Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive and original reading of Australian poetry, from the colonial period to the present, through the dual lenses of Romanticism and negativity. Paul Kane argues that the absence of Romanticism functions as a crucial presence in the poetry of all the major Australian poets. This absence or negativity is both thematic and structural, and Kane's scrupulous analyses uncover important relations between Romanticism and negativity. Chapters on nine individual poets explore and substantiate the theoretical claims informed by the work of contemporary critics of Romanticism and by various philosophers of negativity. These chapters can serve as a series of self-contained readings of Australian poets for the use of students, scholars, and informed general readers. Australian Poetry is unique in its sustained argument and theoretical sophistication.