The ABC Book of Australian Poetry

Introducing the anthology

The ABC Book of Australian Poetry, compiled by Libby Hathorn, contains more than 80 poems dating from 1885 to 2010 representing the diversity of Australia. The table of poems (PDF, 142KB) will assist you to select poems for your classroom, but is in no way prescriptive. It makes year level suggestions and identifies themes and poetic devices that you can explore, but your own context will inform what you do. Not all poems can be represented in this teaching resource, but many of the activities can be adapted for different poems.

Pre-reading discussion

Ask students:

• Do you like poetry? What kind of poetry do you like or know?
• What kinds of poems would you expect to find in a collection of Australian poetry?
• Can you give some examples of famous Australian poems?
• What topics or themes do you think will be featured?

Exploring context

This contextual introduction will raise students’ awareness of the people, places, and events that inspire poets in Australia. It will start the process not only of poetry study, but of poetry composition, opening students’ eyes to the possibilities of the world around them.

There is a cross-curricular element to these exercises, with research on place (Geography) and events (History) as the impetus for creative responses.

The ultimate goal is for students to appreciate and write their own poetry.

Poems are about places: mapping Australia

The ABC Book of Australian Poetry is divided into six sections, driven by the motif of a river that passes between different geographical regions of Australia:

1. Beginnings
2. Mountains, Forests and Plains
3. My Country
4. Through the City, Night and Day
5. To the Sea
6. Horizon and Beyond

Organise students into small groups. Remind them that poems, like any text, come from their context. Then work through the following exercises:

• What geographical regions are missing from the list? Students can examine a map or use a search engine to help answer this.
• What kinds of places would fit in each section? Start by listing some examples and asking students to categorise them. Ideas include: Sydney Harbour, the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef, Uluru, the Snowy Mountains, Cradle Mountain, Bondi Beach, the Australian War Memorial, the Perth Mint, the Daintree Rainforest, Kakadu National Park, Grampians National Park, Coober Pedy, Glenrowan, Larry the Lobster, the Dog on the Tuckerbox. You can also invite students to make their own suggestions.
• Allocate each group a section from the anthology. Ask them to collect photos of famous places, landmarks, and landscapes that would fit into that section and plot them on a map of Australia (this could be done as a whole class activity).

As a follow-up discussion, ask:

• Who has visited some of these places?
• Where’s your favourite place in Australia? Why is it your favourite place?
• What do you remember about the sights, sounds, and smells of that place?
• What image do you connect with this place?
• What does this place mean to you – is it a holiday location, a family home, your Country, a place you spend time with friends, your quiet place, a beautiful place that took your breath away?
• Return to your photos and change them to match the feeling of the place rather than the physical appearance. For example, the Gold Coast could become an abstract series of waves; the Sydney Harbour Bridge could become fireworks (this begins the process of understanding imagery).

Poems are about choices: collage/mind map

Have students construct a collage or mind map to represent all the ‘best’ things about Australia and Australian culture. Instruct them to use photos, drawings, and words, and to try not to leave any white space.

• Have students explain what they have included and why they think this represents the ‘best’ parts of Australia and/or Australian culture. They should write a short paragraph to justify their choices.
• Ask students to rank the five to ten most important things in their collage/mind map in descending order (i.e. list the most important thing first). They should then list some things that didn’t make the cut.
• Direct students to think-pair-share about their choices. They may find that other students have different things on their list; have them discuss why they did or didn’t include these.

As a follow-up discussion, ask:

• What similarities or differences were there between your collages/mind maps and lists?
• Why do you think there were differences?
• Is it okay to have different things on our lists?
• Do you think people’s lists would change as they grew older OR if they lived at a different time OR if they came from different backgrounds or cultures?

Poems are about events: research timeline

Understanding the context of poems will help students unpack their meaning and significance.

Students are to plot a history of Australia from pre-colonisation to the present. They should include major events (e.g. first contact with Europeans, Federation, World Wars, the 1967 Referendum), significant figures (e.g. Ned Kelly, Charles Kingsford Smith, Eddie Koiki Mabo, Cathy Freeman), technological developments (e.g. the Hills Hoist, the Victa lawn mower, cochlear implants, Wi-Fi), and so on. The following websites may help them get started:

• National Museum of Australia – Defining moments timeline
• Australian Human Rights Commission – The history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples advocating for the right to be heard
• Reconciliation Australia – Reconciliation Timeline: Key Moments
• IP Australia – History of innovation in Australia

Students can construct the timeline on paper OR digitally (Read Write Think has a useful tool).

Poems are written by poets: research timeline

Students can research the birth and (if applicable) death dates of poets from the anthology, and the publication dates of the poems they will study during this unit. These include:

They can plot these poets/poems on the existing timeline (if they have room) OR create a new one.

As a point of interest, you might like to share some work by more recent Australian poets like Kirli Saunders, Solli Raphael, Sarah Holland-Batt, etc.

