The Travelling Post Office
Unfinished - individual poem - Gilmore, Lawson, Harpur, Kendall, Paterson
"The Travelling Post Office" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson (Andrew Barton Paterson).
It was first published in The Bulletin on 10 March 1894.
Analysis
An old man's son has left home to go driving sheep along the Castlereagh. The old man asks the author to write a letter to his son and to post it "Care of Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh," thinking that the various mailmen along the way will pass it along until it reaches the son.
Critical reception
While reviewing The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses a writer in The Sydney Morning Herald noted of this poem, among others, that it "finds the authentic transcript of the moods of inland Australia, the life of her people, and sometimes in their own words."
Another critic, reviewing the same collection in Freeman's Journal, commented that in reading the poem "we feel that indefinable charm which distinguishes all true poetry, but which defies analysis."
In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page noted that while the story in the poem is "minimal" it is "no less real" than some of the poet's other works. And while the "history and scoiology of the poem are simplistic at best", the "virtues of the ballad stanza appear" timeless.
Publication history
After its original publication in The Bulletin the poem was also included in the following anthologies, among others:The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by A. B. Paterson, Angus and Robertson, 1895An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, Angus and Robertson, 1907The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, Angus and Robertson, 1909The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch, Oxford University Press, 1945Songs for All Seasons : 100 Poems for Young People edited by Rosemary Dobson, Angus and Robertson, 1967Australia Fair : Poems and Paintings edited by Douglas Stewart, Ure Smith, 1974The Collins Book of Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall, Collins, 1981The Bulletin, 22-29 December 1981Singer of the Bush, A. B. Paterson : Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Rosamund Campbell and Philippa Harvie, 1983The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984The Banjo's Best-Loved Poems edited by edited by Rosamund Campbell and Philippa Harvie, Weldon Publishing, 1985The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray, Oxford University Press, 1986Banjo Paterson’s Poems of the Bush, J. M. Dent, 1987A Vision Splendid: The Complete Poetry of A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, Angus and Robertson, 1990Selected Poems : A. B. Paterson edited by Les Murray, 1992A. B. Paterson : Bush Ballads, Poems, Stories and Journalism edited by Clement Semmler, 1992Banjo Paterson : His Poetry and Prose edited by Richard Hall, 1993The Bush Poems of A. B. Paterson edited by Jack Thompson, FinePoets, 200860 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 200960 Classic Australian Poems for Children edited by Chris Cheng, Random House, 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, 2011Banjo Paterson Treasury by A. B. Paterson, Random House, 2013