A Century of Australian Song

A reviewer in the South Australian Register in 1888 opined "Mr. Sladen himself is a better critic than poet, and the remarks appearing in his introduction upon the excellencies and defects of the most distinguished of the writers from whom he quotes generally show sound judgment and strict impartiality." They concluded by calling the book "one of the pleasantest fruits of this centenary season."^[6]

Elizabeth Perkins in The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature stated that the anthology was "unimaginative and conventional" in its selection of poems, although it did acknowledge that the volume's publication "aroused interest in England in Australian poetry".^[7]

The Oxford Literary History of Australia states: "Colonial and London critics were concerned that Sladen, then based in England, intended to offer a definitive canon of Australian and New Zealand poetry to an international readership. The intention of A Century of Australian Song, however, was promotional rather than canonical in that it was 'a selection of peoms inspired by life and scenery in Australia'."^[8]

Vivian Smith writing about Australian colonial poetry in The Cambridge History of Australian Literature commented "Sladen saw Australia as the country of the future and he wanted to showcase the poetry of the Australian colonies for readers in the Old Country". Smith concluded that this "is a remarkable collection for its time, and it has never been fully appreciated."^[9]

• 1888 in Australian literature