Dennis Haskell

Attuned to Alien Moonlight: the Poetry of Bruce Dawe (Studies in Australian Literature) Dennis Haskell

Bruce Dawe is Australia's most popular and widely studied poet. This first full-scale critical study of his poetry to date reveals a richly complex and varied poet. Dennis Haskell argues that the widespread view of Dawe as a social satirist is limiting, and that Dawe is a more imaginative and lyrical poet than he has been given credit for, as the title "Attuned to Alien Moonlight" indicates. Daw'es apparent topicality and ease of access hides deeper, more mysterious, and more Romantic elements in his work. Haskell analyses well-known and some quite unknown poems in order to build up a picture of Dawe's poetry as a whole, and his chapters approach Dawe from some surprising perspectives - for example in relation to Asia and as a love poet. Aimed at both students of Dawe's work and the general literary reader, the book places Dawe in the context of Australian poetry and cultural values, and in relation to the larger traditions of poetry in English. It includes a substantial bibliography and a comprehensive chronology.