THE glory days of Australia's bush heritage are recalled in this classic collection of poetry and songs.
From Banjo Paterson's Clancy of the Overflow and Henry Lawson's The Lights of Cobb & Co to popular tunes Click Go The Shears and On The Road To Gundagai, this book captures the spirit of rural Australia in the dying years of the 19th century and the early 1900s.
- Traditional Australian Verse: The Essential Collection, edited by Richard Walsh. Allen and Unwin, rrp $29.99
"This collection was made with no higher purpose than to delight the reader," editor Richard Walsh explains.
"It is a collection of traditional verse and songs, even doggerel, but it is more than that.
"It is the story of the first hundred years or so of English-speaking exiles coming to emotional terms with their fate and with the exotic island on which they found themselves marooned."
In a short piece of commentary beginning each chapter, Walsh explains the hallmarks of Australian poetry originating from the era the book documents.
Readers learn many of our popular bush songs were inspired by existing ballads brought to Australia by early convicts and settlers, and that Paterson and Lawson both found fame through poems published in the influential magazine The Bulletin.
The book also contains a glossary, explaining now rarely-used terms like "snagger", an unskilful shearer, and "johnny cake", a kind of small damper.
There is also an index of first lines, allowing the reader to discover what came after "There was movement at the station" or "Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze".
Perfect for a home library, this collection will entertain newcomers to Australian bush balladry, and delight those who remember when life was simpler.
