How Australian poetry has evolved throughout time
Just over a century ago poetry was all the rage in Australia. Newspapers and magazines published it, entertainers and elocutionists performed it on stages across the country, and ordinary Australians recited it in schools, local halls and suburban parlours. Yet this communal experience of poetry has now largely disappeared. In The Wild Reciter Peter Kirkpatrick examines how this change occurred by exploring the shifting relationships between poetry and popular culture, and in particular the arrival of new media, taking the reader from 'penny readings' and vaudeville to slam and Instapoetry Many extraordinary yet wholly forgotten works are brought to light, while some well-known poems and their authors receive a critical makeover. '