"The Song of the Cattle Hunters" (1861) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Kendall.
It was originally published in The Empire newspaper on 2 November 1861 under the title "The Cattle Hunters", and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
Critical reception While reviewing a manuscript of Elijah and Other Poems, a Kendall collection that does not appear to have been published, a reviewer in The Sydney Morning Herald called this poem "full of strength and vigour."
In a review of the poet's collection Leaves from Australian Forests, a writer in The North Eastern Ensign (Benalla, Victoria) commented that this poem was a "pure song". They went on to state that it was "exquisite for affluence of color and delicacy of touch [and it has] the breezy melody and rushing sweep of the true ringing lyric".
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in The Empire newspaper in 1861 it was reprinted as follows:
The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 November 1861, with the title "The Song of the Cattle Hunters" The Illawarra Mercury, 6 December 1861 (the author revised the poem for this publication) Poems and Songs by Henry Kendall, J. R. Clarke, 1862 The Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales by G. B. Barton, Gibbs, Shallard and Co., 1866 The Athenaeum, 17 February 1866 The Round Table, 17 March 1866 The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1866 Leaves from Australian Forests by Henry Kendall, George Robertson, 1869 Poems of Henry Kendall by Henry Kendall, George Robertson, 1886 The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913 Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925 New Song in an Old Land edited by Rex Ingamells, 1943 Australian Bush Songs and Ballads edited by Will Lawson, Frank Johnson, 1944 Selected Poems of Henry Kendall edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus and Robertson, 1957 The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall edited by Thomas Thornton Reed, 1966 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 Sense, Shape, Symbol : An Investigation of Australian Poetry edited by Brian Keyte, Phoenix Education, 2013
See also 1861 in Australian literature 1861 in poetry
References