It is a strange thing to classify poets as either great or "good poets who wrote a few great poems". I would class both Hope and Wright as great poets and certainly as two of the greatest Australian poets.
This debate is not really new. I recall in a book by James McAuley (I'll find it if anyone is interested) an introduction to the poetry of Wright where he says exactly the comment made here - that she was possibly a good poet who wrote a few great poems.
I think that both Wright and Hope have suffered from some bad readings. For Wright "Woman to Man" and Hope "Australia". Plus Hope was burdened with the tag "professor poet".
While I wouldn't claim to have read all their work I have read a great deal of each poet and when you read the fairly vast body of work of each it is very clear that there are many great poems written by both Hope and Wright. Also I would suggest that many of these poems *work* when read alongside the others... the series of bird poems would be the best example.
I would be interested in hearing what others feel about Hope and Wright, since apart from an article by Fay Zwicky in Southerly (around '88) there has been little written about the two poets (at least in terms of examining the way the two "meet" in their writing). Perhaps with the recent passing of both writers we might get more of that "postponed judgement".
Cheers,
Jim Robinson
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