| Three other poems were published in an unidentified newspaper, two when he was at Killarney Station, the other when he was at Simla, Rocklea in South Brisbane. {{:20250420_140857.jpg?200|}} | Three other poems were published in an unidentified newspaper, two when he was at Killarney Station, the other when he was at Simla, Rocklea in South Brisbane. {{:20250420_140857.jpg?400|}}((Rosa Praed papers, MSS8386, Box 18, item 2259, JOL, SLQ)) |
| The poem 'A Breath of War' accurately reflects the idealisation of war with the last verse "What a glorious task is open for the coming days of time/When they forge the chain that binds us as one English-speaking league;/When our strength and grandeur raise us to an eminence sublime - / A nation, made of nations, as one whole!". "A Paean from the West" exulting in the relief of rains after drought from his squatter's point of view with perhaps a semi-apology to his stepmother's nephew Banjo Paterson: "... I have jeered at others' writing, who have lent their muse, exciting/ Idle fancies to the glamour and the freedom of our ways; Yet I feel derision wasted when my mind the boon has tasted/ Of the thought of better seasons, of the hope of better days/ Now, our latent hopes reviving, we have fuller sense of living,/And the grand solemnity around us helps to make us vain;/ This is my realm, this little station; I, a lord of God's creation,/ Who would thrust the world beyond him, and his sovereignty retain'. The third poem 'The Cry of the People' on the surface supports but is an attack on efforts to minimise inequality - and likely a reaction to the rise of trade unions and the Australian Labor Party. He uses terms such 'whine your platitudes', 'Dictate to heaven how it wield its might', 'Debase the noble and the lowly raise ... Expel ambition', and '"What is thine is mine."' | The poem 'A Breath of War' accurately reflects the idealisation of war with the last verse "What a glorious task is open for the coming days of time/When they forge the chain that binds us as one English-speaking league;/When our strength and grandeur raise us to an eminence sublime - / A nation, made of nations, as one whole!". "A Paean from the West" exulting in the relief of rains after drought from his squatter's point of view with perhaps a semi-apology to his stepmother's nephew Banjo Paterson: "... I have jeered at others' writing, who have lent their muse, exciting/ Idle fancies to the glamour and the freedom of our ways; Yet I feel derision wasted when my mind the boon has tasted/ Of the thought of better seasons, of the hope of better days/ Now, our latent hopes reviving, we have fuller sense of living,/And the grand solemnity around us helps to make us vain;/ This is my realm, this little station; I, a lord of God's creation,/ Who would thrust the world beyond him, and his sovereignty retain'. The third poem 'The Cry of the People' on the surface supports but is an attack on efforts to minimise inequality - and likely a reaction to the rise of trade unions and the Australian Labor Party. He uses terms such 'whine your platitudes', 'Dictate to heaven how it wield its might', 'Debase the noble and the lowly raise ... Expel ambition', and '"What is thine is mine."' |