''Moonlight Acre'' (1938) is a collection of

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

by Australian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

R. D. Fitzgerald Robert David FitzGerald III AM OBE (22 February 1902 – 24 May 1987) was an Australian poet. Biography FitzGerald was born in Hunters Hill, New South Wales, a third-generation Australian of Irish extraction, and studied science at the Univer ...

. It won the

ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

in 1938.

* "Moonlight Acre" * "Copernicus" * "The Hidden Bole" * "Essay on Memory"

Critical reception

On its original publication in Australia a reviewer in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' was rather unstinting in their praise by stating "This slim volume contains work of such a high order that it should go far to establish Mr. FitzGerald as one of the finest contemporary poets writing in English." They went on to state: "Although it avoids the wilful obscurity and recondite allusions of many younger English poets, misled by Eliot and Pound, it can challenge them bravely on their own ground of intellectual subtlety. Mr. FitzGerald, moreover, has a poetic advantage over his English contemporaries in that, while they wrestle over political and social problems, he grapples with the larger issues of man and his universe". The reviewer in ''The Telegraph'' (Brisbane) looked more deeply into the poems in the collection: "The poems are not easy reading, each presenting certain difficulties arising from the author's labours in attempting to solve his intellectual-emotional problems, a task artistically but not spiritually fruitful. Mostly of iambic pulse, the poems are tinctured with a metaphysical mysticism, partly pure pagan and partly the issue of a mind influenced by modern psychology and biology. The incongruity of such a mental mixture is evidenced by the poet's analysis and synthesis. Gravely disturbed by human conditions, he arraigns Peace and champions the sword of War as a cleansing scourge.""A Poet of Distinction" by B.V., ''The Telegraph'', 21 January 1939, p24
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References

{{Reflist Australian poetry collections 1938 books ALS Gold Medal winning works

Contents

Critical reception

See also

References