Brennan, Dransfield, and Myself: A Poetics of Failure

This thesis functions both as an exegesis of my poetry manuscript breathe in space and as a mapping of the space between the poles of success and failure in the work of three Australian poets, a method that helps define a new theoretical model for the poet qua researcher. The collective critical reception of a poet's works can often involve either an implicit invocation of failure or success. Failure is also something new writers must inevitably contend with. This thesis looks at failure in a general sense before analysing the past function and future possibilities of A Poetics, affirming a strategy that involves the practising writer embracing his or her own models of failure. Following sections interrogate the works of poets, un-packaging the failures within their works (the author's own poetry is included and critiqued). This thesis and collection of poems both contend that poetic failure has in the past been canonised as an overly simple idea. The results of this creative analysis and speculation suggest that the poet must locate and understand failure as a necessary thematic.