Title: Traditional Australian Verse
Editor: Richard Walsh
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2009 (308 pages)
ISBN: 978-1-74237-138-2
Genre: Poetry

Summary (publisher website)

The quintessential collection of Australian bush ballads, and songs ranging from the first verse written on our shores through the works of CJ Dennis, Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson and many more.

Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, CJ Dennis and Adam Lindsay Gordon. Once upon a time these were household names and Australians could recite their most famous verse. Here for the first time in one volume are all the great bush ballads, memorable songs and other poetry from the glory days of our bush tradition.
If you always wondered what came after ‘There was movement at the station…’ or ‘ We’ll all be rooned said Hanrahan…’ then Traditional Australian Verse is the book for you. Here too are the original versions of Advance Australia Fair’ , Bound for Botany Bay’ and The Dog Sat on the Tucker Box’ , plus the bawdy version of The Bastard from the Bus’ .

To entertain and delight the newcomer and the traditionalist alike, this treasury offers equal parts merriment, calumny, lyricism and gentle melancholia.

Comments

As I read through these poems preparing to review this book, I wanted to grab my children and recite many of the poems to them. The works Walsh has collection reveal something of the Australian character that I would love my children to cherish – tenacity in the face of adversity, an ability to see beauty in a land where others saw simply hardship and unfamiliarity, an irrepressible sense of humour, intelligence and eloquence.

I do not generally feel a particular affinity to poetry but there is something incredibly appealing about the work of many of the bush poets, probably because of the humour and lack of pretence so evident in many of the poems.

If you’re looking for an introduction to early Australian poetry that offers just enough background information to put the poems in context, Traditional Australian Verse fits the bill perfectly.

Related links:

• Review of Traditional Australian Verse at Suite101.com