The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Discussion of any bush poetry topic.
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Gary Harding
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:21 am

Shelley, I have been to the Bert Hinkler Museum, mainly to learn about how they do things rather than to check out Bert! So was seeing things through different eyes.
I thought it was very well done.... value for modest entry fee ... and the garden/grounds it was set in were lovely.

In addition to interesting historic material, it had a plain good feel about it. Friendly, good staff, effective aircond, but not many visitors there, so no idea how it is financed.. or subsidised?
They had a few nice off-the-wall glass showcases giving an all-round view of an item without intruding into floor-space. Also their small in-wall diorama (ref pic I took) was really well done. I want to do something similar for Banjo meets Kermit Roosevelt at Moascar Camp showing him handing over the inscribed Rio Grande book.

I cannot recall the Hinkler Hustle dance! Maybe it has been added or most likely I was not paying attention, it was a while ago. I have seen the sheet music to the song on-line.. but knew nothing about the dance! Thank you for the tip and I might have to find and add that to the Australian dance section? The lyrics to much music is often rhyming verse, with naturally good meter, so everything is bush poetry related in some way, isn't it.
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:41 am

It's wonderful to have an article again in the fabulous Fraser Coast BEACON Magazine.

https://thebeacon.com.au/magazine-publications/

This popular Magazine is easily accessed online.

Issue 10, page 18 with our Banjo Paterson article can be read there.

His poem With French To Kimberley is quoted. Feedback suggests that there is still a lot of interest in Banjo Paterson! We supply the text and some photos and their graphic artist does the layout, so it is a bit like TAT magazine. A team effort to get it over the line.

Next Beacon issue article deals with that book signed by Mrs. C. J. Dennis. On reflection, this book may have played a part in giving Den the idea of writing The Singing Garden three years later.. but.. that is just speculation of course. I will post the article when it is published.
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Shelley Hansen » Sat Aug 29, 2020 9:25 pm

Congrats on more welcome publicity Gary.

Re Bert Hinkler, if you search "Hustling Hinkler" on You Tube you will be enlightened!

Cheers
Shelley
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:18 am

That is great Shelley, I just did as you suggested and I see there is the Hustling Hinkler sheet music plus the 1928 record sold as one lot with an estimate of around $200. The 78rpm youtube recording is very good. I also see where they have the dance demonstration (sort of) but it is not properly done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJV6Gj8lQ4

(I cannot recall the steps painted on the floor).

The youtube video says it is a Quickstep.
Then there is the attached Trove picture reference where there is apparently also a Foxtrot plus a March.

Also .. it says there are pianola rolls available for it, something I am always seeking!! haha ... you have got me interested in this old (Australian) dance material.

How much true Australian "cultural" material like this lies buried (like fabulous bush poetry is) out there?? True Australian dances. We would not feature Bert Hinkler as such, as that has been done, plus it is really History and not Culture.. but.. dances?

Has anyone transposed some of Lawson's poems that were put to music into dance steps?? Maybe The Lawson Shuffle?
I have a delightful live-recording of Henry Lawson's poem The Bush Girl sung by a lady who was part of a bush band. The tempo suggests that it would be a good Waltz!

If anyone wants to do a project on this subject in a way that would interest the public, involving internet research.. and can turn up 78's to add to it.. well the door is open. :)

All help (VERY) welcomed! :) plus it is Great FUN... not work.
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Shelley Hansen » Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:08 pm

Excellent, Gary!

I have Lawson's The Bush Girl on a CD of The Seekers. Judith Durham sings it beautifully. Yes, very definitely a waltz!
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:08 pm

Thank you for your constant interest, great comments and support Shelley!!!

Here is another bush balladist whose work and memory deserves to be kept alive. This is E. S. Emerson or "Milky White" and his book from my Collection.... Introducing A Shanty Entertainment (Ballads and prose. 1910)

I might reproduce an entire poem here (page 27), even if it is a bit long... plus part of another. At the Centre we will only show a couple of the best verses because people do not read long poems.

This book is in lovely condition.

The cover illustration shows an accordion, something like the one that has been donated to us. (shown in my recent post)

The Rain Song (E. S. Emerson)

There is music in the Mallee,
Lilting music, soft and low,
Like the songs in vale and valley
Where the summer waters flow;
But an anthem of elation
Wedded to a woman’s mouth
Is the message from each station
From the Mitchell River south.

For it’s raining! raining! raining!
How the iron roof-tops ring!
How the waters, swiftly draining,
Through the straining down-pipes sing!
Every drop a golden rhyme is.
Every shower a stanza strong,
And each day of raining time is
Canto sweet of God’s great song.

