Songs of Love and Life by Zora Cross was a phenomenon in the author's native Australia in 1917. The original privately-published edition quickly sold out, and an expanded edition was produced a month later. Its erotic content, a rejection of old Victorian values, along with anti-war and feminist themes, catapulted the then 27-year-old Cross to the forefront of Australian poets. She was lauded and praised, but slowly fell into disfavor. Here we present the expanded version of her book, with the addition of four poems dropped from the privately-printed edition, which appear at the end of the recording. - Summary by cavaetProof-listeners: AudreyL1, zavaa01, cavaet

Published in 1918, Zora Cross’s book of poems, The Lilt of Life, was her third book of verse, and, like her earlier works, largely focused on her experiences of love, erotic entanglements , and motherhood. Many of the poems are written as an homage to her then-husband, David McKee Wright, whom she met while writing for The Bulletin, where Wright was her editor, causing a significant scandal in Sydney literary circles. - Summary by Elise Dee