AustLit
Latest Issues
Contents
- Henry Lawson : A Discursive Biography, single work criticism biography (p. 9-29)
-
His Father's Mate,
single work
short story
Tom Mason has lived a life full of misfortune and has lost all the people he loved. All he has left is his eleven-year-old son, to whom he is devoted.
- Faces in the Streeti"They lie, the men who tell us, for reasons of their own,", single work poetry (p. 39-41)
- The Army of the Rear Song of the Outcastsi"I listened through the music and the sounds of revelry,", single work poetry (p. 42-43)
- The Blue Mountainsi"Above the ashes straight and tall,", single work poetry (p. 44)
-
Payable Gold,
single work
short story
Peter MacKenzie, retired from the Ballarat goldfields and living in Melbourne with his family, is lured north to the N. S. W. goldfields. He has mortgaged his home to support his wife and children while he is away and labours unsuccessfully for years before he strikes payable gold. When he returns to Melbourne he finds that even Alligator Desolation, the family dog, has missed him.
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Arvie Aspinall's Alarm Clock,
single work
short story
A policeman finds a small boy sleeping on the steps outside his workplace. The boy explains he is sleeping there because he is afraid he will sleep in and be late for work.
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A Visit of Condolence,
single work
short story
Bill Anderson, a rough-spoken larrikin, visits Jones's Alley to tell eleven-year-old Arvie Aspinall that he will lose his job if he doesn't turn up at work at Grinder Brothers. When he learns Arvie died the night before he shows another side to his character.
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Jones's Alley,
single work
short story
Mrs Aspinall is faced with debts she is unable to pay, including repairs to her rented house in Jones's Alley. Her landlord takes her to court and she is found liable for the debt. Bill Anderson, the former workmate of her deceased son Arvie, comes to her rescue and helps her escape the bailiff and the loss of her few possessions.
- Andy's Gone with Cattlei"Our Andy's gone with cattle now-", single work poetry (p. 66)
- The Roaring Daysi"The night too quickly passes,", single work poetry (p. 69-71)
- The Ballad of the Droveri"Across the stony ridges, across the rolling plain,", single work poetry (p. 72-73)
-
The Drover's Wife,
single work
short story
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.
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The Bush Undertaker,
single work
short story
An old shepherd discovers his mate, Brummy, dead and mummified in the bush. Saddened, he feels compelled to bury him.
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Brummy Usen,
single work
short story
A swagman tells stories of people who have been lost in the bush; some thought dead when they were alive, and some believed alive when they were dead.
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The Union Buries Its Dead,
single work
short story
humour
Describes a bush funeral.
- Eureka (a Fragment)i"Roll up, Eureka's heroes, on that Grand Old Rush afar,", single work poetry (p. 94-95)
- The Glass on the Bari"Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,", single work poetry (p. 96)
- Middleton's Rouseabouti"Tall and freckled and sandy,", single work poetry satire humour (p. 97)
-
Macquarie's Mate,
single work
short story
The drinkers at Stiffner's shanty have a poor opinion of Macquarie, but his mate, Awful Example, defends him.