THE NEW OXFORD BOOK OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE Chosen by Les A Murray Melbourne Oxford University Press Oxford Auckland New York CONTENTS Foreword xxi Sam Woolagoodjah Lalai (Dreamtime) 1 Barron Field (1786-1846) The Kangaroo 6 Richard Whately (1787-1863) There is a Place in Distant Seas 7 Anonymous A Hot Day in Sydney 8 The Exile of Erin 11 Hey Boys' Up Go We' 12 The Lime juice Tub 13 John Dunmore Lang (1799-1878) Colonial Nomenclature 14 Anonymous Van Diemen s Land 15 The Convicts Rum Song 16 Hail South A ustraha' 16 The Female Transport 17 The Lass m the Female Factory 18 Francis MacNamara (Frank the Poet) (b 181P) A petition from the chain gang 19 For the Company underground 22 A Convict s Tour to Hell 23 Robert Lowe (1811-1892) Songs of the Squatters I and II 28 Charles Harpur (1813-1868) A Basket of Summer Fruit 31 Wellington 32 A Flight of Wild Ducks 33 Anonymous The Song of the Transportationist 34 Children s Ball bouncing Song 35 Louisa Meredith (1812-1895) Tasmanian Scenes 36 Aboriginal Songs from the 1850s Kilaben Bay song (Awabakal) 36 Women s rondo (Awabakal) 37 CONTENTS Two tongue pointing (satirical) songs (Kamilarot) 38 The drunk man (Wolaroi) 38 Anonymous Whaler s Rhyme 38 The Diggms oh 39 WilhamW Coxon (') The Flash Colonial Barman 41 Charles R Thatcher (1831-1882) Dick Bnggs from Australia 42 Taking the Census 45 Moggy s Wedding 46 Anonymous The Banks of the Condamme 48 The Stnngybark Cockatoo 49 Henry Kendall (1839-1882) Bell birds 50 Beyond Kerguelen 51 Anonymous John Gilbert was a Bushranger 53 Jack McGuire (>) The Streets of Forbes 55 E J Overbury The Springtime it Brings On the Shearing 55 James Brunton Stephens (1835-1902) The Gentle Anarchist 56 Ada Cambridge (1844-1926) Fashion 57 The Future Verdict 57 The Virgin Martyr 58 Marcus Clarke (1846-1881) The Wail of the Waiter 59 Victor Daley (1858-1905) Mother Doorstep 60 The Woman at the Washtub 61 The Dove 63 J A Phelp The Duke of Buccleuch 63 Anonymous The Wooyeo Ball 64 W T Goodge (1862-1909) How We Drove the Trotter 65 CONTENTS A Bad Break' 66 Federation 67 Mary Gilmore (1863-1962) The Harvesters 68 The Little Shoes that Died 68 The Saturday Tub 69 Andrew Barton Paterson ( The Banjo ) (1864-1941) The Travelling Post Office 70 Father Riley s Horse 71 Old Australian Ways 73 Bernard O Dowd (1866-1953) Cupid 75 Charles W Hayward (1866-1950) King George V 77 Barcroft Boake (1866-1892) The Digger s Song 77 Louis Lavater (1867-1953) The Barrier 78 Henry Lawson (1867-1922) The English Queen 79 When Your Pants Begin to Go 81 The Men who Come Behind 82 Anonymous The Bastard from the Bush 83 E G Murphy (Dryblower) (1867-1939) The Smiths 85 Mary Fullerton ( E ) (1868-1946) A Man s a Sliding Mood 86 Unit 86 Poetry 87 Anonymous Shickered As He Could Be 87 E J Brady (1869-1952) The Whaler s Pig 88 Christopher Bennan (1870-1932) Sweet silence after bells' 91 Fire in the heavens 91 J Le Gay Brereton (1871-1933) Unborn 92 John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942) May 92 CONTENTS Schoolgirls Hastening 93 To the Red Lory 93 Ngunaitponi (David Unaipon) (1873-1967) The Song of Hungarrda 94 Anonymous (Narranyen people South Australia) Song The Railway Tram 95 C J Dennis (1876-1938) The