AustLit
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Notes
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Only literary material by Australian authors individually indexed.
Other material in this issue includes:
- First Page Picture: 'The Farmer' (unattributed), [17].
- Poetry: 'The Farmer' by American poet Berton Braley (q.v.), [17]-18; 'A Harvest Hymn' (unattributed), 21; 'The Cottar's Saturday Night' by Scottish poet Robert Burns (q.v.), 25-26; 'The Bugle Song' from The Princess by English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (q.v.), with illus. 'Killarney' from The World of To-day (Gresham Publishing), 29-30.
- Prose: 'Irish Hospitality' by English author Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), with illus. 'A Farm-house in the Irish Free State' from Carpenter's Geographical Reader (c.1924), 27-29.
- Non-Fiction: 'Instruction for those on the Land : The Better Farming Train' (unattributed), 30-31; 'The Boy Scouts Association' by F. J. Mills (q.v.), General Secretary, South Australian Section of the Boy Scouts Association, from the Official Souvenir of the Third All-Australian Boy Scouts Corroboree, 1924, with illus. 'His Excellency the Earl of Stradbroke [1862-1947], Chief Scout of Victoria' by Lafayette, Melbourne, 31; 'Selfishness', from a letter by British soldier and founder of the Boy Scouts, Sir Robert Baden-Powell (q.v.), depicting handwritten copy, 32.
- Supplement: 'Made in Australia : 12. 'Ready-Made Clothing - Men's and Boys' Outer Garments' by the Made in Australia Council, 312 Flinders Street, Melbourne, with unattributed illus. 'For the apparel oft proclaims man', and 'Proud of his New Overcoat', i-iv.
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Preceding or following each piece is a short glossary of the longer words contained therein, as well as notes about people and places mentioned.
Contents
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The Drover's Wife,
single work
short story
(p. 18-21)
First appearing in The Bulletin in 1892, Henry Lawson's short story 'The Drovers Wife' is today regarded as a seminal work in the Australian literary tradition. Noted for it's depiction of the bush as harsh, potentially threatening and both isolated and isolating, the story opens with a simple enough premise: an aggressive--and presumably deadly--snake disrupts the working life of a bushwoman and her young children. Brave but cautious, the woman resolves to protect her children since her husband is, characteristically, away from home and of no help.
As time passes within the story, tension builds, and the snake's symbolic threat takes on layers of meaning as the sleepless heroine recalls previous challenges she faced while her husband was away. A series of flashbacks and recollections propel the story through the single night over which it takes place, and by the time the climax arrives--the confrontation with the snake--readers have learned much about the heroine's strengths and fears, most of the latter involving the loss of children and dark figures who encroach upon her small, vulnerable homestead. To be sure, this "darkness" is highly symbolic, and Lawson's use of imagery invokes Western notions of good and evil as well as gendered and racial stereotypes.
Note: With portrait of the author. -
In the Grampians,
single work
short story
children's
(p. 22-25)
Note: With two photographs by A. J. Relph: 'The Grampians : The Main Range' and 'The Silverband Falls', from Views of the Grampians (192-).
