60 Classic Australian Poems for Children

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by Cheng




  All rights reserved. No part of this book m ay be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may beliable in law accordingly.

  60 Classic Australian Poems for Children

  9781742754185

  A Random House book

  Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

  Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060

  www.randomhouse.com.au

  First published by Random House Australia in 2009

  Copyright in this selection and arrangement © Christopher Cheng 2009

  Copyright in the foreword and afterword © Christopher Cheng 2009

  Illustrations copyright © Gregory Rogers 2009

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia.

  Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices.

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

  Title: 60 classic Australian poems for children / edited by

  Christopher Cheng; illustrator, Gregory Rogers

  ISBN: 978 1 74166 414 0

  Target Audience: For children

  Subjects: Australian poetry

  Other Authors/Contributors: Cheng, Christopher

  Rogers, Gregory, 1957–

  Dewey Number: A821.008

  Cover and internal illustrations by Gregory Rogers

  To my primary school teachers, especially Kevin and Helen. CC

  For Matt. GR

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Imprint Page

  Dedication

  Introduction

  Epigraph

  1. Andy’s Gone with Cattle – Henry Lawson

  2. The Ant Explorer – CJ Dennis

  3. The Australian Slanguage – WT Goodge

  4. A Ballad of Shearing (Shearing at Castlereagh) – Banjo Paterson

  5. Bell-birds – Henry Kendall

  6. Brumby’s Run – Banjo Paterson

  7. A Bush Christening – Banjo Paterson

  8. A Bush Christmas – CJ Dennis

  9. The Circus – CJ Dennis

  10. Clancy of the Overflow – Banjo Paterson

  11. The Days of Cobb & Co. – GM Smith (Steele Grey)

  12. The Digger’s Song – Barcroft Henry Boake

  13. An Exile’s Farewell – Adam Lindsay Gordon

  14. Freedom on the Wallaby – Henry Lawson

  15. Fur and Feathers – Banjo Paterson

  16. The Geebung Polo Club – Banjo Paterson

  17. Going to School – CJ Dennis

  18. Hist! – CJ Dennis

  19. How M’Dougal Topped the Score – Thomas E Spencer

  20. The Last of His Tribe – Henry Kendall

  21. The Lights of Cobb and Co. – Henry Lawson

  22. The Man from Ironbark – Banjo Paterson

  23. The Man from Snowy River – Banjo Paterson

  24. Mr Smith – DH Souter

  25. Mulga Bill’s Bicycle – Banjo Paterson

  26. My Typewriter – Edward Dyson

  27. Native Companions Dancing – John Shaw Neilson

  28. Old Granny Sullivan – John Shaw Neilson

  29. Old Man Platypus – Banjo Paterson

  30. On the Night Train – Henry Lawson

  31. ‘Ough!’ – WT Goodge

  32. The Pieman – CJ Dennis

  33. Pioneers – Frank Hudson

  34. Pioneers – Banjo Paterson

  35. Pitchin’ at the Church – PJ Hartigan (John O’Brien)

  36. Poets – CJ Dennis

  37. Post-Hole Mick – GM Smith (Steele Grey)

  38. The Roaring Days – Henry Lawson

  39. A Ruined Reversolet – CJ Dennis

  40. Said Hanrahan – PJ Hartigan (John O’Brien)

  41. Santa Claus in the Bush – Banjo Paterson

  42. The Shearer’s Wife – Louis Esson

  43. A Snake Yarn – WT Goodge

  44. Song of the Artesian Waters – Banjo Paterson

  45. The Swagman – CJ Dennis

  46. Tangmalangaloo – PJ Hartigan (John O’Brien)

  47. The Teacher – CJ Dennis

  48. The Teams – Henry Lawson

  49. The Tram-Man – CJ Dennis

  50. The Traveller – CJ Dennis

  51. The Travelling Post-Office – Banjo Paterson

  52. The Triantiwontigongolope – CJ Dennis

  53. Waiting for the Rain (A Shearing Song) – John Neilson

  54. Waltzing Matilda – Banjo Paterson

  55. Waratah and Wattle – Henry Lawson

  56. The Warrigal – Henry Kendall

  57. Where the Dead Men Lie – Barcroft Henry Boake

  58. Where the Pelican Builds – Mary Hannay Foott

  59. The Women of the West – George Essex Evans

  60. Woolloomooloo – CJ Dennis

  Poet Biographies

  Book References

  Index of First Lines

  Index of Poets

  Introduction

  I love stories, both writing them and reading them. I was privileged enough to attend a primary school where we were encouraged to play with words and where poetry was very much a part of our classroom. Sometimes we would begin lessons with words from some of the great Australian poets. Many of these belonged to our teachers’ personal collections of poems—the ones that they really loved. We too were encouraged to collect the poems that we really loved.