Oh, the earth was dry as tinder,
And her lips were cracked with pain!
From the south to Thargomindah,
Like a dead thing she had lain;
But, at last, the long drought broken
She—like Lazarus, the Jew,
When the Christ works had been spoken—
She shall leap to life a-new.

For it’s raining! raining! raining!
Don’t you hear the merry din?
Don’t you hear the old earth straining
As she sucks the juices in!
And the swelling creeks and rivers—
Hark! their mellow madrigal!
Oh, the sweetest music-givers
Are the Autumn rains that fall!

Oh! the air is sweet with voices,
Sweet with human voices now;
And the anvil-tool rejoices
On the plough-share and the plough;
Yes, above the joyous beating
Of the roof-bass you can hear
All the choirs of Nature meeting
In an anthem loud and clear.

For it’s raining! raining! raining!
Over all the thirsty land!
Don’t you hear the old earth straining
As the sapless roots expand?
But her famine-days are over,
And her smiles shall soon be seen,
For her old-time Autumn lover
Brings her back her garb of green.

and The Drover's Wife (an extract)

By the droning mountain waters in the Spring-time of her life,
On her little Tambo holding lives the Western drover's wife;
And at evening by the river when her bit of work is done,
You may often hear her singing to the setting of the sun-

I am waiting for my drover-
For my drover laddie Jack;
I am waiting for my lover
To come down the homeward track;
And my heart for him is yearning,
And my cheeks are all aglow
For the day of his returning
We'll a-honeymooning go.



I believe that if bush balladists such as E. S. Emerson are not kept in front of people permanently, they will simply vanish forever. And with them goes "the literary lore of the bush". Not on my watch.

With hundreds of magnificent displays prepared, we will (for the first time) be showing real Australian Culture.
We are working long hours alone and I am funding it, in order to preserve the work of Australia's great bush balladists.

There is no ego-tripping or trying to be knowledgeable or smarties. It is simply the most noble task by far being undertaken anywhere in Australia in the Arts field.

These poets represent Australian literature at its absolute best. Not fiction by the kilogram, or silly free verse.. but the real deal. :)
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Sun Sep 06, 2020 11:34 am

In a recent post, I referred to a book from the Collection presented by Mrs C J Dennis at Toolangi State School as a prize in 1933. It had a pasted-in inscription. (shown)

Here is some of the story;

The 1933 book is "Jacko. The Broadcasting Kookaburra".

We have made a nice reproduction dust jacket for it taken from the original tattered one. Jacko was a famous and actual kookaburra who could laugh on cue and was heard at the start of Radio Australia broadcasts. His voice went overseas and a newspaper article tells of a normally placid bulldog in an American home, going crazy when it heard Jacko's laugh and savagely attacking the radiogram, trying to shred the speaker!

A 78rpm recording was made in Sydney in 1933 with Jacko's voice and his personal story told in two parts. (shown) They are scare but I was able to obtain one, complete with original paper sleeve.

This 6min recording (remastered) can be downloaded and heard at :

https://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/e/ ... ookaburra/


We have completed a major presentation on Jacko for the Banjo Paterson Cultural Centre.

I will let the following article in Beacon Magazine just out (written by Karen and myself) tell the whole entertaining story...

https://thebeacon.com.au/magazine-publications/

Edition 11 Page 44-45

This very book(!), donated by Mrs C J Dennis, must have been seen by Den. Did it inspire him? The personification of Jacko the Kookaburra and the enormous affection for him felt by so many people (radio being a theatre of the mind), may well have encouraged him to equally address many other birds of the bush... or perhaps he wrote of some of them before then?

Anyway....in 1935 he produced The Singing Garden, with its odes to various bush birds. The Singing Garden by C J Dennis is still obtainable occasionally, but condition is important.

The Kookaburra (page 77) by C J Dennis

I am cursed with a cackle whenever I tackle
A soulful and lilting refrain;
But a frivolous snicker, like some fool in liquor,
Is not what I seek to attain.
For I have, on the whole, quite a musical soul
Which I seek to express as I may.
And it's simply absurd to suppose that a bird,
Such as I, makes a laugh of his lay.

In early October I'm specially sober
And loaded with household affairs;
And myself and my wife lead no trivial life
That inclines us to laugh at our cares,
So, if you should suppose that our song is jocose,
You're entitled of course, to your views,
But to us, her and me, it's a sweet symphony
And inspired by our mutual muse.

