Middleton's Rouseabout
"Middleton's Rouseabout" is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Freeman's Journal on 8 March 1890, and later in the poet's collections and other Australian poetry anthologies.
Outline
This is the story of Andy, who starts out as Middleton's rouseabout and ends up buying the station after Middleton succumbs to "liquor and drought". Though he stil doesn't have any opinions or "idears".
Analysis
In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page described it as "very much a political poem in a very political era". He also notes that Lawson in just 28 lines "has given us an emblematic story for which some novelists would need 300 pages."
Further publications
In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses by Henry Lawson, 1896An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, Angus and Robertson, 1907The Freeman's Journal, 5 December 1912Selected Poems of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1918Out Back and Other Poems by Henry Lawson, W. H. Honey, 1943Silence Into Song : An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Clifford O'Brien, Rigby, 1968The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by Harry Heseltine, Penguin Books, 1972The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Hamlyn, 1974The Essential Henry Lawson : The Best Works of Australia's Greatest Writer edited Brian Kiernan, Currey O'Neil, 1982A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, Currawong, 1982A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer, Lansdowne, 1985Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury edited by Glenys Smith, Lansdowne, 1985The Penguin Book of Australian Satirical Verse edited by Philip Neilson, Penguin, 1986A Collection of Australian Bush Verse Peter Antill-Rose, 1989Australian Bush Poems, Axiom, 1991A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss, Penguin, 1993The Romance of the Stockman: The Lore, Legend and Literature of Australia's Outback Heroes, Viking O'Neill, 1993The Penguin Book of 19th Century Australian Literature edited by Michael Ackland, Penguin, 1993Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998Classic Australian Verse edited by Maggie Pinkney, Five Mile Press, 2001Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey, Text Publishing, 2002Our Country : Classic Australian Poetry : From Colonial Ballads to Paterson & Lawson edited by Michael Cook, Little Hills Press, 2002The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Kinsella, Penguin, 200960 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011
Note
The "Andy" of this poem is not the same as the "Andy" of Lawson's poem "Andy's Gone with Cattle".