The Ballad of the Drover

"The Ballad of the Drover" (1889) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson.^[1]

It was originally published in The Australian Town and Country Journal on 9 March 1889^[2] and subsequently reprinted in several of the author's collections, other periodicals and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.^[1]

A reviewer on the PoetryVerse website noted that the poem initially "exudes optimism and anticipation, painting a picture of a joyful reunion." But that ultimately "the poem serves as a tragic reminder of the harsh realities faced by those who lived and worked in the Australian outback."^[3]

After the poem's initial publication in The Australian Town and Country Journal it was reprinted as follows:

• The Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 September 1889^[4]
• In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1900^[5]
• The Coo-ee Reciter : Humorous, Pathetic, Dramatic, Dialect, Recitations and Readings compiled by W.T. Pyke, Ward, Lock, 1904^[6]
• The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913^[7]
• Selected Poems of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1918^[8]
• Winnowed Verse by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1924^[9]
• Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925^[10]
• Poets of Australia : An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1946^[11]
• The Children's Lawson edited by Colin Roderick, Angus and Robertson, 1949^[12]
• An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1952^[13]
• Songs from Lawson edited by John Meredith, Bush Music Club, 1956^[14]
• From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, 1964^[15]
• Poems of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Ure Smith, 1973^[16]
• The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Hamlyn, 1974^[17]
• A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, Currawong, 1982^[18]
• A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984^[19]
• The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984^[20]
• Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984^[21]
• Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury edited by Glenys Smith, Lansdowne, 1985^[22]
• Favourite Australian Poems, Child and Associates, 1987^[23]
• A Collection of Australian Bush Verse, Peter Antill-Rose, 1989^[24]
• Australian Bush Poems, Axiom, 1991^[25]
• A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991^[26]
• Classic Australian Verse edited by Maggie Pinkney, Five Mile Press, 2001^[27]
• Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey, Text Publishing, 2002^[28]
• An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse edited by Jim Haynes, ABC Books, 2002^[29]
• Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Kathrine Bell, Gary Allen, 2007^[30]
• Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011^[31]

• The original publication of the poem in The Australian Town and Country Journal was mis-printed. In the third line of the fourth verse the word "twinkles" should have been printed as "trickles".^[32] This was corrected when the poem was re-printed in the Journal in September 1889.

• 1889 in Australian literature
• 1889 in poetry