Gwen Harwood: a gentle lifting off the shore

An extraordinary poet, one of the most sensual, erudite, subversive and multifac- eted, Gwen Harwood has been dubbed ‘the outstanding Australian poet of the twentieth century’ by Peter Porter and ‘arguably the finest and most highly acclaimed poet writing in Australia’ by Alison Hoddinott. However, while her poetry continues to grow in contemporary relevance and esteem, a century after her birth and 58 years since the publication of her first book of poetry, Poems (1963), Harwood remains largely unknown outside Australia.