ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

I've certainly done my share of digging Heather though usually with a pick or shovel - but Neville was swinging the pick in that quote.

I just like his poetry - and did before I knew anything much about him.
Although I'm interested in his life story, I don't think it influences me regarding his writing - I just like it.

Terry

Heather - I like Mary Gilmour's "No foe shall gather our harvest" She was a friend of my grandfather.

Terry you give another meaning to "gold digger"

Thanks Wendy. I'll have to see if i can look that poem up once i get my computer fixed. Mary was one tough woman. Did she know your grandfather after she returned from South America? I wonder if there is a biography written about her? The book i recently read only covered her time in South America.

Terry I also liked Lawson's poems before I read about his life, but once I knew more about him I understood some of the poems more. (Damn you Neville! I'm going back making all my Is capitals) ....I also think I probably like different poems now.

No. No hope Bob.

Here you go Heather. My grandmother used to teach with her as well.
There are photos of them together.

No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest
Mary Gilmore 1940

Sons of the mountains of Scotland,
Welshmen of coomb and defile,
Breed of the moors of England,
Children of Erin's green isle,
We stand four square to the tempest,
Whatever the battering hail-
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail.

Our women shall walk in honour,
Our children shall know no chain,
This land, that is ours forever,
The invader shall strike at in vain.
Anzac!...Tobruk!...and Kokoda!...
Could ever the old blood fail?
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail.

So hail-fellow-met we muster,
And hail-fellow-met fall in,
Wherever the guns may thunder,
Or the rocketing air-mail spin!
Born of the soil and the whirlwind,
Though death itself be the gale-
No foe shall gather our harvest
Or sit on our stockyard rail.

We are the sons of Australia,
of the men who fashioned the land;
We are the sons of the women
Who walked with them hand in hand;
And we swear by the dead who bore us,
By the heroes who blazed the trail,
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail.

Thanks a heap for that Wendy. I quite like it too. I must confess i haven't read many of Mary Gilmore's poems but the ones i have read are probably the earlier ones and don't really grab me. This is different - and much later.

Heather

Unfortunately Dame Mary Gilmore was not in a position to see into the future of multiculturalism.

Do you notice, or is it only me - That it's often the odd phrase or two in a poem that catches and holds your attention, a kind of magic use of words, but they induce you to give your full attention to the poem you're reading - and I don't mean just the old masters either.

Terry

Mary Gilmore was born Mary Cameron and Lawson mentioned her in a number of poems as Mary Cameron and Mary Carney.
She was a rabid socialist and remained so all of her life which seems to be a contradiction to her becoming a Dame.
She was a great friend and supporter of the aboriginal people and wrote numerous poems concerning them, one of which is absolutely soul stirring but which I do not have to hand at the moment.
There are two versions of No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest, the original containing the line Anzac...Bapaume...The Marne! all of which were First World War battles in place of Anzac...Tobruk...And Kokoda! which occurred in the Second World War and actually after the poem was originally published in 1940. (Tobruk was in 1941 and Kokoda 1942.)
However, I should imagine this poem remains her best known although certainly not her best.
Given the state of the world I think this one is worth remembering also:

Nationality (1942)

I have grown past hate and bitterness,
I see the world as one;
But though I can no longer hate,
My son is still my son.

All men at God’s round table sit,
and all men must be fed;
But this loaf in my hand,
This loaf is my son’s bread.
Mary Gilmore

Heather wrote:(Damn you Neville! I'm going back making all my Is capitals)

Nice !! real June Dally-Watkins stuff.

Yes Shelley, I know exactly what you mean.

It is that curiosity thing that tempts one into wanting to know WHO produced such great poetic writing. I have that inclination too.... but I fight it.

In the TAT magazine, Maureen has researched bio's on people like Thomas E. Spencer.. and it is all well above board. (thankfully) No worries mate.

But I dread the day when a great early 20th century poet is exposed as someone who is a child-molestor or is (even worse) a tax cheat... or a racist!! (worse still !) ... we live in enlightened times they say.

I have the Rolf Harris 45 of "Two Little Boys".

Liked to play it occasionally for its sentimental value and music.

So.. should I now throw it out?? I mean the sound is the same, the music is the same, but the personal life of the artist is not that flash now apparently...

That is the conundrum.... it is still the same recording.. but.... I need some ABPA guidance!!

So please do not tell me anything BAD about Henry or Banjo!!! or even Dennis!

I just love the wonderful poetry that all these very skilled guys produced.. incredible... and their personal lives I quarantine. Not interested really.. well only a little bit.