Charles Harpur’s Reputation 1853-1858 : The Years of Controversy

Abstract

Between 1853 and 1858 there was a dramatic change in the literary reputation of Charles Harpur. Prior to 1853 Harpur had produced a volume of verse, Thoughts> A Series of Sonnets, and had been a regular contributor to various newspapers since 1833. There were, no doubt, minor disagreements as in the Ewing-Parkes-Milton controversy which occurred soon after Parkes' very warm appraisal of Harpur's slim volume, 1 but these were not major criticisms of the poet. 1853, however, began with the publication of Harpur's second volume and by 1858 Harpur had become the centre of one of the major literary controversies of the period. Moreover, much more fundamental questions relating not only to the intrinsic worth of Harpur as a poet but also to the overall direction of Australian literature began to be raised and discussed in earnest. This change in literary responses as it relates to Charles Harpur is one of the more interesting episodes of mid-nineteenth century Australian literary history and deserves a closer look.