Australia’s ‘wild reciters’ sought to change the world verse by verse. Who are today’s provocateurs?

By Anna Johnston, Professor of English Literature, The University of Queensland

In his latest book, Peter Kirkpatrick retrieves from Australian cultural history the compelling figure of the “wild reciter”, as a reviewer in the 1920s termed amateur elocutionists.

From the late 19th century, men, women and children recited popular verses to audiences who shared in the mass appeal of poetry. Their performances could become histrionic or strident.

Review: The Wild Reciter: Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia, 1890 to the Present (Melbourne University…

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~	The TGL golf league might signal that indoor sport is the future, for better or worse

~	Why the Tesla backlash could help electric cars finally go mainstream

~	Three graphs that show what’s happening with Donald Trump’s popularity

~	The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett was an early work of climate fiction

~	Trump’s job cuts are causing Republican angst as all parties face backlash

~	Psychopaths experience pain differently, even when their bodies say otherwise

~	The paradox of weight loss: why losing pounds may not always lead to better health

~	National standards by stealth? Why the government’s latest plan for schools might fail the history test

~	After months of Trump’s shock tactics, whistleblower groups are pushing back against attacks on workers’ rights

~	Modern spacesuits have a compatability problem. Astronauts’ lives depend on fixing it