When I soulfully sing in the bourgeoning spring
With true poetry bursting my heart,
It is hard if I seem to express in my theme
Some coarse phase of the comical art.
And yet, what's the good? Since I'm misunderstood
I'm content to submit to the wrong.
And tho' "Ock, ock, oo, hoo" may seem funny to you,
'Tis to me a delectable song.

The bush poetry world is fantastic!

Surely that must be one reason that we are all dedicated ABPA members. Isn't it all such Great Fun?? :)
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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Shelley Hansen » Sun Sep 06, 2020 5:44 pm

Love CJD's poem Gary (of course!) He had such a way with even the most frivolous of words!

I do remember Radio Australia well (though not from 1933!)

Re your earlier post, I have heard that Rain Song by Emerson somewhere before. Not sure where - perhaps I read it in an old anthology??

Great to see you continually expanding the collection!
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:04 am

Thanks Shelley, and the collection expands daily!

Bringing bush poetry and real Australian Culture to everyone permanently (for the first time) including overseas visitors, is our goal.

It is not the "having" of the material by itself, the "Collector" thing, but the brilliance of presentation (thanks to Karen Christensen). That's why after several years of intense preparation we are way ahead and cannot be caught up with or our project stolen or copied. Anyone who was unwise enough to try and steal would invariably end up red-faced. All we need soon is .. the building.

Quite some time ago we sent a comprehensive summary of what we were doing to the Federal Arts Minister through our local Federal member (Keith Pitt) for information (no money begging!) and as a plain Courtesy. As might be expected... no acknowledgement was received. No interest, no comment, no nothing. A total snub. Your taxes at work! Would not want to interrupt their Canberra tea-break with trivia such as this important project...

The countless hours of thought and discussion we have invested that produce ideas and concepts. Well, you cannot pay people to do that... simply throw money at it... or you end up with a room of superficial graphic artwork created by some anonymous person on a computer in Melbourne. (True story.. it has happened). No substance. You need a love for the real Australia in your heart..substance... and that passion then comes across to Visitors.

Yes, it draws on material I have gathered over the years.

Culture is a flexible word... and overlaps with history a fair bit. Nevertheless, we have a pretty good handle on it I believe.

Where additional items are needed or are stumbled upon, they are procured.

For us, Bush Poetry (Banjo and his Friends) is like the hub of a wheel with its spokes radiating out and reaching into all sorts of Australian cultural areas.

That operational Model mostly works for us... although we have also found a subtle Nodal Network evolving, where cultural subjects and people interestingly form an interrelating network.

If we were to set up a Cultural Centre that was only about Bush Poetry, I am afraid that not many people would come through the door. "Oh poetry, I am not really into that....". etc. So we are broadly based, and a first.

The Federal government encourages and rewards silly "poetry" with $80,000 tax free.... gifted to the PM's "literary" Awards "poetry" winner for a few lines of non-sensible garbage. (What we couldn't do with $80,000!!). They undermine real Australian poetry. They wouldn't have a clue.. and like kids with guns... they should not be given control of a limitless public chequebook, while posturing and pretending to know something about poetry (which they don't).

Progress is accelerating... not enough hours in the day! There is so much happening. Very exciting... and very exciting for all Australians as well. Better still, being absolutely privately funded it does not add more to the already heavily-burdened public credit card to achieve it, Gary

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Re: The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:32 pm

A very uplifting end to the week with our latest article (on Nellie Stewart) accepted by Beacon magazine.

This is the story that centres around Nellie and her inscribed 1910 Henry Lawson book (In The Days When The World Was Wide) that she donated to her own Charity Auction. It aimed to raise money for purchasing radium for Sydney Hospital. (see previous post)

Lots happening ... The Bloke and Doreen's clothing nearing completion. The mannequins will look so real. It turned out to be a very big job because of the need to have authenticity down to the finest detail.

Also finalised the purchase of the magnificent Pianola. Well looked after and recently serviced, plus it has 130 pianola rolls with it. There is good Australian content in the rolls I am told. Delivery soon.

.. but can I play it? Nope. Not the foggiest idea.. but I want to learn.

I am hoping that there might be a roll of the great "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca.

"Play it Gaz.... play As Time Goes By...."

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

And when two lovers woo
They still say "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by.

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she has to walk into mine."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_paHK6JdHA

Not exactly bush verse I suppose, but the lyrics rhyme well and the meter is passable.. and should encourage visitor musical participation in the Centre.

Will end up with two copies of Waltzing Matilda though, so Banjo Paterson would have approved. Music is universal, isn't it?.
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