Robinson, Roland (1912-1992), was an Irish-born Australian poet and collector of myths. He was an admirer of nature and the Australian bush. He was at the forefront of the Jindyworobak school of Australian poets founded in the 1930’s by Rex Ingamells. This literary movement sought to create a distinctive national literature by combining Aboriginal words and legends with the literary style of Australia’s colonial past.
Robinson’s verse is shaped both by his love of the bush and by the legends of the Aboriginal Dreamtime. According to Aboriginal tradition, the Dreamtime includes an ancient time when the first beings existed, and it also is an eternal aspect of the universe. Robinson’s first volume of poetry was Beyond the Grass-Tree Spears (1944), followed by such collections as Language of the Sand (1949), Tumult of the Swans (1953), and Deep Well (1962). He won the Grace Leven Prize for 1953 for Tumult of the Swans. Two books of Selected Poems were published in 1971 and 1983. Robinson also wrote five books on Aboriginal life and folklore, Legend and Dreaming (1952), The Feathered Serpent (1956), Black-feller, White-feller (1958), The Man Who Sold His Dreaming (1965), and Aboriginal Myths and Legends (1966). Robinson published three volumes of autobiography, A Drift of Things (1973), The Shift of Sands (1976), and A Letter to Joan (1978).
Roland Edward Robinson was born on June 12, 1912, in County Clare, Ireland, and came to Australia in 1921. He worked on a variety of laboring jobs before turning to writing. He died on Feb. 8, 1992.
