"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."60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp. 36-38
Further publications In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses by Henry Lawson, 1896 An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, Angus and Robertson, 1907 The Freeman's Journal, 5 December 1912 Selected Poems of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1918 Out Back and Other Poems by Henry Lawson, W. H. Honey, 1943 Silence Into Song : An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Clifford O'Brien, Rigby, 1968 The Penguin Book of Australian Verse edited by Harry Heseltine, Penguin Books, 1972 The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Hamlyn, 1974 The Essential Henry Lawson : The Best Works of Australia's Greatest Writer edited Brian Kiernan, Currey O'Neil, 1982 A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, Currawong, 1982 A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984 Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984 My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer, Lansdowne, 1985 Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury edited by Glenys Smith, Lansdowne, 1985 The Penguin Book of Australian Satirical Verse edited by Philip Neilsen, Penguin, 1986 A Collection of Australian Bush Verse Peter Antill-Rose, 1989 Australian Bush Poems, Axiom, 1991 A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991 The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss, Penguin, 1993 The Romance of the Stockman: The Lore, Legend and Literature of Australia's Outback Heroes, Viking O'Neill, 1993 The Penguin Book of 19th Century Australian Literature edited by Michael Ackland, Penguin, 1993 Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998 Classic Australian Verse edited by Maggie Pinkney, Five Mile Press, 2001 Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey, Text Publishing, 2002 Our Country : Classic Australian Poetry : From Colonial Ballads to Paterson & Lawson edited by Michael Cook, Little Hills Press, 2002 The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Kinsella, Penguin, 2009 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009 The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009 Australian 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".
See also 1890 in poetry 1890 in Australian literature Australian literature
References