He was born in 1925 in Romsey, Victoria and was educated at both the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge, and died in Melbourne in 1988.. ALM Australian Literature Resources - Vincent Buckley Contents page The University of Melbourne 150th Anniversary
Buckley edited the magazine, Prospect, from 1958 to 1964, and, during this period, was also the poetry editor of the Bulletin from 1961 until 1963. Between 1967 and 1979, he lived for periods in Ireland where he founded the Committee for Civil Rights.
He was the Lockie Fellow at the University of Melbourne from 1958 to 1960 and, in 1967, he held a personal Chair in Poetry. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award in 1982.
In 1992 The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize was established in his honour to promote connections between Australian and Irish poets and poetry.
His subject matter ranged from the personal to the political, with a particular interest in Irish politics, culture and history. Buckley was also heavily involved in Catholic intellectual debate during the period of the Cold War and the emergence in Australia of the DLP.
His critical writing includes volumes on poetry, the novelist Henry Handel Richardson, and Leonard French's Campion paintings.
Buckham HillNovember 15thPast itTo the RiverMen of AppinFife-Tune Ian TurnerIn the PerseveranceTwo Half-languagesOriginsLate-winter ChildSpring is the Running Season [published in Quadrant 1/1 (Summer 1956/57): 25]
from The PatternGaeltachtRousings of MunsterSpanish PointWriteThe Blind SchoolYour Father's HouseElegyCaitCeol-Beag for James McAuleyInternmentAll Easter...
Early PoemsSummer Flows OverAutumn LandscapeDisasterOn an Old PortraitCountry TownWinter GalesReading to My Sick DaughterSinn Féin: 1957Borrowing of TreesTo Brigid in SussexFather and SonMovement and StillnessMaster-marinerCriminal CourtFour Love Poems
from Arcady and Other PlacesStrokePuritan Poet ReelParentsPlacesDeath in JanuaryCherry Tree in FogPoems from CatullusEleven Political Poems
from Golden Builders and Other PoemsNorthern CircleJumps JockeyGhosts, Places, Stories, QuestionsDual ChoiceLightening and WaterWilling ServantsClosed HouseSeeing SnowlineAnimal TankaYouth and the Old WomanGolden Builders