Eroded Hills

"Eroded Hills"
by Judith Wright
Written	1951
First published in	The Bulletin
Country	Australia
Language	English
Lines	12

"Eroded Hills" (1951) is a poem by Australian poet Judith Wright, also known under the title "Inheritor". ^[1]

It was originally published in the The Bulletin on 19 September 1951, ^[2] and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies. ^[1]

Synopsis

The poet stands and contemplates the bare hills of her country, "these hills that my father's father stripped", and she sees them "naked and whipped humbled/abandoned, out of mind". She longs for a time when they bore trees and fruit, and feels a level of guilt about her association with their desecration.

Critical reception

In his wide-ranging essay concerning myths in Australian poetry in Southerly magazine, Martin Harrison noted that if he were "searching for a key genitive figure in 20th Century Australian poetry, then it would be the figure traced in this and similar poems." He went on to comment "this is a poem which has a conductive and productive relationship with the issues of its time: the poem is what makes them significant. It makes them significant through the figure of an internalisation — a dream." ^[3]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in The Bulletin it was reprinted as follows:

• The Gateway by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1953 ^[4]
• Five Senses: Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963 ^[5]
• Australian Idiom : An Anthology of Contemporary Prose and Poetry edited by Harry Heseltine, Cheshire, 1963 ^[6]
• Judith Wright : Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1971 ^[7]
• A Human Pattern : Selected Poems by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1990 ^[8]
• Collected Poems 1942-1985 by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1994 ^[9]
• The Age, 21 February 1988 ^[10]
• Grace and Other Poems by Judith Wright, Picaro Press, 2009 ^[11]
• Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Nicholas Jose, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Anita Heiss, David McCooey, Peter Minter, Nicole Moore, and Elizabeth Webby, Allen and Unwin, 2009 ^[12]

See also

• 1951 in Australian literature
• 1951 in poetry

References

1. "Austlit — "Eroded Hills" by Judith Wright". Austlit. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
2. ""Inheritor"". The Bulletin, 19 September 1951, p2. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
3. "The Myth of Origins" by Martin Harrison, Southerly, January 2000, pp148-162
4. "The Gateway by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
5. "Five Senses: Selected Poems by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
6. "Australian Idiom : An Anthology of Contemporary Prose and Poetry edited by Harry Heseltine". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
7. "Judith Wright : Collected Poems, 1942-1970 (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
8. "A Human Pattern : Selected Poems by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
9. "Collected Poems 1942-1985 by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
10. ""Speaking in the silence" by Fiona Capp". The Age, 21 February 1988, Extra p3. ProQuest   2521615089 . Retrieved 28 November 2025.
11. "Grace and Other Poems by Judith Wright". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
12. "Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature edited by Nicholas Jose, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Anita Heiss, David McCooey, Peter Minter, Nicole Moore, and Elizabeth Webby". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 28 November 2025.