Selected Poems is a collection of poems by Australian poet Gwen Harwood, published by Angus and Robertson, in 1975.
The collection contains 87 poems by the author, consisting of a selection from Poems (1963) and Poems : Volume Two (1968) as well as 27 new poems.
It was the winner of the 1975 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry.
Contents
Contents
Note: There are three poems in this collection with the title "Nightfall". These are differentiated in the contents, above, by the addition of a postscript year. This year does not appear in any poem's original title.
Critical reception
Reviewing the collection for The Sydney Morning Herald John Beston commented: "On the whole, Harwood's best work lies in her first volume and in these New Poems. Her first volume impresses one with her powerful intelligence, her conciseness, and her intensity of feeling. As one looks back on her early work from New Poems, one finds in it more warmth than was first apparent; the warmth was merely overshadowed by her sharp intelligence. As she became assured in her second volume, her verse became more fluent but Less concise." He concluded that, while this volume may not look attractive, that should not diminish the poet's work as he belonges with Australian poets such as "Wright, Hope, beaver, and Stow."
Awards
1975 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, winner