Frameworks of the mystical in Australian colonial and post-federation poetry

Most European, Asian and Middle Eastern literatures explicitly acknowledge the nexus between national or regional poetics and forms of religious mysticism. Despite equivalents in the English, American and European poetries from which it is initially derived, an Australian Christian mystical poetics has never been explicitly examined-possibly due to its interdisciplinary character-despite ample evidence for its existence. This paper examines the earliest, often forgotten constructions of what an Australian mystical poetics might entail with particularly emphasis on the erotics of the unknown land, its satirical detractors, and proponents of a contemplative ideal into the post-Federation era.