"Can Great Poetry Survive the Post-revolutionary West?"

This is the text of a presentation given to the Sydney Traditionalist Forum on 27 September 2019 as part of the Forum's "Quarterly Inquiry Series". Prof. Spurr reflects on his own experiences teaching English literature, and discusses the state of the humanities at university level. Reference is made to various educational innovations, particularly in relation to the teaching of the Classics, and the intellectual poverty of the academy.

Barry Spurr is the literary editor of Quadrant and was Australia's first Professor of Poetry and Poetics. His numerous books and other publications cover the fields of literature, its theological and liturgical aspects, from the Renaissance to the contemporary era. His monographs have included Studying Poetry (2006), See the Virgin Blessed (2007) and Anglo-Catholic in Religion: T.S. Eliot and Christianity (2010).

[As featured in the footnotes, which were added to the text of the presentation by O&R]

T.S. Eliot, "Thoughts After Lambeth", The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot, Vol. 4, (John Hopkins University Press, 2015)

Catherine Runcie, David Brooks (eds.), Reclaiming Education: Renewing Schools and Universities in Contemporary Western Culture (Sydney, NSW, Aust.; Edwin H. Lowe Publishing, 2018)