Hope, A. D. (1907-2000), was one of Australia’s most distinguished writers. His full name was Alec Derwent Hope. He wrote several books of poetry, including The Wandering Islands (1955), Collected Poems 1930-1970 (1972), the satirical Dunciad Minor (1970), Late Pickings 1965-1974 (1975), The Damnation of Byron (1973), and The Age of Reason (1985). His works of criticism include The Cave and the Spring (1965), Native Companions (1974), and Directions in Australian Poetry (1987).
Hope wrote entirely in traditional verse forms and mastered every verse form he used. He avoided experimental verse, which preoccupied many of his contemporaries. He was one of the few Australian poets to use satire as a means of expression.
The first poems in The Wandering Islands clearly illustrate his theme that all endeavors must end in frustration. This theme is most clearly expressed in the poem “The Death of the Bird,” in which the bird follows her biological pattern until she dies.
Hope’s later poems express his conviction that poetry can regenerate an individual, fill a spiritual need in a material world, and establish some communication between isolated individuals. One of his poems on this creative spirit is “Pyramis, or The House of Ascent.” In it, the poet’s creative impulse is compared with that of the ancient Egyptians who built indestructible pyramids.
Hope was born on July 21, 1907, in Cooma, New South Wales. He studied at Sydney and Oxford universities to be a teacher. From 1951 to 1967, he taught English at Canberra University College, now the School of General Studies of the Australian National University. He died on July 13, 2000.
