Introduction

Abstract

Poems are not written in a vacuum: they are the products of individual men and women living in different societies at different times in history. Accordingly, we need to bring a measure of historical learning and biographical information to our reading of poetry if it is to be informed and persuasive. Our interpretation of a poem, both thematically and stylistically, depends on whether it was written in early nineteenth-century England by Lord Byron or later twentieth-century Australia by Gwen Harwood. It is futile to contend that the identity, biography and historical period of an author are irrelevant to the work he or she produced.