Beyond Kerguelen
| "Beyond Kerguelen" | |
|---|---|
| by Henry Kendall | |
| First published in | The Sydney Mail |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | 19 June 1880 |
| Lines | 84 |
| Full text | |
 Beyond Kerguelen at Wikisource | |
"Beyond Kerguelen" (1880) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Kendall.[1]
It was originally published in the The Sydney Mail newspaper on 19 June 1880,[2] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.[1]
Critical reception
Critic J. Howlett-Ross, in a short essay about Kendall's work, noted that this poem "is one of the poet's most characteristic pieces of work. It has a wealth of words and use of them not inferior, I will venture to say, to the copious and marvellous diction of Swinburne."[3]
In a review of the poet's collection Songs from the Mountains in The Australian Town and Country Journal a writer made some extravagant claims, noting that the poem "is in the author's most characteristic style, and is of a very high order of writing, with lines in it, here and there, of weird wildness, that probably no living writer has excelled."[4]
Michael Ackland emphasised the darkness in the poem saying that it is "appropriately described in terms of absence, antithesis, blindness and chaos – stock attributes of spiritual darkness."[5]
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in The Sydney Mail newspaper in 1880[2] it was reprinted as follows:
- Songs from the Mountains by Henry Kendall, William Maddock, 1880[6]
- The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch, Oxford University Press, 1918[7]
- Selected Poems of Henry Kendall edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus and Robertson, 1957[8]
- From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, 1964[9]
- The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall edited by Thomas Thornton Reed, 1966[10]
- Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum edited by Geoffrey Dutton, Rigby, 1976[11]
- The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray, Oxford University Press, 1986[12]
See also
References
- 1 2 "Austlit — "Beyond Kerguelen" by Henry Kendall". Austlit. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
- 1 2 ""Beyond Kerguelen" by Henry Kendall". The Sydney Mail, 19 June 1880, p1102. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ ""A Glance at ... Kendall"". Bohemia, April 1939. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ ""Literary Notices"". The Australian Town and Country Journal. 15 January 1881. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ Henry Kendall : The Muse of Australia edited by Russell McDougall, University of New England. Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies, 1992. "Chapter 15: No Easy Age for Faith or Verse" by Michael Ackland, p. 395
- ↑ "Songs from the Mountains by Henry Kendall". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "Selected Poems of Henry Kendall edited by T. Inglis Moore". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall edited by Thomas Thornton Reed". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum edited by Geoffrey Dutton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
- ↑ "The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 20 March 2026.