Reputation of a Romantic

In 1915 John Shaw Neilson was in Melbourne. 'It was during this trip to town', he recalled, 'that I saw a real live Australian poet.' There is a note of awe here that jars slightly, for Neilson's own reputation as an important poet is now firmly established. Meanwhile, the reputation of Bernard O'Dowd, the 'real live poet' whom Neilson visited, has slumped under the weight of almost half a century of more or less hostile criticism. O'Dowd's poetry is largely unread, and his books of verse lie gathering dust and silverfish in libraries and second-hand bookshops. If he is remembered at all in Australian literary criticism, it is either as an 'influence' or as one of those unfortunate types for whom posterity has little mercy: the bad poet.