Thomas W. Shapcott is acclaimed as one of the most significant poets of Australia. James Tulip in Southerly (March 1983) calls him a "central reflecting intelligence of his generation." A lavish writer of poems, novels, and short stories, Shapcott has also collaborated with several composers, notably Colin Brumby. He reviews widely and has edited several major volumes. He has been awarded many prestigious national and international prizes, and in 1989 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. His work has been translated overseas, especially in Europe.

Shapcott believes that naming "our landscape, our culture is still the most important task . . . not as a set formula, but out of inner excitement." Poets, through listening to the quiet still voice within, must share with others so they may also be part of a wider listening and remembering. As he wrote in Biting the Bullet: A Literary Memoir (1990), one of...