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The Beautiful Squatter single work   poetry   satire   "Where the wandering Barwon delighteth the eye,"
Alternative title: Bush Morality
Is part of Squatter Songs Charles Harpur , 1845 sequence poetry (number 1 in series)
  • Author:agent Charles Harpur http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/harpur-charles
Issue Details: First known date: 1845... 1845 The Beautiful Squatter
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'On a squatter who seduces Aboriginal women and is eventually killed as a result.' (Webby)

Notes

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First line of verse: "Where the wandering Barwin delighteth the eye,"
Notes:
Minor textual variations appear in texts.
Notes:
Originally published as 'Squatter Songs No. 1' in the Weekly Register, 1845. More commonly known as 'The Beautiful Squatter'.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature vol. 4 no. 86 15 March 1845 Z597781 1845 newspaper issue 1845 pg. 124
    Note:
    • With first line: Where the wandering Barwin delighteth the eye,
    • Poem untitled in this source.
    • No author attributed in this source.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser 26 March 1845 Z1668401 1845 newspaper issue 1845 pg. 3
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur Charles Harpur , Elizabeth Perkins (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1984 Z459555 1984 selected work poetry satire 'This collection represents one version of almost every poem written by Charles Harpur, with the omission of some translations and paraphrases. The verse drama, "Stalwart the Bushranger", and the fragments of the dramatic poem "King Saul" are not included. ... The collection is edited from Harpur's manuscript poems held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and from printed copies in colonial newspapers when no manuscript version existed.' (Preface) Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1984 pg. 63
    Note: With first line: Where the wandering Barwin delighteth the eye,
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Satirical Verse Australian Satirical Verse Philip Neilsen (editor), Ringwood New York (City) : Penguin , 1986 Z517595 1986 anthology poetry extract satire humour war literature Ringwood New York (City) : Penguin , 1986 pg. 32
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Old Ballads from the Bush Bill Scott (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1987 Z57118 1987 anthology poetry Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1987 pg. 30
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads [1993] Elizabeth Webby (editor), Philip Butterss (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1993 Z136407 1993 anthology poetry humour satire Ringwood : Penguin , 1993 pg. 100-101
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Sting in the Wattle : Australian Satirical Verse Philip Neilsen (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 Z375066 1993 anthology poetry correspondence extract satire humour war literature St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 pg. 9-10
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology John Leonard (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 Z461207 1998 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) A thorough survey of poetry by Australians in English, beginning with a selection of contemporary work by younger poets, and going backward in time to the early colonial period. In addition to poems in the literary tradition, it indudes performance poetry, convict songs and old bush ballads. An extensive selection has been provided from the work of five major twentieth-century poets: Les Murray, Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, A.D. Hope and Kenneth Slessor. Several features are provided to assist the reader: the date of first publication of each poem is provided; footnotes explain unfamiliar words and allusions; and brief biographical notes assist in locating each poet in his or her place in time. Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 pg. 359
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 100 Australian Poems You Need to Know Jamie Grant (editor), Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2008 Z1545298 2008 anthology poetry Prahran : Hardie Grant Books , 2008 pg. 22
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 100-101
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1674214 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 408-409

Works about this Work

The Aboriginal in Early Australian Literature Elizabeth Webby , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 40 no. 1 1980; (p. 45-63)

'The depiction of aboriginals in early Australian literature, i.e., that written before 1850, resembles in many respects their pictorial depiction as outlined by Bernard Smith in European Vision  and the South Pacific. Writers who attempted the longer literary forms on Australian themes — the epic poem or the novel — usually, like the landscape artists, placed the aboriginal to one side. He was part of the exotic background, representing for the post the old order which was rapidly giving way to the march of civilization, or, along with bushrangers, fire and Rood, providing the fiction writer with the necessary "adventures" to break up the drab monotony of outback life. Certain shorter pieces of prose and verse focused more directly on the aboriginal, In these he was often either refined and classicalized along the "noble savage" lines of Blake's engraving of an aboriginal family, or caricatured as a comic specimen of brute creation. During the eighteen—forties there are signs of a third, more realistic and anthropological, approach with the incorporation of aboriginal words into poems and attempts at detailed descriptions of their customs in prose, though still with traces of the old simplifications in the directions of refinement or comedy.'  (Publication abstract)

The Aboriginal in Early Australian Literature Elizabeth Webby , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 40 no. 1 1980; (p. 45-63)

'The depiction of aboriginals in early Australian literature, i.e., that written before 1850, resembles in many respects their pictorial depiction as outlined by Bernard Smith in European Vision  and the South Pacific. Writers who attempted the longer literary forms on Australian themes — the epic poem or the novel — usually, like the landscape artists, placed the aboriginal to one side. He was part of the exotic background, representing for the post the old order which was rapidly giving way to the march of civilization, or, along with bushrangers, fire and Rood, providing the fiction writer with the necessary "adventures" to break up the drab monotony of outback life. Certain shorter pieces of prose and verse focused more directly on the aboriginal, In these he was often either refined and classicalized along the "noble savage" lines of Blake's engraving of an aboriginal family, or caricatured as a comic specimen of brute creation. During the eighteen—forties there are signs of a third, more realistic and anthropological, approach with the incorporation of aboriginal words into poems and attempts at detailed descriptions of their customs in prose, though still with traces of the old simplifications in the directions of refinement or comedy.'  (Publication abstract)

Last amended 4 May 2022 17:04:50
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  • Barwon River (New South Wales / Queensland), Walgett - Collarenebri area, Far North NSW, New South Wales,
  • Bush,
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