Biography poster

Working in groups, students will choose ONE of the above poets (or another poet from the anthology) and create a poster that summarises their life (you can decide the size of the poster: A4 or A3). The poster can include information about when and where the poet was born, their early life, their education, and their significant works. It should also include information about their influences, the time in which they lived, and the topics they explored in their writing (this will be easier for some than others; you may need to provide some assistance).

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Cover and foreword

Hathorn’s note at the start of the collection suggests that its purpose is to assemble both classic and contemporary Australian poetry. Hathorn hopes to preserve older works for future generations and bring to life the phases of Australian history, explaining that the poems were chosen for their unique representation of an Australian voice and identity.

The ABC Book of Australian Poetry is beautifully illustrated by Cassandra Allen; give students time to look at the cover and explore the artwork throughout. Then discuss:

• Based on the illustrations, what age do you think the book is targeting? Justify your answer.
• What can you see in the illustrations? What features of Australian life can you see?
• Why do you think the landscape and nature are important in Australian writing?
• How important are our native animals and plants to our national identity?
• Why might Hathorn and Allen have chosen the river as a motif or metaphor for the collection?
  • Think about the features of rivers and the importance of water for life.
  • Do some research on the symbolism of rivers.
  • Also consider the role of water in regional and remote areas, in farming practices, and in recreational activities (see the 2023 State of the Environment website for more ideas)
• What do you think is the symbolism of the leaves under each poem title?

Quick think

The purpose of this activity is to get students to listen to poems as aural texts, to enjoy the sounds but also to respond quickly. They can later return to the poems for extended, in-depth discussion and to compare their first reactions against more considered interpretations.

Read through the following poems with students. These have been chosen from different parts of the collection, representing classic and contemporary Australian writing, a range of themes and topics, and a diverse group of poets. Students can then complete the following table.

Students can also listen to some of the poems being read:

• National Film and Sound Archive of Australia – ‘My Country’ read by Dorothea Mackellar
• Andrew recites: Where the Pelican Builds by Mary Hannay Foott
• ABC Education – Jack Thompson reading AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’
• The Queensland Tiger – Andy’s Gone with Cattle (Henry Lawson)

Afterwards, discuss with the class:

• Why might it be easier to understand the poems when they are read aloud?
• Can you relate to any of the experiences in the poems? If so, which ones?
• Which poem was your favourite? Why? What caught your attention?

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Written task: your story

Ask students to write a short personal response or story about how they connected to one of the poems. Was it a place they had been? An experience they were familiar with? A part of history they found interesting? A feeling or emotion they understood? Something else that caught their imagination? Students should make this reason clear as part of their response.

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Synthesising task

Writing a poem

Have students write a poem about their favourite place in Australia (e.g. a beach, a shopping centre, a mountain area, their local park, a swimming pool, their bedroom).

You might suggest that students start by recalling people, animals, or things they are very familiar with in those places, and whose descriptions come to mind easily. Encourage them to be as specific as possible, using the names of the place and its features (e.g. the shops that line the street, the types of trees nearby). This will help to develop a strong sense of place. Students can bring in a photo as stimulus, or they could visit the place (if able) and write the poem there.

Encourage students to develop an authentic portrait of the place using their senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing). What does the ground feel like under their toes? Does the place have a unique smell or taste that they associate with it? They can concentrate on one sense, but should seek to build atmosphere by employing a few more. This does NOT mean listing every imaginable sensation. Instead, they can make some notes on what senses are evoked before writing the final poem. Have them work on incorporating at least ONE metaphor into the poem as well.

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The writer’s craft

The ABC Book of Australian Poetry represents a vast array of poetic structures, themes, points of view, and voices. This close study aims to embed a developing understanding of this variety through a sequential look at Australian bush ballads of the 1800s, lyric poetry of the 1900s, and contemporary free verse poems. Setting, themes, and perspectives will be addressed with a consideration of how they have been revised over time. Further activities based on specific poems will follow in the Significance and Informed Reaction sections.

A note on formatting

Individual poems should be written in quotation marks (either double or single, as long as you are consistent). A book of poetry should be italicised (or underlined, if written by hand). When copying more than one line of poetry, write them on separate lines OR separated by a forward slash (/).

Throughout this resource, abbreviations will be used for ‘pages’ (p. or pp.), ‘stanzas’ (st.) and ‘lines’ (l.).

Poetic forms and techniques

Students can revisit/extend their knowledge of poetic forms and techniques using the associated handout (PDF, 91KB). Many of the activities in this resource will assume some knowledge of techniques. Remind students that many are not specific to poetry (e.g. metaphor), while others are (e.g. enjambment, metre).

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Bush ballads

The ABC Book of Australian Poetry encompasses a variety of structural approaches to poetry, spanning 125 years and many literary movements. Many of the early works fall into the category of bush ballads, as Hathorn’s express purpose was to preserve these ‘classics’ for generations to come.

