For the symposium, I propose to discuss Harpur’s use of three figures in the poem ‘Song (The world’s heart is kindless and grey …)’, in terms of the poem’s professed antinationalist theme, and through discussing their metonymical evocations, and their, to some extent, contradictory relations with each other. The figures are that of ‘the wandering Jew’, ‘Nimrod’ (these two from the Judaeo-Christian tradition) and ‘Juggernaut’, which is derived from Hinduism. All figures are more or less cliché, and require a level of irony (perhaps, rather, sarcasm) in order to have any purchase on a projected reader’s mind. The literary history of these terms will be touched on, in order to get a sense of what tradition Harpur invokes in this poem. Finally, my question will be: what kind of writing – of poetry – is this? And further, to what extent is it typical of Harpur’s poetry? (Therefore involving some comparative analysis with Harpur’s oeuvre).
Michael Farrell grew up in Bombala, NSW and has lived in Melbourne since 1990. Michael’s most recent book publication is The Victoria Principle (short stories); preceding poetry titles include Googlecholia, Family Trees, and I Love Poetry. A scholarly book, Writing Australian Unsettlement: Modes of Poetic Invention 1796-1945, theorises a new approach to the history of colonial poetics. Other texts include the lyrics for the Dick Diver song ‘Waste the Alphabet’; Michael edits the small poetry magazine ‘The Chalamet Review’, and is poetry editor for Westerly.