the introduction claims that the poems selected are representative of Queensland verse, the great quantity of ephemeral and often bad verse still published in newspapers, little magazines and private collections all over the state is not, in fact, represented. For this readers can probably be thankful. Several of the twenty-seven poets with works included in Recent Queensland Poetry are major Australian writers, while the others either enjoy long-standing though minor reputations, or really deserve the over-used epithet, "promising." The anthology encourages comparison among the works of the poets included, and the reader begins to understand how some of the major reputations were earned.