The ballad is an old form of poetry that captures elements of both song and narrative. Australian bush ballads:

• are based on the life, character, and scenery of outback Australia or rural life
• are heavily reliant on rhyme scheme and structure, sometimes designed to be sung
• tell a story, often of adventure and action, about Australian legends, bushranging, droving, life on the road, shearing, horsemen, droughts and floods, war, conflicts between the working class and squatters, love, life in the bush, and colourful characters
• are written in the Australian vernacular, employing colloquial language, slang, and idiomatic expressions
• are often considered an expression of national spirit

Examples in the anthology include:

• ‘Trouble on the Selection’ by Henry Lawson, pp. 52–53
• ‘Where the Pelican Builds Her Nest’ by Mary Hannay Foott, pp. 94–95
• ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ by A.B. (Banjo) Paterson, pp. 106–107
• ‘Andy’s Gone with Cattle’ by Henry Lawson, pp. 108–109

Students can use the table below to identify the features of bush ballads, adding an explanation and an example for each of the sample poems.

A closer look at bush ballads

‘Clancy of the Overflow’ by A.B. (Banjo) Paterson (pp. 106–107) is based on a character from the Australian outback of the same name (‘the overflow’ being an area near Nymagee in NSW). The poem has a recurring ABCB rhyme scheme with lines of similar length (14–16 syllables). Its main purpose is to contrast Paterson’s perspectives on city life and droving. He is nostalgic for the life of the drover in the beauty of the Australian bush.

Narrative structure

Students can create a storyboard for ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ by:

1. Copying each stanza.
2. Identifying the characters in the stanza (the speaker or Clancy) using different coloured highlights or underlines.
3. Creating an imagine or icon that summarises the stanza (this can be a collage).
4. Rewriting the stanza as a story without rhyme.

Like a narrative, ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ has flashbacks and a backstory. Ask students to explain (with examples) how the poem is structured, moving between the past, distant past, and present, and between different characters and points of view.

Imagery and tone

Ask students to locate:

• Phrases that contain images of the Australian outback or bush
• Words that describe Clancy and his interactions with the bush:
  • What sense do you get of life in the outback from these lines?
  • What impression do we get of Clancy as a character?

Paterson changes his tone when depicting the city. What contrasting words does he use to describe the people and life in the city? Use the following template to complete this exercise:

Rhyme and rhythm

Ask students to:

1. Identify the rhyme scheme, using the same colour to highlight or underline rhyming words at the end of the lines.
2. Identify alliteration, assonance, repetition, and meter, and consider if these devices help with the rhythm of the poem.
3. Consider how commas and other forms punctuate the poem and affect the pace and rhythm.

Assessing the poem

Students can debate why ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ is an important poem:

• Is it the style? How does Paterson make this poem interesting through his word choices?
• Is it the subject matter? What is Paterson saying about Australian life? Is it still relevant?
• Anything else?

Discuss whether Clancy still embodies the spirit of Australia today.

Creative writing

Finish by completing one or both of the following creative writing activities:

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Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is one of the most common types of poetry. Many pieces in the collection fall within this category. Lyric poetry is thought to have originally been accompanied by music and has the following features:

• a clear rhyme scheme
• a regular metre or rhythm based on the number of syllables OR on stress
• (usually) clearly defined stanzas with the same structure
• (usually) set in the first person, expressing the poet’s thoughts and feelings on a particular subject
• (usually) language that is melodious, with techniques like alliteration, assonance, euphony, cacophony, and sibilance

Examples in the anthology include:

• From ‘In Time of Drought’ by Mary Hannay Foott, p. 48
• ‘My Country’ by Dorothea Mackellar, pp. 75–77
• ‘Rainwater Tank’ by Les A. Murray, pp. 88–89

Students can use the table below to identify the features of lyric poetry, adding an explanation and an example for each of the sample poems.

A closer look at lyric poems

Have students read Mary Hannay Foott’s ‘In Time of Drought’ (p. 48) and Les A. Murray’s ‘Rainwater Tank’ (pp. 88–89). They can underline or highlight the words and/or phrases that stand out for them. They can then connect the words and phrases with emotions, considering their connotations and whether they evoke positive or negative feelings.

Following this, students can draw conclusions about what is being valued. A sample, based on the first stanza of ‘In Time of Drought’, is provided below.

Writing about poetry

Ask students to read the sample paragraph below and think carefully about how it is written.

The major theme in Mary Hannay Foott’s ‘In Time of Drought’ is the harshness of the Australian outback and the lack of intervention from a God who would withhold rain. The words reveal a sorrowful tone for the animals caught in a drought. The Biblical reference to the Psalm develops irony as the persona questions God in the last line. This is emphasised by the punctuation choice of an exclamation mark rather than a question mark. The imagery of the wasteland of gravel and sand, where sheep and cattle pass over dead or dying animals, creates a sense of tragedy. This is further emphasised by the harsh cacophonic sounds of the ‘k’ in ‘black’ and ‘slake’, which add to the reader’s discomfort when confronted with this scene.

