Robert Gray

Stephen McInerney (Campion College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 9.1.1: Australian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Susan Kossew (Monash University)

Dates

Born 23 Feb 1945
Activity 1965-ongoing

Places

Born in Australia
Active in Australia

Activities

Primary

Poet

Other

Essayist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Painter
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

Gray's Works

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In “Under the Summer Leaves” (1988), one of his many poems in which an isolated figure, walking through a landscape, vividly registers the details of the natural world, Robert Gray, one of Australia’s most renowned poets, glances at “saplings from Tom Roberts, / and paperbarks that Nolan has taught us to see” (

New Selected Poems

204). By acknowledging the influence of these painters on the way Australians “see” their environment, Gray makes us aware of the nature of his own task, one he has pursued through seven volumes of verse and numerous selected editions during a career spanning more than 30 years.

On the surface this task is a simple one: to present, detail by detail, those elements of a setting which combine to influence the mood of its human observer, and to bring to

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1946 words

Citation: McInerney, Stephen. "Robert Gray". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1849, accessed 25 November 2024.]