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y separately published work icon Under Aldebaran selected work   poetry  
  • Author:agent James McAuley http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/mcauley-james
Issue Details: First known date: 1946... 1946 Under Aldebaran
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Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Melbourne University Press , 1946 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Blue Horses, James McAuley , sequence poetry (p. 8-25)
The Blue Horsesi"What loud wave-motioned hooves awaken", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 9-11)
Henry the Navigatori"At Sagres, where the stark Iberian chin", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 12-14)
The Incarnation of Siriusi"In that age, the great anagram of God", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 15)
Choralei"At night the sun walks underneath the waves", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 16-17)
Celebration of Lovei"All things announce her coming and her praise:", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 18-21)
Philoctetesi"Upon the sounding rock, above the wave,", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 22-25)
When Shall the Fairi"When shall the fair", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 29)
Monologuei"To speak of love. A tear", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 30-31)
Rhyme's Endi"We came from a crooked town my dear", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 31)
She Like the Moon Arisesi"She like the moon arises", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 32)
At Bungendorei"Now the white-buskined lamb", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 33)
Autumni"Heart, it is time. The fruitful summer yields;", Rainer Maria Rilke , James McAuley (translator), single work poetry (p. 34)
"There the blue-green gums are a fringe of remote disorder" Envoi for a Book of Poemsi"There the blue-green gums have a wild precision, a strict disorder,", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 35)
Gnostic Preludei"The light was out; the sky was down;", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 39)
The Bee-Hivei"Why should this drone be kept alive?", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 40)
Dialoguei"There was a pattering in the rafters, mother,", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 41)
The Family of Love : I : Proemi"The world's the thing; Mercator its false prophet;", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 42)
The Family of Love : II : Song of Shemi"When our beasts low in their stalls", James McAuley , single work poetry (p. 42-43)
The Family of Love : III : Plumbi"Nietzsche respected the great god Plumb", James McAuley , single work poetry satire (p. 43)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Poets in Three Countries Rosemary Dobson , single work review
— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry
"By No Stretch . . .a Locus Amoenus"— Traces of Dirt in the Early Poetry of James McAuley Jean Page , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'Western mythology traditionally offered sparse, negative readings of things related to earth, as a prison-like entity guarded by the god Hades (Cirlot, Grillet). This paper traces motifs of dirt and soil in several early poems by James McAuley (1917-76). “Envoi” (1938), an inland landscape from McAuley’s stay in Bungendore, rural NSW, attributes to the “soil, the season and the shifting airs” the “faint sterility that disheartens and derides.” Similarly, “The Tomb of Heracles” (1947-49) reiterates motifs of aridity and sterility in imagery of dry landscape: “Blind light, dry rock, a tree that does not bear.” Nonetheless, a differentiation occurs in “Envoi,” in introducing the motif of suppressed fertility and “good chance” in the “artesian heart,” in which earth is reluctantly recognised as the eventual, vital water bearer.

'This paper traces the important formative influence of T.S. Eliot, notably “The Waste Land” and Australia’s own agency of modernism the Jindyworobak movement, with its original environmental manifesto (1937) and celebration of Australia’s dry interiors and indigenous values. It traces other, desolate encounters with earth in McAuley’s war-time reading of early Portuguese chronicles of voyage reflected in his explorer poem “Henry the Navigator” (1944)— “These roots of stunted bushes scrabble earth/Like withered birds […].” The poem adverts to later European “discovery” of Australia’s reportedly arid coasts. 

'The paper also identifies the return to a more accepting reading of motifs of dry earth-scapes “Harsh, dry, abrasive, spikey, rough” in  McAuley’s later poems depicting the Coles Bay nature reserve in eastern Tasmania: “By no stretch [..] a locus amoenus” (Bush Scene”, 1974).'  (Publication abstract)

y separately published work icon James McAuley Lyn McCredden , South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1992 Z90326 1992 single work criticism
Between Position and Desire : The Love Poetry of James McAuley Lyn McCredden , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 51 no. 1 1991; (p. 35-54)
From Heroism to Pietas : The Anti-Modernist's Progress in the Poetry of James McAuley Jennifer Strauss , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 48 no. 3 1989; (p. 597-610)
Untitled Dorothy Auchterlonie , 1946 single work review
— Appears in: Hermes , no. 2 1946; (p. 66-68)

— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry
Untitled A. R. Chisholm , 1946 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Quarterly , vol. 18 no. 4 1946; (p. 113-114)

— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry
Poets in Three Countries Rosemary Dobson , single work review
— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry
Simplicity and Complication F. W. W. Rhodes , 1947 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 8 no. 3 1947; (p. 170-175)

— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry ; The Dosser in Springtime Douglas Stewart , 1946 selected work poetry
Untitled Dorothy Auchterlonie , 1947 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 6 no. 1 1947; (p. 55-57)

— Review of Under Aldebaran James McAuley , 1946 selected work poetry
Australian Poetry : The Age of Affirmation, 1946-71 Bernard Hickey , 1977 single work criticism
— Appears in: Da Slessor a Dransfield : antologia della poesia Australiana moderna : mito societa' individuo 1977;

— Appears in: Statements 1984; (p. 1-28)
'Under Aldebaran' : Edmund Spenser and the Early James McAuley J. S. Ryan , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Notes & Furphies , April/May no. 18 1987; (p. 15-16)
James McAuley (1917-1976) Margaret Giordano , Don Norman , 1984 single work biography
— Appears in: Tasmanian Literary Landmarks 1984; (p. 191-197)
y separately published work icon James McAuley Lyn McCredden , South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1992 Z90326 1992 single work criticism
y separately published work icon The Heart of James McAuley : Life and Work of the Australian Poet Peter Coleman , Sydney : Wildcat Press , 1980 Z126437 1980 single work criticism

'The Heart of James McAuley examines the work of the famous poet, editor, critic, and political thinker. It places the poetry in its biographical context from his anarchistic and avant-garde youth to the libertarian conservative and Catholic convert of later years. It takes a new look at the great Ern Malley hoax, his profound essays on the decolonization of New Guinea, his association with such major figures as B.A.Santamaria and Sir John Kerr, his involvement with the Industrial Groups in the ALP and with the DLP, his founding of the magazine Quadrant, and his response to a number of controversies from the CIA scandals to the New Left assaults on the universities. No other biography of McAuley encompasses all the wide-ranging activities of this great poet.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Connor Court ed.)

Last amended 31 Aug 2006 09:09:57
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