‘Rainwater Tank’ by Les A. Murray carries a similar theme, with the focus of the poem being the farmyard, the water tank, and its inhabitants. These themes of hardship and drought recur often in Australian poetry, serving as a contrast to the romantic writing of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson and others who often overlooked these struggles in order to glorify the bush.

Students can use different colours to highlight or underline words/phrases relating to:

• Meaning
• Techniques
• Explanations of techniques
• Effect

Rhyme and rhythm

Rhyme scheme refers to the words at the end of a line, while rhythm is about meter and phrasing throughout the line. Rhyme is about the sound and NOT the spelling of the words. Sometimes this involves a half rhyme (i.e. suggested, but not exactly the same).

Here are the last words in each line of the first stanza of ‘In Time of Drought’:

The rhyming words are identified with a letter of the alphabet:

• ‘stand’ and ‘sand’ have the same ending, so they are full rhymes
• ‘pool’ and ‘full’ do not look similar, but they have the same long ‘oo’ sound and an ‘l’ at the end, making them half rhymes

We can see that the basic pattern is repeated every four lines, so the rhyme scheme is identified as ABCB even though the next four lines have different endings.

Poetry is about understanding the patterns that a text forms. Sometimes this can be linked to ideas (themes). For example, in this poem, the alternating rhyme pattern might help to contrast the sorrowful reality of drought with the fullness of God’s river.

Students can identify the rhyme scheme for the rest of the poem, as well as for ‘Rainwater Tank’. They should identify the full and half rhymes and consider if there is any meaning created by the rhyme scheme, or if it is simply for aural effect. They can then answer the following questions:

1. Are the stanzas and lines the same or similar in length? If they are different, do the ideas in those stanzas/lines change markedly?
2. To understand metre, count and record the syllables in each of the first four lines. What pattern can you see? If you struggle with counting syllables, you could use a syllable counter. Describe the rhythm that the metre creates: slow, fast, steady, beating, etc.
3. Identify other techniques like alliteration and assonance. Consonant sounds such as ‘s’ and ‘l’ are regarded as soft sounds, while ‘d’ and ‘t’ are called hard sounds (or cacophonous – bad-sounding). Go through the alphabet and categorise all the consonants as hard or soft (or both). Compare your findings with other students. How might these sounds help the rhythm of the poem?
4. Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds; these are identified as long or short and change the mood. Research tables of long and short sounds or compile your own. How do these help the rhythm of the poem?

Finish with a class discussion:

• Have you visited parts of Australia in drought, or lived in a place that was suffering from drought? What was it like?
• Do you think Foott and Murray’s poems better reflect the Australian outback than ‘Clancy of the Overflow’? Give reasons why or why not.
• Listen to a reading of ‘Little Buster’ by Darcy Howard (18:14–22:10). Howard was 16 years old when he wrote this poem about the plight of farmers in drought.
  • How does the poem fit within the structure of a lyric poem?
  • Compare ‘Little Buster’ to ‘Rainwater Tank’ and ‘In Time of Drought’. What are the similarities and differences?
  • How does ‘Little Buster’ touch on other themes?
  • How can you tell that ‘Little Buster’ is set in modern Australia?

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Free verse poetry

Free verse is exactly what it sounds like: poetry without rhyme. It is often thought of as a modern form, though there is some overlap with Biblical Psalms; one of the great American poets, Walt Whitman, derived his rhythms from the King James Version of the Bible. Without the constraints of metre and rhyme, free verse invites experimentation and adaptation. Today it is one of the most popular structures for contemporary poetry.

While free verse is often seen as liberating, some proponents (like T. S. Eliot) insist that it is subject to certain elements of form. Free verse:

• has no exact rhyme scheme or metre, though poets may use internal rhyme within their lines (rather than at the end) OR within words via techniques like assonance, alliteration, etc.
• is often regarded as prose-like. It may contain stanzas, but these can vary considerably in length and structure; regularity of structure is less important; the visual appearance of the poem may be part of its artistic expression
• does not follow a strict rhythm, instead employing the natural rhythms of speech; enjambment may be used to carry sentences across lines

Examples in the anthology include:

• ‘In the Forest’ by Thomas Shapcott, pp. 34–35
• ‘Uluru’ by Eva Johnson, p. 68
• From ‘The Law About Singing Out’ by Gela Nga-Mirraitja, p. 74
• ‘Face of the City’ by Grace Perry, p. 120
• ‘Profiles of My Father’ by Rhyll McMaster, pp. 124–125
• ‘Peacocks’ by Kate Llewellyn, pp. 138–139
• ‘Diver’ by R.A. Simpson, pp. 152–153
• ‘The Rock Pool’ by Peter Skrzynecki, pp. 154–155
• ‘Dolphins’ by Peter McFarlane, pp. 158–159

Students can use the table below to identify the features of free verse, adding an explanation and an example for each of the sample poems.

