From the Ballads to Brennan

From the Ballads to Brennan
AuthorT. Inglis Moore
LanguageEnglish
SeriesPoetry in Australia
GenrePoetry anthology
PublisherAngus and Robertson
Publication date
1964
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages313 pp.
Preceded by- 
Followed byModern Australian Verse 

From the Ballads to Brennan is an anthology of Australian poetry edited by T. Inglis Moore, published by Angus and Robertson in 1964.[1]

The collection contains 209 poems, from a variety of sources.[2] The contents are separated into five sections: "Folk Songs and Ballads", "The Colonial Age", "Bush Ballads and Popular Verse", "Poets of the Nineties" and "The Early Twentieth Century".

This anthology comprises Volume I of a two-part anthology set titled Poetry in Australia. The second volume, titled Modern Australian Verse was edited by Douglas Stewart and was also published by Angus and Robertson in 1964.[3]

Contents

Folk Songs and Ballads

  • "Jim Jones", unknown
  • "Botany Bay", unknown
  • "The Convict's Lament on the Death of Captain Logan", Francis MacNamara
  • "The Waterwitch", unknown
  • "The Beautiful Land of Australia", unknown
  • "The Old Bullock Dray", unknown
  • "The Old Keg of Rum", unknown
  • "The Old Bark Hut", unknown
  • "The Wild Colonial Boy", unknown
  • "Brave Donahue", unknown
  • "Look Out Below!", Charles Thatcher
  • "The Broken-Down Digger", unknown
  • "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer", unknown
  • "The Squatter's Farewell, A. D. 1885", 'Anthos'
  • "The Eumeralla Shore", unknown
  • "Cockies of Bungaree", unknown
  • "The Overlander", unknown
  • "Down Where the Coolibahs Grow", Horace A. Flower
  • "Bullocky Bill", unknown
  • "Click Go the Shears", unknown
  • "The Banks of the Condamine", unknown
  • "On the Road to Gundagai", Anonymous
  • "Four Little Johnny-Cakes", unknown
  • "Flash Jack from Gundagai", Anonymous
  • "Australia's On the Wallaby", unknown
  • "Me and My Dog", unknown
  • "The Rollicking Ramble-eer", unknown
  • "Waltzing Matilda", A. B. Paterson

The Colonial Age

Bush Ballads and Popular Verse

Poets of the Nineties

The Early Twentieth Century

Publication history

The anthology was re-issued as follows:

  • 1965 University of California Press, USA[4]
  • 1971 Angus and Robertson, Australia[5]

Critical reception

Reviewing the anthology for The Bulletin R. A. Simpson found both good and bad in the selections. "The volume has been well planned in terms of contrasts. The 'academic' and 'popular' traditions are balanced satisfactorily against each other. It is a democratic and crowded collection, and it captures the growing pains of a country’s literature. Some of the humor remains humor today and there is a spattering of real poetry, as well as the poems and parts of poems that continue to be embarrassing skeletons in the literary cupboard regardless of the fact that Professor T. Inglis Moore has worked hard to give the skeletons respectable clothing."[6]

A reviewer in The Sydney Morning Herald concluded that "The selection in each group has been made with scholarly discrimination but with an eye to the general reader as much as to the poetry lover. All the old folk songs and ballads are here." They concluded by calling this "the most ambitious of Australian anthologies".[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore (1964)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  2. ^ "Austlit — From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore". Austlit. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  3. ^ "Poetry in Australia. Volume II, Modern Australian Verse / chosen by Douglas Stewart". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  4. ^ "From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore (1965)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  5. ^ "From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore (1971)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  6. ^ ""Growing Pains"". The Bulletin, 4 July 1964, p50. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  7. ^ ""Wealth of verse"". The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May 1964, p44. ProQuest 2525249114. Retrieved 7 February 2026.
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