Banjo, of the Overflow

"Banjo, of the Overflow"
by Francis Kenna
First published inThe Bulletin
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date27 August 1892 (1892-08-27)
Full text
Banjo, of the Overflow at Wikisource

Banjo, of the Overflow is a poem by Australian poet Francis Kenna.[1] It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 27 August 1892[2] in reply to fellow poets Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson and Edward Dyson. This poem formed part of the Bulletin Debate, a series of works by Lawson, Paterson, and others, about the true nature of life in the Australian bush.

In Up The Country, Lawson had criticised "City Bushmen" such as Banjo Paterson who tended to romanticise bush life. Paterson, in turn, accused Lawson of representing bush life as nothing but doom and gloom.[3] Kenna's poem is a parody of Paterson's popular work, Clancy of the Overflow, playfully pointing out the irony of a city-dweller writing poems about life in the country. The author of the poem was initially credited only as "K."[4]

Further publication

After the poem's initial pubication in The Bulletin it was reprinted in The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss (1993).[1]

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References

  1. ^ a b "Banjo, of the Overflow". Austlit. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  2. ^ ""Banjo, of the Overflow by K."". The Bulletin, 27 August 1892, p17. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  3. ^ Henry Lawson: Australian Writer Archived 8 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine Australian Government Culture and Recreation
  4. ^ Banjo, of the Overflow Retrieved 7 June 2007