Doctoral Thesis
An Exploration of the Presence of Place in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney, Les Murray and Michael Stevens
Murdoch University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Murdoch University
2026
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60867/00000093
Abstract
This thesis argues that presence is the essence and lifeblood of poetry. Comprising a creative component and an exegesis, it explores how presence may be defined within poetic experience, and how it can be produced in and through language. I argue that the efficacy of poetry is its potential to imaginatively bring things from the past into the present reality to be experienced anew. This thesis is framed by a theoretical account of presence, drawing on the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Wolfgang Iser, and others. It engages with their theories to consider how the things of the world might be expressed through language, incorporating Nancy’s notion of presence, Gumbrecht’s modes of achieving presence through its fusion with language, and Iser’s account of presence produced in the reading process. The thesis further posits that presence and place are interdependent and inextricably entwined. To lay a foundation for the notion of place, I turn to the philosophies of Edward Casey and Jeff Malpas, who both offer accounts of how humans are inseparably bound to place. This frame supports my argument that presence is vital to poetry. The theoretical framework I establish is tested and illuminated through my analysis of the poetry of Seamus Heaney and Les Murray, alongside my own poetic practice.
To reveal how a sense of things can be rendered in language, the thesis investigates the use of metaphor, semantics and fields of reference, demonstrating how a sense of something might be associated with its image formed through reading poetry. This thesis adds to the scholarship an understanding that the essence of poetry is the experience of poetic presence, which originates in the desire to be imaginatively close to a poem’s subject matter and can arise from a movement of thought towards a sense of it, leading to a physical embodiment of the experience.
Finally, I reflect on my own ideas about poetry and the poems that comprise the creative component. The insights gained through this research into presence and place strengthen my own poetry and shape my ethos of what constitutes poetic efficacy. I argue that while few poems fully achieve the elusive quest for presence, when they do, the experience—like hearing Puccini’s ‘Un Bel Di Vadremo’—is unfathomable, inexplicable and endlessly relivable.
Details
- Title
- An Exploration of the Presence of Place in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney, Les Murray and Michael Stevens
- Authors/Creators
- MICHAEL C Stevens
- Contributors
- Helena Grehan (Supervisor)Kathryn Trees (Supervisor) - Murdoch University, School of Humanities, Arts and Social SciencesAlys Daroy (Supervisor) - Murdoch University, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
- Awarding Institution
- Murdoch University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Publisher
- Murdoch University
- Identifiers
- 991005877051407891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- College of Law, Arts and Social Sciences
- Resource Type
- Doctoral Thesis
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