Charles Harpur’s ‘Midsummer Noon’: A Structuralist Approach

Abstract

Macainsh offers a paradigmatic analysis of the poem to show a “clarity of structure” not detected by other critics. The “element of space” suggested by the title “is essentially that of a vertical dimension penetrating a horizontal”. The elements of the poem all fit in relation to these axes, forming a cone shape. The poem then “moves” along these two axes as the reader proceeds from the first line to the last.

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Published 1 October 1978 in Volume 8 No. 4. Subjects: Critical reception, Poetic techniques, Structuralism, Charles Harpur.

Cite as: Macainsh, Noel. ‘Charles Harpur’s ‘Midsummer Noon’: A Structuralist Approach.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 1978, doi: 10.20314/als.a1592fe0c8.