SOURCE: Ackland, Michael. “Crosscurrents, Cross-purposes.” In That Shining Band: A Study of Australian Colonial Verse Tradition, pp. 114-33. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1994.

In the following excerpt, Ackland focuses on Henry Kendall's verse of the 1860s in which the poet thematically recast many of the works of his mentor, Charles Harpur, while offering a deeply pessimistic outlook on matters of faith in his writing.

Charles Harpur died in June 1868, a bitterly disappointed man, with his meticulously revised poems still awaiting publication, though his work had not been without local admirers. Nicol Stenhouse had given it his discerning approbation, and Daniel Deniehy had singled out “The Creek of the Four Graves” for flattering comparison with epic compositions of the Old World. Their appreciative comments, however, pale before those paid by his direct successor in the next generation, Henry Kendall. 1862 saw the publication of Kendall's first volume of verse...