ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Sheeting It Home

Stephen Whiteside 05.12.2012

My daughter last night wished to switch on a light.
She asked for a brief explanation
Of rhyme's mystic ways. She's read novels and plays,
And they've prompted sincere adulation,

But she's yet to submit to sweet poetry's wit,
And it's not that she lacks motivation,
But when she's at school she is not, as a rule,
Exposed to its full machination.

I reached for a book into which we could look.
Who else, but HIMSELF! Andrew Barton!
I showed her his rhyme, and we had a great time.
It seemed the right place to be startin'.

We talked of his metre (for none can write neater)
As well, how it all comes together
As one seamless whole, with a marvellous roll
That is deep, yet as light as a feather.

I feel I am blessed. She was really impressed,
So we climbed the next step of the ladder.
I showed her CJ and the tricks of his play.
I truly could not have been gladder.

She took it all in with a chuckle and grin,
Conceding the height of his skill.
To see how she followed each furrow he hollowed,
I tell you, it gave me a thrill.

I don't want to hear (it's my rational fear
That I'm bound to, in spite of my preaching)
That young folk don't care for our rhymers' great flair.
It's us who have failed in the teaching!

You may well have a point there Stephen, I remember Dad reading poetry to us as kids and we also listened to and learned poetry at school.

I surprised myself a bit by saying this - it just came out like that. But everything's a two-way street, if you know what I mean. It's unusual for the blame to lie wholly on one side.

It's more complicated than that Stephen, I think. Our children are being taught that the Anglo pioneers of Australia were genocidal exploiters. Why would they then want to know about the poetry of those depicted in post-modernist wisdom as misogynistic patriarchal racists ( whatever that might mean ? )
I suspect that the person who attacked David Campbell's newspaper article by referring to Paterson and Lawson as " rancid doggerel ", had more that literary style on his mind.

Perhaps so.

I'm just reading a fascinating account of the development of the Port Phillip District. The 'frontier wars' around Melbourne in the 1840s were particularly nasty. It turns out most of the settlers had borrowed vast amounts of money from John Batman & Co. at very high interest rates, and were determined that nothing would stand in their way. It was an odd situation, because concern for native peoples was pretty much at its peak in London at the time. Life is so complicated!

What's the book Stephen? They were interesting days. Did you know that John Batman had syphyllis and his nose rotted off - not a good look really.

I was at a friend's house yesterday and one of their kids had written a limerick (it was on the fridge) and it was good...

"1835 - The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia" by James Boyce.

Published by Black Inc., 2011

ISBN: 9781863955683

Ta for that. I've got A History of the Port Phillip Distirct. Victoria Before Separation (A.G.L. Shaw) sitting on my bookshelf but haven't had time to read it. Ever read it?

No, I don't think so. The last time I picked up an AGL Shaw was about 1972, from memory.

What a memory!