Last week's speaker: Franz Huber - Bush Poetry
Posted by Franz Huber on Mar 04, 2017
So how come we have a guy with a Swiss accent trying out Australian Bush Poetry? Well, it has for a long time been one of my most favorite pastimes. Some 40 years ago or so, I heard famous Australian actor Jack Thompson recite part of the last stanza of Banjo Paterson's 'The Man from Snowy River'. Of all things, it was for a TV commercial to promote the (then) early beginnings of the Clean up Australia campaign:And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around The Overflow the reed beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide....
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around The Overflow the reed beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide....
... don't rubbish Australia!
Well, it still is goose pimple stuff today, in particular if Jack Thompson recites it.
In Australia, the art is well and truly developed. Sure, everyone has heard and read the old masters: in addition to Banjo, for example, "In the days when the world was wide" by Henry Lawson. Many however may not be aware that there was some quite fierce competition, if not antagonism
between the two masters. Whilst the Banjo waxed lyrically about the heavenly beauty of the bush in poem such as 'Clancy of the Overflow' with stanzas such as
...As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing
For the bush has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
To which Lawson, in his huge epic 'The City Bushman' replied with
... Droving songs are very pretty, but they merit little thanks
From the people of a country in possession of the banks.
If you go to this link: http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/ you will find an index of about 300 major authors, and that doesn't include the "modern" ones such as Grahame Watt, Col Wilson (aka Blue - The Shearer), Bob Magor and certainly does not include that most prolific writer by the name of 'Anon' or 'A. Nonimous'... But the index also includes classic writers who were born overseas, such as the Scotsman Will Ogilvie. His work "The Last Muster" is one of the most evocative poems I know:
All day we had driven the starving sheep to the scrub where the axes ply
And the weakest had lagged upon weary feet and dropped from the ranks to die
And the crows flew up from the rotting heaps and the ewes too weak to stand
And the fences flaunted red skins like flags and the dour drought held the land
And the weakest had lagged upon weary feet and dropped from the ranks to die
And the crows flew up from the rotting heaps and the ewes too weak to stand
And the fences flaunted red skins like flags and the dour drought held the land
A segment of Bush Poetry that is often sadly overlooked, yet is hugely enjoyable, is the many parodies of major works that exist. Many are written by the ubiquitous 'Anon', such as 'The Man from Kaomagma' (not recommended for children or purists) or Rob Charlton's 'Clancy of the Overtime'...
Whilst I would not for a moment want to compare myself to any of the masters, I enjoy writing the odd ditty myself. It is actually quite a good stress absorbing hobby, in particular if the subject is something to make a bit of fun of. Some of my fellow Rotarians have been the "victims"... Last Wednesday, it was our Sergeant Andy Bell's turn. But no, I would not consider anything to be of a level to be published! So, if you want a copy (with Andy's permission), you'll have to drop me an email to request it.