AustLit

This poem evidently first appeared in The Western Champion in December 1884. In a following edition, The Queenslander stated : 'In our issue of 15th August appeared some original verses headed "Lost". The Western Champion of last week states that the lines appeared in its columns last December. We do not dispute our contemporary's statement ; at the same time we can assure our readers that the poetry was sent to us by its author some months ago - most likely before the Champion received it. We are not in the habit of palming off either poetry or prose as original which is not really so.' ('Original Poetry' column, The Queenslander, 5 September, 1885: 377).