A Vision of Ceremony

A Vision of Ceremony is a collection of poems by Australian writer James McAuley, published by Angus and Robertson in 1956.^[1]

A Vision of Ceremony

Author	James McAuley
Language	English
Genre	Poetry collection
Publisher	Angus and Robertson
Publication date	1956
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	69 pp.
Awards	1956 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry

The collection contains 31 poems, most of which had been previously published in Australian literary publications such as The Bulletin, Hermes, Meanjin, Southerly and various original poetry anthologies.^[2]

Contents

• "Invocation"
• "Black Swans : 1946-1955"
• "At Dawn"
• "Jesus"
• "To a Dead Bird of Paradise"
• "Mating Swans"
• "Tune for Swans"
• "Memorial (to Some residents of New Guinea)"
• "Sequence"
• "Canticle"
• "To the Holy Spirit"
• "Nativity"
• "An Art of Poetry"
• "Palm"
• "Prefiguration"
• "New Guinea"
• "Meditation (from Hugo von Hofmannsthal)"
• "The Royal Fireworks"
• "Prologue"
• "The Middle of Life (from Friedrich Holderlin)"
• "Vespers"
• "Late Winter"
• "Celebration of Divine Love"
• "To Any Poet"
• "A Leaf of Sage"
• "The Hero and the Hydra"
• "Prometheus : A Secular Masque"
• "The Death of Chiron"
• "The Ascent of Heracles"
• "The Tomb of Heracles"
• "A Letter to John Dryden"

Critical reception

Writing in The Bulletin a reviewer noted McAuley's "shrewd, nuggety plainness of style" and the poet being "more often digged than solemn."^[3]

Ian Mair, in The Age, thought of the poet that the "irony and hard glitter that once he had have now gone" concluding that McAuley is best "when he is a romantic."^[4]

Awards

• 1956 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, winner^[5]

See also

• 1956 in Australian literature