Individual Entry Archive: Consider This

Happy 114th Birthday, Banjo Paterson

I have gathered these stories afar
In the wind and the rain,
In the land where the cattle-camps are,
On the edge of the Plain.
On the overland routes of the west,
When the watches were long,
I have fashioned in earnest and jest
These fragments of song.

They are just the rude stories one hears
In sadness and mirth,
The records of wandering years --
And scant is their worth.
Though their merits indeed are but slight,
I shall not repine
If they give you one moment's delight,
Old comrades of mine.
—A. B. "Banjo" Paterson Prelude

Source: University of Queensland (Australia) online edition of Prelude from The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses first published in 1895.
See:
> It is the birthday of the poet, journalist, and songwriter Banjo Paterson born Andrew Paterson in Narrambla, Australia in 1864. He passed away on 5 February 1941 in Sydney, Australia. See Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac for Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009
> The biography of Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson by the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition
> A wonderful article about Banjo online in the National Geograohic Magazine by Roff Smith Australia's Bard.
> He is one of my most favorite poets and I have a number of entries devoted to him here on my blog, "Consider this."
  • Clancy of the Overflow
  • Banjo's 'The Man from Ironbark'
  • Happy Birthday, Banjo Paterson (2008)
  • The Old Australian Ways
  • Flowing Beards are All the Go
  • When My Hair is Grey?
  • Mulga Bill's Bicycle
  • Happy Birthday, Mom