A closer look at free verse poems

‘The Rock Pool’ by Peter Skrzynecki (pp. 154–155)

Peter Skrzynecki’s perspective on what it means to be Australian differs from that of Lawson and other early poets. As a post-war European immigrant, his poems reflect the experiences of living in a modern, multicultural Australia. ‘The Rock Pool’ does not directly address those experiences, but it does represent a break from poetry about the outback and rural life. The beach has long been central to the Australian psyche, and in this poem Skrzynecki captures the wonder of exploring rock pools through a child’s eyes.

Read ‘The Rock Pool’ and identify the form: is it a bush ballad, a lyric poem, or free verse? How can students tell? Then identify and analyse the techniques in the poem. This can be done individually, in groups, or as a class. Some examples have been provided below.

Finish with a class discussion:

• What are the ‘treasures’ that Skrzynecki refers to?
• Can you identify other poetic devices like alliteration, enjambment, and repetition?
• Why would Skrzynecki use repetition in describing the rock pool? Think about the scene and the motion of the ocean.
• How does Skrzynecki capture a different perspective on Australian life in this poem?

‘Uluru’ by Eva Johnson (p. 68)

Read a short biography of Eva Johnson (or refer to any research done as part of the Initial Response > Exploring Context activities). Then read her poem ‘Uluru’.

Note how the poem is written in free verse. There is no set rhyme scheme, but there is a strong sense of rhythm carried through the line length and the use of techniques like alliteration, sibilance, and assonance. Enjambment is used throughout the poem as Johnson’s sentences and clauses run across lines, pushing the reader onwards. This also creates a sense of rhythm and flow, which is much like the spoken word.

Discuss the following:

• How is Johnson’s poem different from others you have studied?
• Why do you think her perspective on the outback is so different from Paterson’s or Foott’s?
• What is her message in ‘Uluru’? What do you think her purpose was in composing it?
• Who do you think the ‘keepers’ are in the last line?
• Why do you think Johnson has used Uluru as a symbol for the struggles of First Nations peoples? It may be useful to look up the history and important issues that have surrounded this site over the years.

‘The Law About Singing Out’ (p. 74) and ‘In the Forest’ (pp. 34–35)

Read the extract from ‘The Law About Singing Out’ by Gela Nga-Mirraitja (also known as Paddy Fordham Wainburranga). Discuss:

• How is Gela Nga-Mirraitja’s connection to the land different to that of other poets you have studied?
• Whose voice does he represent?
• How does the poet use personification to strongly convey his connection with the land? Find examples to prove your answer.

Now read ‘In the Forest’ by Thomas Shapcott. What do students think the poem is about?

Ask them to take a blank page and draw a line down the middle. They will choose FOUR lines from the poem that stand out and write them down the lefthand column. In the righthand column, they will write a list of questions that will help them to explore the meaning of each line in more detail. An example has been provided:

Students can then respond to the following:

• Identify the enjambment in the lines.
• How does the onomatopoeia in st. 4, l. 1 and st. 5, l. 1 add to the feeling of the forest?
• What other sounds can be heard in the poem? We refer to this as auditory imagery because it creates sounds for the reader to hear, which deepen the atmosphere of the poem.
• How does Shapcott give a voice to the bush that is different to earlier poems?

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Synthesising tasks

Creative writing

Students are to write a short poem that uses an extended metaphor to describe a unique place. This could be a river, sand dunes, a forest, a garden, their bedroom, the school, the sports field, or any other place they would like to explore.

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Analytical response

The acronym SMILE reminds students what they need to think about when analysing poetry. This is a useful framework for collecting notes and organising paragraphs, and should be extended as students progress in their study.

Students can select any poem from the collection and use the SMILE framework to analyse it.

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The dangers of the outback

Many poets have followed Henry Lawson in highlighting the harshness of the Australian outback and the tragedy of those who venture into her wilderness. Mary Hannay Foott’s poem ‘Where the Pelican Builds Her Nest’ (pp. 94–95) stands as a memorial to the unfortunate explorers who never return. The poem juxtaposes descriptions of the bush and the experiences of those who venture too far. It is based on the true story (described in a Brisbane Courier article from 1932) of two brothers named Cornelius and Albert Prout.

Read the poem with students or listen to a reading.

Inference

‘Where the Pelican Builds Her Nest’ has three stanzas, or a tripartite structure. The first stanza outlines the explorers’ preparation; the second, what they were seeking in ‘the West’; and the third, their failure to return. The tone is subtle in this poem, and it takes some contextual knowledge of the story and a close look at the lines to understand the tragedy. It may be useful to share the poet’s original note about pelicans, which accompanied the poem when it was published in The Queensland Figaro in 1885.

Draw students’ attention to st. 3, particularly l. 5. Ask them why they think this line is in the poem. Then ask them to justify that perspective.

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Tonal shift

Explain that there is a tonal shift in st. 3 that gives a strong indication of Foott’s intention in the poem. We learn in l. 3–4 that it has been three years since the explorers were last seen (seasonal rains have come and gone ‘thrice’). Foott then implies that hope, like the creek, has dried up (l. 5). The metaphor in l. 7 carries the tragic inference that the explorers have died and that their bodies are lost to the elements.

