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Bernard Patrick O’Dowd was a poet, radical and parliamentary draughtsman. He was born in 1866 at Beaufort, Victoria. In 1885 O’Dowd commenced working at the Crown Solicitor’s Office in Melbourne; he became first assistant parliamentary draughtsman in 1913 and was State parliamentary draughtsman from 1931 to 1935. In 1888 he resumed university studies at the University of Melbourne (B.A., 1891; LL.B., 1895). Inspired by Walt Whitman and Irish Celtic mythology, his poetry had radical and nationalistic elements. His peak creative period spaned 1903 to 1921, and included the volumes Dawnward (1903), The Silent Land (1906), The Bush (1912) and Alma Venus! (1921).

Source

Wallace-Crabbe, Chris. O’Dowd, Bernard Patrick (1866-1953), Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Accessed 29 July 2013.