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Poets post-1900
Michael Dransfield (1948–73) was born and grew up in Sydney. He attended Sydney Grammar and (briefly) Sydney University, and worked for a while in the Australian Taxation Department as a clerk before drifting into the counter-culture and adopting the role of wandering minstrel. He was a prolific writer of lyrical poems which gained wide attention early, and which later in his brief career came to focus more and more on drug experiences. He died in his mid-twenties, before his talent had fully matured, leaving behind close to a thousand poems. His first book was Streets of the Long Voyage (UQP, 1970). His Collected Poems (UQP, 1987) was edited by Rodney Hall, who as poetry editor of The Australian newspaper had been among the first to publish Dransfield’s poetry.
Material available on this site:
John Tranter reviews Michael Dransfield — Collected Poems, edited by Rodney Hall, University of Queensland Press, paperback, $14:95. First published in the Weekend Australian 21–22 November 1987. This piece is 800 words or about two printed pages long.
In the Survey Article section: ‘The Poetry Explosion’ — Virginia Osborne introduces six talented young Sydney poets, Vogue Australia, April 1971 (Robert Adamson, John Tranter, Michael Dransfield, Martin Johnston, Terry Larsen, and Peter Skrzynecki.)
http://april.edu.au/dransfield-m/index.shtml