Remind students that words carry connotations beyond their literal definitions, conveying positive or negative feelings and attitudes. Have students annotate ‘Where the Pelican Builds Her Nest’ to trace the change in perspective through the three stanzas. Ask them to highlight phrases and actions that convey excitement, hope, and dreams in st. 1–2, then tragedy in st. 3.

Finish with a class discussion:

• How has Foott extended on Lawson’s ideas about the bush?
• Whose perspective do you prefer: A.B. (Banjo) Paterson’s, Lawson’s, or Foott’s? Who do you think gives a more accurate portrayal of the bush?
• Why do you think Paterson is the more famous of the three poets, and the one whose perspective Australians tend to recall when it comes to the Australian outback?

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Comparison with other texts

Poetic challenges

Although the ‘Bulletin Debate’ is well known (and will be explored further in the Informed Reaction section), some critics have suggested that it distracts from many other qualities of Australian life and literature. One reviewer argued that the simple fact of being Australian did NOT necessitate a preoccupation with Australiana, while academic Tony Moore suggested that Paterson and Lawson had exaggerated the importance of certain Australian ideals (e.g. mateship, ironic humour) while downplaying others (e.g. family life, women, First Nations histories and cultures, environmental concerns).

Dorothea Mackellar is a poet of equal renown to Paterson or Lawson. In ‘My Country’ (pp. 75–77), similarly to Paterson, she dwells on the beauty of the Australian continent. Hers, however, is a more ‘balanced’ account, celebrating Australia’s striking landscapes while acknowledging its harsh, arid conditions. Ask students to identify the visual imagery that Mackellar uses to depict these alternating conditions. ‘My Country’ has captured the imagination of generations of Australians, with readers young and old identifying with the images therein.

Ownership and intervention

Like Paterson, Mackellar came from a wealthy family. They lived in Point Piper but frequently visited their properties in the Hunter Valley and near Gunnedah (all in NSW). At the same time, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were suffering oppression, the attempted erasure of their cultures, and the dispossession of their traditional lands.

Mackellar uses a number of possessive phrases to give an impression that the land belongs to her:

• 2, l. 8
• 4, l. 1 (and st. 5, l. 1)
• 5, l. 4
• 6, l. 3–4

While possession is not the focus of the poem, some critics have argued that Mackellar presents a colonial vision of the land. In 2021, Australian Poetry published a chapbook called Transforming My Country, in which 14 poets responded to the classic poem. Ali Cobby Eckermann’s titular poem (p. 40) addresses the idea of ownership from an Aboriginal perspective. She adapts the words from Mackellar’s original poem to realign them with her perspective and voice as an Aboriginal woman. The final stanza, and the rhetorical question directly above it, are particularly noteworthy.

Place the two poems (‘My Country’ and ‘Transforming My Country’) side by side. Have students locate the words that Eckermann uses from Mackellar’s poem to understand how we can intervene in a text and change its meaning.

Now read ‘Dolphins’ by Peter McFarlane (pp. 158–159). Model an analysis of the extended metaphor of music. Draw special attention to the way McFarlane revisits this metaphor throughout the poem, deepening its meaning as it progresses.

As a class, discuss the following questions:

• In McFarlane’s poem, who is it that owns the sea?
• What is humanity’s role in the poem?
• How is this view of ownership different to Mackellar’s and Eckermann’s?

Students can then take another poem from The ABC Book of Australian Poetry and practise their own interpretation through intervention, modifying a few crucial phrases or lines to change the meaning. They might reframe ‘The Man from Snowy River’ (pp. 58–62) from the colt’s point of view; ‘The Gardener’ (p. 122) from the bird’s; or the extract from ‘The Dusk’ (p. 101) from the kangaroo’s. They could rewrite ‘The Eclipse of the Moon’ (p. 169) to be about the sun, or choose any other poem in the collection to modify.

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Critical thinking: however-ing

This activity has been adapted from Glen Pearsall’s The Literature Toolbox. It encourages students to explore complexities and contradictions so that they can develop and present informed judgements in their writing.

Ask students to write down a series of statements based on their views about the poems they have read so far. For example:

• Paterson is by far the best poet to represent the Australian fighting spirit in the bush.
• Lawson deals with life in the bush with a much greater awareness of the harsh reality of the poor.
• Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is an excellent poem that represents the beautiful Australian landscape.

Now ask students to think of an alternative or counter to these big statements. For example:

• Paterson is by far the best poet to represent the Australian fighting spirit in the bush; however, Lawson’s treatment of the harsh life of farmers is also important to recognise.
• Lawson deals with life in the bush with a much greater awareness of the harsh reality of the poor; however, he fails to recognise the beauty of the country and the spirit of the people who live there.
• Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is an excellent poem that represents the beautiful Australian landscape; however, she does not reflect the issues faced by Traditional Owners or their significant connection to the land.

Students can then use ONE of these statements as the introduction to a short paragraph exploring the ideas in more depth, giving textual evidence to support their judgements.

