Bernard Patrick O’Dowd

Australian poet
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Quick Facts
Born:
April 11, 1866, Beaufort, Victoria, Australia
Died:
September 2, 1953, Melbourne, Victoria (aged 87)

Bernard Patrick O’Dowd (born April 11, 1866, Beaufort, Victoria, Australia—died September 2, 1953, Melbourne, Victoria) was a poet who gave Australian poetry a more philosophical tone, supplanting the old bush ballads that had dominated for many years. Educated in the arts and law at the University of Melbourne, O’Dowd taught for a while, worked as a librarian, then made a successful career as a parliamentary draftsman for the Australian Parliament. In Dawnward? (1903), his first book of verse, he expressed strong political convictions. The Silent Land followed in 1906, and the philosophical Dominions of the Boundary in 1907. In an ...(100 of 139 words)