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The Poets Of The Tomb
By Henry Lawson
Last salvo in "The Bush Controversy".
The later poem "A Voice From the Town" (Banjo Patterson) continues the theme.
The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead,
Tis time, the people passed a law to knock 'em on the head,
For 'twould be lovely if their friends could grant the rest they crave,
Those bards Of "tears" and "vanished hopes," those poets of the grave.
They say that life's an awful thing and full of care and gloom,
They talk of peace and restfulness connected with the tomb.
They say that man is made of dirt, and die, of course, he must;
But, all the same, a man is made of pretty solid dust,
There is a thing that they forget, so let it here be writ,
That some are made of common mud, and some are made of grit;
Some try to help the world along while others fret and fume
And wish that they were slumbering is the silence of the tomb.
'Twixt mother's arms and coffin-gear a man has work to do!
And if he does his very best he mostly worries through,
And while there is a wrong to right, and while the world goes round,
An honest man alive is worth a million under ground,
And yet, as long as sheoaks sigh and wattle-blossoms bloom,
The world shall hear the drivel of the poets of the tomb.
And though the graveyard poets long to vanish from the scene,
I notice that they mostly wish their resting-place kept green.
Now, were I rotting underground, I do not think I'd care
If wombats rooted on the ground or if the cows camped there;
And should I have some feelings left when I have gone before,
I think a ton of solid stone would hurt my feelings more.
Such wormy songs of mouldy joys can give me no delight;
I'll take my chances with the world, I'd rather live and fight.
Tho' "fortune" laughs along my track, or wears her blackest frown,
I'll try to do the world some good before I tumble down.
Let's fight for things that ought to be and try to make 'em boom;
We cannot help mankind when we are ashes in the tomb.
Extra Info:
The Bulletin, 8 October 1892.
The "Bush Controversy"
In 1892, Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, his friend and co-contributor to The Bulletin, decided to have a little fun, and to stir up a controversy in their poems. Henry Lawson set out to criticise the optimistic picture The Banjo painted of the Bush, and The Banjo in turn railed against the doom and gloom of Lawson's outlook.
Other poets became willing participants in this poetic altercation, and their poems are represented here.
9 July 1892 Henry Lawson Borderland
(Later re-titled "Up the country")
23 July 1892 Banjo Paterson In Defence of the Bush
30 July 1892 Edward Dyson The Fact of the Matter
6 August 1892 Henry Lawson In Answer to "Banjo", and otherwise
(Later: The City Bushman)
20 August 1892 H.H.C.C. The Overflow of Clancy
27 August 1892 Francis Kenna Banjo of the Overflow
1 October 1892 Banjo Paterson In Answer to Various Bards
(Later: An Answer to Various Bards)
8 October 1892 Henry Lawson The Poets of the Tomb
20 October 1894 Banjo Paterson A Voice from the Town
Paterson described the "Bulletin battle" in these words:
Henry Lawson was a man of remarkable insight in some things and of extraordinary simplicity in others. We were both looking for the same reef, if you get what I mean; but I had done my prospecting on horseback with my meals cooked for me, while Lawson has done his prospecting on foot and had had to cook for himself. Nobody realized this better than Lawson; and one day he suggested that we should write against each other, he putting the bush from his point of view, and I putting it from mine.
"We ought to do pretty well out of it," he said, "we ought to be able to get in three or four sets of verses before they stop us."
This suited me all right, for we were working on space, and the pay was very small . . . so we slam-banged away at each other for weeks and weeks; not until they stopped us, but until we ran out of material . . .
"Banjo Paterson Tells His Own Story",
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Feb-4 Mar 1939
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