"The Mayan Books" is a poem by Australian poet A. D. Hope. It was first published in the poet's collection Orpheus in 1991, and later in other Australian poetry anthologies.
Outline The poem recounts the sin of Archbishop Diego de Landa of Yucatán who gathered together a large pile of Mayan books and burned the lot. In heaven he looks toward God but God never looks at him.
Analysis In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page noted that poems like this "have a way of floating into and out of focus, according to how much we seem to need them.".60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp. 71-74
Further publications Selected Poems by A. D. Hope, edited by David Brooks, Angus and Robertson, 1992 The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Peter Porter, Oxford University Press, 1996 Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009 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 The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009 Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011
Note Geoff Page, in 60 Classic Australian Poems, indicates that the poem was originally written some time in the 1970s.
See also 1991 in poetry 1991 in literature 1991 in Australian literature Australian literature
References