The first metropolis to be depicted in Australian literature was Hell:
before cities existed in Australia, Francis McNamara, the convict poet,
described the infernal one populated by those who tormented him and his
fellow prisoners. Sentenced in 1832 to seven years' transportation to
Australia for stealing a plaid, he survived the brutality of the penal
system: his witty, rebellious poems laid the foundations for a new
Australian poetry.
Les Murray's anthology of poets from the early years of European
settlement in Australia reaches back in time from his Fivefathers, which
collected significant voices from the early twentieth century. Hell and
After contains extended selections from the work of four poets: reading
them is to experience a culture in the process of creating itself.
Francis MacNamara (1811-1880), the only poet whose work has survived
from the convict era, and three poets from the second half of the
nineteenth century. Mary Gilmore (1865-1962) was born to a pioneering
life in the bush; she became a social reformer and renowned figure in
the Australian Labor Party, and her poems are much loved by Australians
for their vivid evocations of colonial life. John Shaw Neilson
(1872-1942), who spent most of his life as a manual labourer, wrote
poems of great lyricism and humour under conditions of poverty and
ill-health. Lesbia Harford (1891-1927), a radical activist who was one
of the first women to graduate with a law degree from the University of
Melbourne, worked as a factory machinist and domestic servant. Her poems
give voice to a woman's experience of working life and private desire.