  Our teachers would write the poems onto the chalkboard and we would copy the words into our poetry books (combining handwriting lessons with English lessons). Sometimes the teachers would print the poems that they had themselves carefully copied for us. We would glue the pages into our poetry books and decorate them with our own illustrations (which was often a homework task too). I kept the poems but ditched my attempts at illustrations … Gregory Rogers’s illustrations are much better! Often we would learn the poems (that was another homework task) and at the end of the week our class would recite the week’s new verse, another that we had memorised to perfection. Many school assemblies featured a class reciting poetry. Sometimes we even entered competitions reciting this wonderful Australian poetry.

  The ballads and poems in this book are just like very short stories written in rhyming verse. When the poets were creating these poems they were often writing to explain the life that they saw around them or that they remembered … a very different Australia from the one we now live in. The poets were creating word-pictures of the environment and the landscape and the people they saw.

  At the turn of the last century some of our most popular poets were employed by the major newspapers to travel around the country and report on ‘life on the land’. Other
poets simply travelled from town to town under their own steam and wrote of the life, as they saw it, in ballads and verse. Many of the poems in this collection are from those times.

  Some of the poems are funny—just try to read ‘Mulga Bill’s Bicycle’ without giggling at the crazy antics of an over-confident person trying to learn to ride a pushbike and who ends up in the creek.

  Some of them are serious—read ‘The Women of the West’ or ‘Pioneers’ to see how much of a struggle that life was.

  Other poets such as PJ Hartigan (John O’Brien) are able to treat a serious subject like drought with humour and fun, as he does in ‘Said Hanrahan’.

  And some of the poems are wonderful ways of playing with words.

  So Tri-

  Tri-anti-wonti-

  Triantiwontigongolope.

  In this book there are poems about the land, about the animals of the bush, about life in the city and the country (and sometimes about the vast differences between them), about ‘mateship’ and friendship, about personalities, and I have also included some simply silly, funny poems.

  Over the years some of these poems, such as ‘The Man from Snowy River’ and ‘Hist!’, have been so popular that picture book illustrators have won awards for creating artwork to accompany the verse, in books of their own.

  Some of the poems in this book have extra verses, or slightly different words from those we are used to. This is because many of the poems that I have chosen are in their original (or near-to-original) form, the way they were first published in the newspapers or journals. Many of these poems were written for specific publications. In many cases the poems were subsequently collated (sometimes after the poet’s death) and slightly altered by editors or publishers.

  Why do I like these poems and ballads? I enjoy the rhyme and the rhythm. I also like them because I can read these words and then jump into my mind and imagine what the characters were doing and I can imagine what the poet was writing about. And I enjoy the way that each poem or ballad tells a complete story of a time in Australia’s recent history when the life that people lived was so very much different from the more comfortable and chaotic life that we live now—and it is a life that we must remember.

  Poetry is fun. It is a wonderful way of expressing thoughts and feelings and impressions in mostly short grabs, so …

  Read the poems and laugh.

  Read the poems and be moved.

  Read the poems to recite.

  Read the poems to enjoy.

  Read the poems, and then why not write your own!

  CHRISTOPHER CHENG

  www.chrischeng.com

  1

  Andy’s Gone with Cattle

  Henry Lawson

  Our Andy’s gone to battle now

  ’Gainst Drought, the red marauder;

  Our Andy’s gone with cattle now

  Across the Queensland border.

  He’s left us in dejection now;

  Our hearts with him are roving.

  It’s dull on this selection now—

  Since Andy went a-droving.

  Who now shall wear the cheerful face

  In times when things are slackest?

  And who shall whistle round the place

  When Fortune frowns her blackest?

  Oh, who shall ‘cheek’ the squatter now

  When he comes round us snarling?

  His tongue is growing hotter now

  Since Andy cross’d the Darling.

  The gates are out of order now

  Each wind the riders rattle;

  For far far across the border now

  Our Andy’s gone with cattle.

