Vincent Buckley: Contents page

Vincent Buckley (1925–88) was born in country Victoria, and was educated by the Jesuits in Melbourne and at the universities of Melbourne and Cambridge. He was appointed professor of English at Melbourne University and was a central figure in the contemporary, somewhat academic style of poetry that developed there in the 1950s and 60s. His later poetry shows the influence of Robert Lowell’s Life Studies (1959). His first book of poems was The World’s Flesh (1954) and he went on to publish and edit over a dozen books of poetry, essays and criticism. His best known book of poems is Golden Builders (1976). He was deeply interested in Irish politics, culture, and history, and spent much of his later years in Ireland. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan award in 1982.