Micheal Dransfield :: essays research papers

Michael Dransfield A poet you can feel, but never truly understand.During a time of great change, two ideally and physically, in Australian history, a young man by the name of Michael Dransfield made his presence known in the highly evolving scene of poetry. Dransfield was an eccentric character, to say the least, and was acknowledge for his masterful ability of truly capturing the essence of many of lifes situations. Regardless of the heaviness or the difficulties of the subject matter being portrayed passim his poetry, Dransfield was mentally equipped to fully encompass any life experience and dawn light on some of its eternal truths in the world. Although he tragically died of a heroin overdose in 1973 (he was 24 years old), Dransfield made a lasting impression on Australian poetry never to be forgotten and to be forever considered one of the foremost poets of the 68 generation of counter-cultural dreamers (Chan, 2002).Throughout his brief existence on this earth, Dransfield w as able to produce an extensive tree trunk of work that ranged from the human act of loving to the dreadful experience of having a drug overdose. His work is framed within the literary construct of the Generation of 68 because it undeniably challenged the literary status quo during that period of time, and he overwhelmed it with sheer talent (Kinsella, 2002). Dransfield was innovative, unique, and was seen as somewhat a global poet, and something of a prophet (Kinsella, 2002). He existed during a time where poets were more inclined to avoid any mention of what they really did ( in the drug using reek), taking refuge in the socially accepted subject of football, rather than confronting the challenges associated with drug use. Dransfield had no such inhibitions, he was the quintessential drug poet in Australian literary history, and it was through his drug usageboth the beauty and the destruction of itthat Dransfield was able to fully let his talent and generosity shine for all to see. He blazed the new trails for all those that were to follow him, and successfully created a place for the authentic experience in the realm of poetry.It is a shame that it took such a personal tragedy for Dransfield to engage so definitively with the experience of dependancein such an astonishingly short time (Armand, 1997). His work can only be marveled at and admired for its richly cosmopolitan tone, its urgent sense of possibility, its sheer cannibal energy, and its persistent attempt to resolve difficult emotional problems (Armand, 1997).