From Revolutionary to Visionary

This chapter explores early poetic and intellectual influences on the work of Jack Lindsay, including his reading of classical mythology and of English (particularly Romantic) poetry, as well as his education in classics, early critical essays, and political engagement at the University of Queensland and as tutor for the Workers Educational Association. It maps also the transformation produced by his reunion with his anti-political father, Norman whose manifesto Creative Effort (1924) was inspired by the work of Nietzsche. Abandoning politics for poetics, Lindsay rejected Shelley, demoted Blake from revolutionary to visionary, and embarked on a number of writing and publishing projects characterised by his view that ‘poetry should concern itself with bringing man into being, not with maxims of conduct’.