The Knight of the Southern Cross and Other Poems
Adelaide, E.S. Wigg & Son, [1901].
Sextodecimo, [iv], 56 pages.
Original full roan lettered in gilt on the front cover, top edge gilt; leather lightly marked and slightly rubbed at the extremities; endpapers a little unevenly tanned (first and last pages more so); binding strained after the title leaf; a very good copy with contemporary gift and ownership inscriptions.
Ellen Milne Bundey (1868-1919) was the only daughter of Sir William Henry Bundey (1838-1909), a South Australian MP (Attorney-General, 1878-81), and later a Supreme Court judge. The 'Author's Note' printed on page [1] states the 'The "Knight of the Southern Cross" was written before the death of our late revered Sovereign; and while not aiming at being a Federation Ode, (which would, it is needless to say, assume an altogether different "form") it does attempt to typify the entrance of Australia among the nations'. Depasquale ('A Critical History of South Australian Literature, 1836-1930') also has a way with words when discussing 'the vices which spoil the work of this cultured writer: a tendency to bombast, a pretentious sense of mission, and a belief that poetry could be made to order by using time-honoured "poetic" words' (pages 211-12).
Item #137109
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