Find poetry and verse in the Library, online and print indexes, and the Internet.
Illustration of Adam Lindsay Gordon, Australian poet, by Eugene Montagu Scott. Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria.
The database, Austlit: the Australian literature resource is a good source of information on Australian poets and poetry, covering biography, published works, criticism and awards.
The 'Advanced Search' facility allows searching across all fields in the database and can be used for identifying poems where the first line is known.
Austlit is available within the Library. Registered Victorian users can also access it outside the Library. The database doesn't include full text, however many of the sources will be held in print and online by the Library.
Modern Australian Poetry on the Australian Government Culture Portal provides a useful overview with links to online poetry journals and other sources.
The websites of individual poets - for example Les Murray and John Tranter - can be a useful source of information. Do an Internet search for specific poets. The best sites will usually include the poet's name. You will need to make a judgement on the quality of individual sites. For instance, are there citations for specific references? Are poems quoted correctly? Does the information on the site correspond with other sources of information?
Ern Malley: the Official Website
An excellent website covering all aspects of the Ern Malley hoax of 1943-44. Two young poets, Harold Stewart and James McAuley, wrote a number of poems under the fictitious name Ern Malley and submitted them to the radical cultural journal Angry penguins. Stewart and McAuley aimed to ridicule the perceived modernist pretensions of the journal, its editors and its contributors. The editor of the magazine, Max Harris, was so impressed by the poems that he published a special edition of Angry penguins to promote what he thought was a newly-discovered poet of genius. Others were not impressed and suspected that the poems were not genuine. Subsequent investigations revealed the hoax.
Here are some Australian poetry websites to help get you started. You will find more on the Internet.
Australian Poetry Library
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/
Australian Poetry Slam
http://australianpoetryslam.com/
Australian Poetry Slam: Victorian Heats
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/poetry-slam-heats
ABPA: The Australian Bush Poets Association
Cordite Poetry Review
