Poems of Henry Lawson selected by Walter Stone. New Holland Publishers.
Reviewed by Michael Byrne
Henry Lawson, the bush poet, was born in 1867. Lawson was among the best-known Australian poets of the colonial period. A vocal nationalist and republican, Lawson regularly contributed to The Bulletin and many of his poems helped popularise the Australian vernacular. He wrote prolifically into the 1890’s, after which his output declined, in part due to struggles with alcoholism and mental illness. He spent periods in Darlinghurst Gaol and psychiatric institutions. After he died in 1922, following a cerebral haemorrhage, he was honoured with a state funeral. The reader was honoured with Lawson’s poems in Poems of Henry Lawson. Walter Stone selected them and knew Lawson’s work well. Pro Hart provided illustrations, at least one for every Lawson poem. When Lawson was alive he wrote ‘The Fire at Ross’s Farm’. In the poem, two men were written about. The two men, Ross and Robert, fought a fire near Ross’s Farm. They were overwhelmed until some other men joined them. Ross and Robert then settled a dispute (‘The Fire at Ross’s Farm’):
Down on the ground the stockmen jumped
And bared each brawny arm;
They tore green branches from the trees
And fought for Ross’s farm;
And when before the gallant band
The beaten flames gave way,
Two grimy hands in friendship joined –
And it was Christmas Day.
The last line caught the reader off guard. Another one of Lawson’s poems, ‘Andy’s Gone With Cattle’, had a certain verbal music in an extract:
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.
Lawson, from time to time, displayed a belief in God. However, he was never preachy or didactic about it in his writing. Lawson’s writing in ‘Faces in the Street’ was substantial without being prolix. The extract from ‘Faces in the Street’ was one of thirteen stanzas in a neat stanzaic poem:
And then the only faces till the sun is sinking down
Are those of outside toilers and the idlers of the town,
Save here and there a face that seems a stranger in the street
Tells of the city’s unemployed upon their weary beat –
Drifting round, drifting round,
To the tread of listless feet –
Ah! my heart aches for the owner of that sad face in the street.
Lawson utilised his best and most sophisticated rhyme scheme for ‘Faces in the Street’. He also had an admirable social conscience. A young man, Jack, was socialised out back in an extract from ‘Knocking Around’:
Wiry old man at the tail of the plough,
“Heard of Jack lately? and where is he now?”
Pauses a moment his forehead to wipe,
Drops the rope reins while he feels for his pipe,
Scratches his grey head in sorrow or doubt:
“Somewhere or other he’s knocking about.”
Knocking about on the runs of the West,
Holding his own with the worst and the best,
Breaking in horses and risking his neck,
Droving or shearing and making a cheque;
Straight as a sapling – six-foot, and sound,
Jack is all right when he’s knocking around.
Lawson deftly encapsulated the sense of adventure that many young men had during the colonial period. Andy, another young man who had been out back, was celebrated in coming back to his relatives and their dog (‘Andy’s Return’):
Old Uncle’s bright and cheerful;
He wears a smiling face;
And Aunty’s never tearful
Now Andy’s round the place.
Old Blucher barks for gladness;
He broke his rusty chain,
And leapt in joyous madness
When Andy came again.
There was a likeable sense of joy in the behaviour of Andy’s relatives and their dog in the extract. The extract and the rest of the poem had some likeable, affectionate portraits. They featured a woman, man, young man and a dog. Lawson hardly wrote about himself in his poetry. In other words, he was almost always objective. This piqued the reader’s interest. When he did give something away it was inevitably interesting. But almost all of the time, Lawson wrote realistic poems about rural people living a hard life in the colonial period. His poems were never pretentious. This was partly due to the colloquial speech in the poems. Lawson was good at writing colloquially, as he was in writing poetry in general. After he died in 1922, Lawson was remembered as ‘The People’s Poet’. He would have liked that.
Michael Byrne 