Hope's son is terribly greedy, and he's not doing his father any favors. I wrote two poems for Hope, and Les Murray published them right after his death. I owe a big debt to Dave, Sam, and Dana for introducing me to the great man's work.

Tim, I had a brief exchange with Hope's sons a few years ago seeking permission to quote lines from his poems in an essay. They were both very reasonable and requested no payment at all, unlike the estate of Auden, which requested an absurd amount, so that the publisher had to ask me to cut the quotations from his work. As I say, it was a brief exchange but very civil.

Jan
I think the poem you posted 'Australia' has some rich imagery and is very accurate, except he says Australia has no songs, did Hope ever hang out with aboriginals or was he too fixated with the past, if he'd left his study more he might have realised our country is full of the most ancient continous song cycles in the world.