  Poor Aunty’s looking thin and white;

  And Uncle’s cross with worry;

  And poor old ‘Blucher’ howls all night

  Since Andy left Macquarie.

  Oh, may the showers in torrents fall,

  And all the tanks run over;

  And may the grass grow green and tall

  In pathways of the drover!

  And may good angels send the rain

  On desert stretches sandy;

  And when the summer comes again

  God grant ’twill bring us Andy!

  Australian Town and Country Journal, 1888

  * * *

  In 1966, when Australia first issued decimal currency, an image of Henry Lawson, along with scenes from his childhood in Gulgong, decorated the back of the Australian $10 paper note.

  * * *

  2

  The Ant Explorer

  CJ Dennis

  Once a little sugar ant made up his mind to roam—

  To fare away far away, far away from home.

  He had eaten all his breakfast, and he had his Ma’s consent

  To see what he should chance to see; and here’s the way he went—

  Up and down a fern frond, round and round a stone,

  Down a gloomy gully where he loathed to be alone,

  Up a mighty mountain range, seven inches high,

  Through the fearful forest grass that nearly hid the sky,

  Out along a bracken bridge, bending in the moss,

  Till he reached a dreadful desert that was feet and feet across.

  ’Twas a dry, deserted desert, and a trackless land to tread;

  He wished that he was home again and tucked-up tight in bed.

  His little legs were wobbly, his strength was nearly spent,

  And so he turned around again; and here’s the way he went—

  Back away from desert lands, feet and feet across,

  Back along the bracken bridge bending in the moss,

  Through the fearful forest grass, shutting out the sky,

  Up a mighty mountain range seven inches high,

  Down a gloomy gully, where he loathed to be alone,

  Up and down a fern frond and round and round a stone.

  A dreary ant, a weary ant, resolved no more to roam,

  He staggered up the garden path and popped back home.

  A Book for Kids, 1921

  3

  The Australian Slanguage

  WT Goodge

  ’Tis the everyday Australian

  Has a language of his own,

  Has a language, or a slanguage,

  Which can simply stand alone;

  And a ‘dickon pitch to kid us’

  Is a synonym for ‘lie,’

  And to ‘nark it’ means to stop it,

  And to ‘nit it’ means to fly.

  And a bosom friend’s a ‘cobber,’

  And a horse a ‘prad’ or ‘moke,’

  While a casual acquaintance

  Is a ‘joker’ or a ‘bloke.’

  And his lady-love’s his ‘donah’

  Or his ‘clinah’ or his ‘tart’

  Or his ‘little bit o’ muslin,’

  As it used to be his ‘bart.’

  And his naming of the coinage

  Is a mystery to some,

  With his ‘quid’ and ‘half-a-caser’

  And his ‘deener’ and his ‘scrum!’

  And a ‘tin-back’ is a party

  Who’s remarkable for luck,

  And his food is called his ‘tucker’

  Or his ‘panem’ or his ‘chuck.’

  A policeman is a ‘johnny’

  Or a ‘copman’ or a ‘trap,’

  And a thing obtained on credit

  Is invariably ‘strap.’

  A conviction’s known as ‘trouble,’

  And a gaol is called a ‘jug,’

  And a sharper is a ‘spieler,’

  And a simpleton’s a ‘tug.’

  If he hits a man in fighting

  That is what he calls a ‘plug,’

  If he borrows money from you

  He will say he ‘bit your lug.’

  And to ‘shake it’ is to steal it,

  And to ‘strike it’ is to beg,

  And a jest is ‘poking borac’

  And a jester ‘pulls your leg.’


  Things are ‘cronk’ when they go wrongly

  In the language of the ‘push,’

  But when things go as he wants ’em

  He declares it is ‘all cush.’

  When he’s bright he’s got a ‘napper,’

  And he’s ‘ratty’ when he’s daft,

  And when looking for employment

  He is ‘out o’ blooming graft.’

  And his clothes he calls his ‘clobber’

  Or his ‘togs’, but what of that

  When a ‘castor’ or a ‘kady’

  Is the name he gives his hat!

  And our undiluted English

  Is a fad to which we cling,

  But the great Australian slanguage

  Is a truly awful thing!

  The Bulletin, 1898

  4

  A Ballad of Shearing1

  Banjo Paterson

  The bell is set a-ringing and the engine gives a toot,

 

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