A.D. Hope

Explores the principal themes in Hopes poetry, noting that many of the issues of concern to todays younger poets–a return to narrative, the discursive mode, and traditional form, for instance–have long been apparent in Hopes poetry and criticism. In an illuminating introduction, Darling provides a biographical sketch of his subject, treating Hopes years at Oxford (where he studied under C. L. Wrenn, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis), his criticism of the Jindyworobak and pseudo-modernist movements, being mentored by the poet James McAuley (then Hopes student), and his encounters with Australias harsh antiobscenity laws. A probing chapter on the Australian literary tradition helps readers understand the significance of landscape and ecological imagery in Hopes verse; additional chapters address satiric, grotesque, heroic, mythic, and other elements in the poets works. Well suited for college and graduate courses and will be welcomed by scholars and general readers.