The Man From Snowy River and Other Verses

Preface & Prelude

Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson

Preface

It is not so easy to write ballads descriptive of the bushland of Australia as on light consideration would appear. Reasonably good verse on the subject has been supplied in sufficient quantity. But the maker of folksongs for our newborn nation requires a somewhat rare combination of gifts and experiences. Dowered with the poet’s heart, he must yet have passed his ‘wander-jaehre’ amid the stern solitude of the Austral waste — must have ridden the race in the back-block township, guided the reckless stock-horse adown the mountain spur, and followed the night-long moving, spectral-seeming herd ‘in the droving days’. Amid such scarce congenial surroundings comes oft that finer sense which renders visible bright gleams of humour, pathos, and romance, which, like undiscovered gold, await the fortunate adventurer. That the author has touched this treasure-trove, not less delicately than distinctly, no true Australian will deny. In my opinion this collection comprises the best bush ballads written since the death of Lindsay Gordon.

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A number of these verses are now published for the first time, most of the others were written for and appeared in “The Bulletin” (Sydney, N.S.W.), and are therefore already widely known to readers in Australasia.

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Prelude I have gathered these stories afar,   In the wind and the rain, In the land where the cattle camps are,   On the edge of the plain. On the overland routes of the west,   When the watches were long, I have fashioned in earnest and jest   These fragments of song. They are just the rude stories one hears   In sadness and mirth, The records of wandering years,   And scant is their worth Though their merits indeed are but slight,   I shall not repine, If they give you one moment's delight,   Old comrades of mine.