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Representations of Australian culture

The discussion about what it means to be ‘Australian’ is not new, having been explored by writers past and present. The poems below represent a range of ideas about Australian culture and values. Read them with students and discuss their meaning.

• ‘Trouble on the Selection’ by Henry Lawson (pp. 52–53)
• ‘Diver’ by R.A. Simpson (pp. 152–53)
• ‘Face of the City’ by Grace Perry (p. 120)

List the Australian values depicted in these texts:

Do you agree with these values/themes? Why or why not?

As a challenge to these notions of ‘Australianness’, read ‘Be Good, Little Migrants’ by Uyen Loewald, which appears in Growing Up Asian in Australia (pp. 225–226) and Growing Up in Australia (pp. 156–157).

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Memorialising poets: who do we remember and why?

Direct students to Monument Australia. There is a section of the website that lists alphabetically (by first name) people involved in the arts for whom monuments have been set up. This includes poets whose texts are considered part of an Australian literary canon.

Explore the concept of a literary canon – articles from TCK Publishing and ThoughtCo may be useful here – and what values we might expect in an Australian context (refer to the previous activity). Then work through the following discussion points:

• Why might some people reject the idea of a group of ‘classic’ texts that represent Australia? Think about the people in the texts – who is represented? Who isn’t? Think about the way that values change, especially in relation to gender and ethnicity.
• Some of the poets with monuments have also been honoured with literary prizes. Who and what are they? It may be helpful to consult a list of Australian literary awards.
• Why is it important to memorialise writers and honour their legacy? How might these legacies be questioned, and their significance change, over time? Look up some information on memorials to Lawson, Paterson, and Mackellar. How have they been remembered? Why have they been honoured in such a way? Are there any controversies surrounding their lives?
• Based on what you have read and studied, what similarities and differences are there between the significant poets below? Some ideas have been provided to get the conversation started.

As a side note, if students or teachers are interested in poetry competitions, an extensive list can be found at the Australian Writers’ Resource.

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Rich assessment task

Personal evaluation of the text

Students are to write a letter to Hathorn in which they:

• congratulate her on the diversity of the collection; OR
• request that she change some of the sections and/or add other poems.

For this task students should:

1. Introduce themselves and their background (e.g. a student studying The ABC Book of Australian Poetry), as this will be important in establishing the voice they represent.
2. Write several paragraphs that support their argument – with examples and quotes from poems they have read – that Hathorn has compiled an excellent collection OR that she should make changes (they can refer to their statements and paragraph from the Critical Thinking: However-ing exercise).
3. Outline the themes and issues they believe are important for young people in Australia to engage with.
4. Conclude by summarising their main points and explaining why interacting with poetry is important for young people.

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Synthesising core ideas

Not all writers share the same perspectives on the same topics or issues; many strive to present alternatives to the ‘norm’ or dominant view. It is natural to ask questions and seek answers from different viewpoints. The poet’s role is to bring to life these questions and concerns in the reader’s mind, without just trying to persuade them as they might in an essay or exposition. Hathorn has done well to assemble a collection of poems with different perspectives on the same themes or topics. These poems convey diverse experiences of living in Australia.

Life in the Australian bush

The ‘Bulletin Debate’ (1892–1893) was a famous literary debate involving A.B. (Banjo) Paterson and Henry Lawson. On one side was Paterson, who framed bush characters as iconic representations of ideal Australian traits. These courageous horsemen, tough drovers, and humorous shearers were independent and masculine: the Australian man as a kind of heroic underdog. On the other side was Lawson, who was sharply critical of the ‘romanticised’ view of bush life, preferring to write what he saw as the ‘real’ hardships of such an existence. His version of the bush was bleak, desolate, and inflicted suffering on its inhabitants. While the two men knew each other well, and it is readily cited that they undertook the debate to raise their profiles, their differing perspectives on life in the bush and Australia’s national character have echoed through literature ever since. If you’d like, you can read the entire exchange online:

Students have previously examined Paterson’s ‘Clancy of the Overflow’; they will now compare it with Lawson’s ‘Andy’s Gone with Cattle’. Coming in slightly behind the swagman of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ (pp. 56–57) and ‘The Man from Snowy River’ (pp. 58–62), Clancy stands as one of Paterson’s most loved characters. The poem was written after Lawson had already challenged romantic portrayals of droving, showing how persistent the bushman myth was.

For now, set Clancy aside and read ‘Andy’s Gone with Cattle’ (pp. 108–109) with students.

Diction

It would be interesting to drop the poem into a word cloud generator; there are plenty of options to choose from online (e.g. Free Word Cloud Generator, WordClouds.com). Once you have done this, ask students:

• What words stand out to you?
• What words carry negative connotations or ideas?
• Compared with your perception of Clancy, how does this version of the Australian drover differ?