Traveller 95 Hugh McCrae (1876-1958) The Mimshi Maiden 96 Louis Esson (1879-1943) The Shearer s Wife 98 P J Hartigan (John O Bnen ) (1879-1952) The Field of the Cloth of Gold 99 Will Dyson (1880-1938) The Trucker 99 Furnley Maurice (Frank Wilmot) (1881-1942) Echoes of wheels 101 Whenever I have 102 The Victoria Markets Recollected in Tranquillity 102 Brian Vrepont (B A Trubndge) (1882-1955) The Bomber 108 Frederic Manning (1882-1935) The Trenches 109 Leaves 110 Anonymous (From the diary of an Australian soldier) 111 Ethel Anderson (1883-1958) Afternoon in the Garden 111 Charles Shaw The Search 112 W J Turner(1884-1946) Romance 113 Marriage 114 The Dancer 114 Vance Palmer (1885-1959) The Snake 115 The Farmer Remembers the Somme 115 Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968) Heritage 116 Arms and the Woman 116 CONTENTS vii Fancy Dress 117 Frederick Macartney (1887-1980) Kynelle Party Politics 118 Dunstan Shaw Retrospection 119 Lesbia Harford (1889-1925) Poems XIV XXII LXIX 120 Anonymous Click go the Shears 122 Dinky di 122 Harley Matthews (1889-1968) Women are not Gentlemen 123 James Devaney (1890-1976) Vision 130 Leon Gellert (1892-1977) House Mates 131 PaulL Grano (1894-1975) Headlined in Heaven 131 In a Chain store Cafeteria 132 Max Dunn (1895-1963) O where were we before time was 133 W E Harney (1895-1962) West of Alice 134 Francis Letters (1897-1964) The Inglorious Milton 135 E G Moll(b 1900) The Bush Speaks 135 Clearing for the Plough 136 Beware the Cuckoo 137 Francis Brabazon Victoria Market 137 Jack Lindsay (1900-1990) Question Time 138 Angry Dusk 139 To my father Norman alone in the Blue Mountains 140 Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971) A Bushranger 140 Metempsychosis 141 Five Bells 142 Robert D FitzGerald (1902-1987) Copernicus 145 CONTENTS Grace Before Meat 145 The Wind At Your Door 147 MaryFinnm(b 1906) The Man From Strathbogte 150 Arthur Davies West Paddocks 151 A D Hope(b 1907) A Blason 153 Faustus 154 Parabola 155 Eve Langley (1908-1974) This Year Before It Ends 157 Harry Hooton (1908-1961) A Sweet Disorder in the Dress 157 Ronald McCuaig (1908-1993) Betty by the Sea 159 Recitative 160 Au tombeau de mon pere 160 Elizabeth Riddell (b 1909) Wakeful m the Township 163 Suburban Song 163 The Letter 164 William Hart Smith (1911-1990) Boomerang 165 Golden Pheasant 165 The Inca Tupac Upanqui 166 Ian Mudie (1911-1976) This Land 167 Anonymous The Overlander 168 Hal Porter (1911-1984) Four Winds 169 In a Bed sitter 170 Hobart Town Van Diemen s Land 171 J J Bray (1912-1995) The Execution of Madame du Barry 172 Roland Robinson (1912-1992) Deep Well 173 The Cradle 174 The Creek 175 CONTENTS Aboriginal Oral Traditions Mapooram (related by Fred Biggs) 175 The Star Tribes (related by Fred Biggs) 176 The Two Sisters (related by Manoowa) 176 The Platypus (related by Dick Donelly) 178 Captain Cook (related by Percy Mumbulla) 179 Barbara Giles (b 1912) Downfall 179 Rex Ingamells (1913-1955) From Unknown Land 180 From The Great South Land 181 Joyce Lee (b 1913) My Father s Country 182 Firebell for Peace 183 Kenneth Mackenzie (1913-1955) Shall then another 184 Table birds 185 Caesura 186 Douglas Stewart (1913-1985) Leopard Skin 187 A Country Song 187 Terra Austrahs 