A Vision of Ceremony

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AuthorJames McAuley
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherAngus and Robertson
A Vision of Ceremony
Title page for A Vision of Ceremony (1956)
AuthorJames McAuley
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry collection
PublisherAngus and Robertson
Publication date
1956
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages69 pp.
Awards1956 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry

A Vision of Ceremony is a collection of poems by Australian writer James McAuley, published by Angus and Robertson in 1956.[1]

The collection contains 31 poems, most of which had been previously published in Australian literary publications such as The Bulletin, Hermes, Meanjin, Southerly and various original poetry anthologies.[2]

  • "Invocation"
  • "Black Swans : 1946-1955"
  • "At Dawn"
  • "Jesus"
  • "To a Dead Bird of Paradise"
  • "Mating Swans"
  • "Tune for Swans"
  • "Memorial (to Some residents of New Guinea)"
  • "Sequence"
  • "Canticle"
  • "To the Holy Spirit"
  • "Nativity"
  • "An Art of Poetry"
  • "Palm"
  • "Prefiguration"
  • "New Guinea"
  • "Meditation (from Hugo von Hofmannsthal)"
  • "The Royal Fireworks"
  • "Prologue"
  • "The Middle of Life (from Friedrich Holderlin)"
  • "Vespers"
  • "Late Winter"
  • "Celebration of Divine Love"
  • "To Any Poet"
  • "A Leaf of Sage"
  • "The Hero and the Hydra"
  • "Prometheus : A Secular Masque"
  • "The Death of Chiron"
  • "The Ascent of Heracles"
  • "The Tomb of Heracles"
  • "A Letter to John Dryden"

Critical reception

Writing in The Bulletin a reviewer noted McAuley's "shrewd, nuggety plainness of style" and the poet being "more often dogged than solemn."[3]

Ian Mair, in The Age, thought of the poet that the "irony and hard glitter that once he had have now gone" concluding that McAuley is best "when he is a romantic."[4]

The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature states: "Using the Greek tales based on the Prometheus legend, McAuley comments adversely on modern civilization and affirms traditional moral and spiritual values."[5]

The Oxford Literary History of Australia noted that, with this collection, McAuley "turned away from all those soul-struggles to the disappointment of many of McAuley's contemporaries; it sought a broad, well-lighted tradition."[6]

Awards

See also

References

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