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Lawson made a lot of intentional language choices in this poem. Poets are encouraged to write with ‘economy of language’, meaning that each word is valuable and has an intentional place in the line. Here, Lawson’s poetic lines are cut back to allow the remaining words to speak louder. The title is an interesting starting point, as it uses the phrase ‘gone with cattle’ instead of the more romantic ‘gone a-droving’. The image carries a bleaker connotation: Andy has abandoned humanity to head out with the animals.

NOTE: This idea is expanded in Lawson’s famous short story ‘The Drover’s Wife’ (featured in Reading Australia’s teaching resource for While the Billy Boils). It too depicts the abandoned family of a drover, battling to survive while the man of the house goes off for months at a time.

‘Andy’s Gone with Cattle’ contains some other striking language choices. Lawson uses several poetic techniques to develop a supplicating tone from the persona. The questions in st. 3 highlight this.

The personification of fortune and the symbolism of the superlative ‘blackest’ convey the speaker’s desperation and despair. The question at the start of st. 4 portrays the ‘squatters’ as snarling animals using a technique called zoomorphism. These are a far cry from the bush friends of which Paterson speaks so fondly.

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‘Clancy’s Reply’

Read ‘Clancy’s Reply’, a poem written in 1897 by a man called Thomas Gerald Clancy. Clancy is thought to be the inspiration for the titular character in Paterson’s poem. You can learn more about him from ABC Radio National’s Books and Arts archive.

After reading the poem, discuss the following:

• How does ‘Clancy’s Reply’ challenge Paterson’s original poem?
• What features have been ‘revised’ from the original?
• Why do you think ‘Clancy’s Reply’ is relatively unknown compared to ‘Clancy of the Overflow’? Why has Australia continued to celebrate Paterson’s portrait of Clancy?

Point of interest

Paterson argued that Lawson’s version of the bush was full of doom and gloom, a view shared by many Australians. Taking aim at Lawson and others in ‘An Answer to Various Bards’, Paterson suggested that they ‘take something for their livers, and be cheerful for a change’. And to Lawson personally, he left one of his most stinging remarks: ‘For the bush will never suit you, and you’ll never suit the bush’ (from ‘In Defence of the Bush’). In 1993 Paterson replaced Lawson on the Australian $10 note, with ‘The Man from Snowy River’ written in microprint. The new note retains some lines from the poem.

Wrap up this part of the unit by asking students to reflect and discuss:

Has learning more about Paterson and Lawson (and Clancy!) altered your original view of the poems and poets? If so, how? If not, why?

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Guided reflection

Help students reflect on their study of The ABC Book of Australian Poetry. This can be conducted as a guided reflection in which students compose a substantial response with the help of prompts, scaffolding, and/or modelling.

The following questions may help students get started:

• What have you started to understand about Australian poetry?
• How has your knowledge of poetic devices and features developed?
• What are the trappings or dangers of choosing to read some poems over others?
• What have you learnt about the craft of writing poetry?
• Is there anything you would change about this text? If so, what?

You can also offer prompts to guide students into writing a reflection. Encourage them to draw on examples from the collection.

• In this study of Australian poetry, the poems I most enjoyed were … … … because … … …
• This text covers the main themes of … … … These themes are relevant to Australians today because … … …
• From studying the poems I started to understand the features of poetry, such as … … …
• This collection of poems is important for … … … (e.g. preserving an understanding of Australia and our identity)
• I have learnt about … … …
• If I could change something about the text, it would be … … …

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Rich assessment task 1: responding

Class debates

Have students break into groups of six to debate ONE of the following motions (or allow them to develop one in consultation with you):

1. The ABC Book of Australian Poetry accurately represents the people of Australia.
2. The ABC Book of Australian Poetry depicts themes and issues that are relevant to young people today.
3. Poetry is an important part of any society that wishes to critique itself.
4. Only famous Australian poets should be studied at school.

Students can use a debating scaffold to structure, prepare, and run their debates.

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Rich assessment task 2: creating

Anthologies

Students are to construct their own anthologies of Australian poetry. They will choose THREE poems from The ABC Book of Australian Poetry (or others they have found, in consultation with you) and compose ONE additional poem. This may be a poem they have written as part of this unit; if so, they should seek to re-draft the poem and make changes based on your feedback.

Students may also wish to theme their collection around a central idea that they see as relevant to an understanding of Australian life.

The anthology should include a foreword (max. 200 words) similar to Hathorn’s note at the start of The ABC Book of Australian Poetry. It should outline the student’s approach to selecting the poems, what aspects of Australian life the poems represent, and why they should be passed on to the next generation. Students should explain what ‘voices’ they have chosen to include and their personal understanding of what it means to be Australian. They should also discuss some of the significant language features in the selected poems OR their own poem, and the effect or meaning that these features produce.

Required elements

• Front cover illustration or title page
• Foreword (max. 200 words)
• Table of contents
• THREE selected poems that represent the values or spirit of Australia
• ONE original poem

Optional elements

• Illustrations to accompany the poems
• Publisher’s name and logo (this can be made up)

Students can complete this task using a range of software. They can print the anthologies or present them digitally using PowerPoint, Word, Pages, or an online platform of your choice.

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