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Australian poetry classics: Les Murray’s The Broad Bean Sermon is inexhaustible food for contemplation

The Conversation · 🇦🇺 public Australia · · 1707 words · By David McCooey
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What to know about Australian poetry classics: Les Murray’s The Broad Bean Sermon is inexhaustible food for contemplation

The article provides a literary analysis of the poem 'The Broad Bean Sermon' by Australian poet Les Murray. It explores the intersection of religious and secular themes, Murray's technical poetic skill, and his tendency to embrace contradiction.

Propaganda risk 10%
Claims checked 7
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center100%
Right0%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

In his lifetime, Les Murray (1938–2019) was often associated with contradiction and tension.

Why it matters

He was seen as both Australia’s national poet and a reactionary who was out of step with modern Australian life.

Common ground

He was internationally fêted, often seen as a potential Nobel laureate, but he had a complicated local reputation.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

The article provides a literary analysis of the poem 'The Broad Bean Sermon' by Australian poet Les Murray. It explores the intersection of religious and secular themes, Murray's technical poetic skill, and his tendency to embrace contradiction.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/australian-poetry-classics-les-murrays-the-broad-bea…

analyticsAnalysis

10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 7 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 4
verified Verified By Reference 2
check_circle Corroborated 1
info
Claim 1: “Made up of nine tercets (three-line stanzas), the poem is a trinity of trinities.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The claim that the poem consists of nine tercets is explicitly stated in the 'Australian poetry classics' web search result, but no other independent source confirms the structure.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray_(poet)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Best 100 Poems of Les Murray is a collection of poems by Australian poet Les Murray, published by Black Inc. in 2012. The collection contains 100 poems reprinted from a many of the poet's previou…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_100_Poems_of_Les_Murr…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — "The Broad Bean Sermon" (1974) is a poem by Australian writer Les Murray. It was originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 April 1974, and later included in several of the poet's single-a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broad_Bean_Sermon
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 2: “The Broad Bean Sermon was published in Murray’s fourth collection, Lunch and Counter Lunch (1974).”
SINGLE SOURCE
Wikipedia confirms 'The Broad Bean Sermon' was published in 1974, but the specific detail that it appeared in a fourth collection titled 'Lunch and Counter Lunch' is not corroborated by the provided evidence.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century is an anthology of Australian poetry edited and introduced by Robert Gray and Geoffrey Lehmann, published by Heinemann in 1991. The collection contains 263 p…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Poetry_in_the_Twent…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Best 100 Poems of Les Murray is a collection of poems by Australian poet Les Murray, published by Black Inc. in 2012. The collection contains 100 poems reprinted from a many of the poet's previou…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_100_Poems_of_Les_Murr…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — "The Broad Bean Sermon" (1974) is a poem by Australian writer Les Murray. It was originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 April 1974, and later included in several of the poet's single-a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broad_Bean_Sermon
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 3: “In his essay The Trade in Images (1988), he writes of poetic images”
SINGLE SOURCE
The existence of the essay 'The Trade in Images' (1988) is mentioned in the 'Australian poetry classics' web search result, but not corroborated by other sources.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — For Murray, it was the poetic image itself that could resolve such tensions. In his essay The Trade in Images (1988), he writes of poetic images in a way that is interestingly coincident with the lang…
https://theconversation.com/australian-poetry-classics-les-m…
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web search NEUTRAL — Music video by Vaudeville Smash feat. Les Murray performing Zinedine Zidane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOLGifnMJk
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Here are the sentences completed with the verbs in the correct tense: - Where were you last week? (BE) - I was in Germany with my aunt. (Past Simple). - Oh, it's midnight and I have written only a hal…
https://www.euroki.org/koza/complete-the-sentences-with-the-…
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Claim 4: “the reference to “greenstuff”, meanwhile, might be an allusion to Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself (1855)”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (Wikipedia, Whitman Archive, and Owl Eyes) confirm that Walt Whitman published 'Song of Myself' in 1855.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The poem was first published without sections[3] as the first of twelve untitled poems in the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass.Like many of Walt Whitman’s works, one of the main themes of “Song…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Myself
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Title: 'Song of Myself' [1855]. Creator(s): Miller, James E., Jr. Print Source: The contents of this file are based on a pre-print electronic copy of Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia , ed. Donald D. Cumm…
https://whitmanarchive.org/item/encyclopedia_entry52
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Walt Whitman published “Song of Myself” within the collection Leaves of Grass in 1855. The 1300-line poem is a celebration of the self, which is both individual and universal.
https://www.owleyes.org/text/song-of-myself
info
Claim 5: “Murray converted to Roman Catholicism in 1962.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1962 is explicitly stated in the 'Australian poetry classics' web search result, but not found in the Wikipedia entries provided.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Catholic Church in England and Wales (Latin: Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria; Welsh: Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru a Lloegr) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion wit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_England_and…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The history of the Catholic Church is the formation, events, and historical development of the Catholic Church through time. According to the tradition of the Catholic Church, it started from the day…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catholic_Church
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray_(poet)
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 6: “his 1996 collection Subhuman Redneck Poems”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia directly confirms that 'Subhuman Redneck Poems' is a collection by Les Murray published in 1996.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, formerly known as the C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. As of 2011 it has an enumeration of…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Premier's_Prize_for_…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray_(poet)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Subhuman Redneck Poems is a collection of poems by Australian writer Les Murray, published by Duffy and Snellgrove in 1996. The collection contains 66 poems which were published in a variety of origin…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhuman_Redneck_Poems
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 7: “Les Murray (1938–2019)”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and multiple web sources explicitly confirm Les Murray's birth year as 1938 and death year as 2019.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Les Murray may refer to: Les Murray (broadcaster) (1945–2017), Hungarian-Australian association football broadcaster Les Murray (footballer) (1928–1999), Australian footballer Les Murray (poet) (1938…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray_(poet)
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_laureate
+ 3 more evidence sources
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.