188 John Blight (1913-1995) The Coral Reef 191 The Oyster Eaters 191 Mangrove 192 Joan Aronsten (b 1914) Ad Infimtum 192 David McNicoll (b 1914) Ski Patrol 193 Judith Wright (b 1915) Nigger s Leap New England 193 Legend 194 Wings 195 David Campbell (1915-1978) Song for the Cattle 196 Hear the Bird of Day 197 Duchesses 197 David Martin (Ludwig Detsinyi) (b 1915) Dreams in German 198 Dorothy Auchterlonie (1915-1991) The Tree 199 CONTENTS John Manifold (1915-1985) Fife Tune 200 Makhno s Philosophers 201 Harold Stewart (1915-1995) The Sage in Unison 202 James McAuley (1917-1976) Terra Austrahs 203 Liberal or Innocent by Definition 204 Because 204 Jack Davis (b 1917) Aboriginal Australia 206 Anonymous Miss Dowd 207 Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) (b 1920) We Are Going 207 Aboriginal Women s Mourning Songs The blowflies buzz 208 All you others eat 208 Rosemary Dobson (b 1920) Country Press 209 The Edge 210 Folding the Sheets 211 Colin Thiele (b 1920) Tom Farley 211 Radiation Victim 212 Gwen Harwood (1920-1995) Homage to Ferd Holthausen 213 Death Has No Features of His Own 214 A Simple Story 214 Max Harris (1921-1995) Message from a Cross 215 Martin Buber in the Pub 216 Nan McDonald (1921-1973) The Hatters 216 Burragorang 218 Lex Banning (1921-1965) Epitaph for a Scientist 219 And No Regrets 219 Romancero 220 Amy Witting (b 1918) The Blinkered Mind 221 CONTENTS xi Beauty is the Straw 221 A Curse on Herod 221 Anonymous Soup Kitchen Song 222 Geoffrey Dutton (b 1922) A Finished Gentleman 223 Burning Off 224 Fish Shop Windows 225 Dorothy Hewett (b 1923) In Moncur Street 226 Nancy Keesing (1923-1993) A Queer Thing 228 Reverie of a Mum 228 Eric Rolls (b 1923) Bamboo 230 Rain Forest 231 Dog Fight 231 W N Scott (b 1923) Bundaberg Rum 233 B R Whiting (1923-1989) Hophte 233 Maurice Strandgard (b 1923) Partisans 234 David Rowbotham (b 1924) The Bus stop on the Somme 234 The Cliff 235 Nebuchadnezzar s Kingdom Come 235 John Rowland (b 1925) Canberra in April 236 Mudhu War Dance 238 Pudjipangu Aeroplane 238 Smiler Narautjarn The Witch Doctor s Magic Flight 239 From the Dulngulg Song Cycle Sunrise Sequence 239 Wongun Mandjigai People Song Cycle of the Moon Bone 240 CONTENTS Francis Webb (1925-1973) End of the Picnic 246 Airliner 247 Wild Honey 248 Vincent Buckley (1925-1988) Ghosts Places Stories Questions 249 Laurence Collinson (1925-1986) Will power 251 Alan Riddell (1927-1977) At the Hammersmith Palais 251 Grace Perry (1927-1987) Time of Turtles 251 John Philip (b 1927) Manly Ferry 252 Robin Gurr Creation 253 R F Bnssenden (1928-1991) Verandahs 253 RayMathew(b 1929) Seeing St James s 254 Poem in Time of Winter 255 One Day 256 Bruce Beaver (b 1929) Letters to Live Poets V 256 The Entertainer 257 Peter Porter (b 1929) Soliloquy at Potsdam 259 What I Have Written I Have Written 260 On First Looking into Chapman s Hesiod 261 R A Simpson (b 1929) All Friends Together 263 Anonymous Full of Play 264 Bruce Dawe (b 1930) At Shagger s Funeral 265 Elegy For Drowned Children 265 The Flag of the Future 266 Evan Jones(b 1931) Study in Blue 267 A Dream 267 The Point 267 CONTENTS xm Philip Martin (b 1931) A Certain Love 268 Tongues 268 T H Naisby (1931-1989) Reflections on Hillsborough in Memoriam 269