The Ballad of the Drover
"The Ballad of the Drover" is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson.
It was originally published in The Australian Town and Country Journal on 9 March 1889 and subsequently reprinted in several of the author's collections, other periodicals and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
Critical reception
A reviewer on the PoetryVerse website noted that the poem initially "exudes optimism and anticipation, painting a picture of a joyful reunion." But that ultimately "the poem serves as a tragic reminder of the harsh realities faced by those who lived and worked in the Australian outback."
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in The Australian Town and Country Journal it was reprinted as follows:The Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 September 1889In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1900The Coo-ee Reciter : Humourous, Pathetic, Dramatic, Dialect, Recitations and Readings compiled by W.T. Pyke, Ward, Lock, 1904The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913Selected Poems of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1918Winnowed Verse by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1924Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925Poets of Australia : An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1946The Children's Lawson edited by Colin Roderick, Angus and Robertson, 1949An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1952Songs from Lawson edited by John Meredith, Bush Music Club, 1956From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, 1964Poems of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Ure Smith, 1973The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Hamlyn, 1974A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, Currawong, 1982A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury edited by Glenys Smith, Lansdowne, 1985Favourite Australian Poems, Child and Associates, 1987A 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, 1991Classic Australian Verse edited by Maggie Pinkney, Five Mile Press, 2001Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey, Text Publishing, 2002An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse edited by Jim Haynes, ABC Books, 2002Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Kathrine Bell, Gary Allen, 2007Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011