The Song of the Cattle Hunters

"The Song of the Cattle Hunters" (1861) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Kendall.^[1]

It was originally published in The Empire newspaper on 2 November 1861^[2] under the title "The Cattle Hunters", and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.^[1]

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."^[3]

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".^[4]

After the poem's initial publication in The Empire newspaper in 1861^[2] it was reprinted as follows:

• The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 November 1861, with the title "The Song of the Cattle Hunters"^[5]
• The Illawarra Mercury, 6 December 1861 (the author revised the poem for this publication)^[6]
• Poems and Songs by Henry Kendall, J. R. Clarke, 1862^[7]
• The Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales by G. B. Barton, Gibbs, Shallard and Co., 1866^[8]
• The Athenaeum, 17 February 1866^[1]
• The Round Table, 17 March 1866^[1]
• The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1866^[3]
• Leaves from Australian Forests by Henry Kendall, George Robertson, 1869^[9]
• Poems of Henry Kendall by Henry Kendall, George Robertson, 1886^[10]
• The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913^[11]
• Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925^[12]
• New Song in an Old Land edited by Rex Ingamells, 1943^[13]
• Australian Bush Songs and Ballads edited by Will Lawson, Frank Johnson, 1944^[14]
• Selected Poems of Henry Kendall edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus and Robertson, 1957^[15]
• The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall edited by Thomas Thornton Reed, 1966^[16]
• A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991^[17]
• The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss, Penguin, 1993^[18]
• Sense, Shape, Symbol : An Investigation of Australian Poetry edited by Brian Keyte, Phoenix Education, 2013^[19]

• 1861 in Australian literature
• 1861 in poetry