Poetry Connection: Poem of the Day( The First Surveyor by Banjo Paterson)
This one just made me smile.
It a homey, folksy piece written with alot of colloquial slang thrown in. The poet,(Andrew Barton Paterson aka 'Banjo' Paterson was the most celebrated guy in Australia at one point. He wrote and set to music that iconic Australian folksong ' Waltzing Matilda', which very nearly became the raw young country's national anthem.
There's been so much discussion online about Singaporean Blogs that I'd really like to talk about something different now.(And I'm not the only one who thinks so, Nicholas Liu does too)After all, if the purpose of the defamation suit was to defend its good name, then I think we ALL know that it has failed miserably. Even if he took AcidFlask to court now, there wouldn't be a point. Too much bad press online and off has already been generated.
So for today, I'd just liked to talk a little bit about Australia instead. The poem, folksy and simple as it may be, celebrates the unsung courage and pluck of early Australian settlers. It is also an unsubtle reminder of how good the later generations had it.
In a country where the climate and geography is so harsh, the ordinary bloke's ability to challenge and conquer the elements is still much celebrated today. Australians readily identify themselves with the land they fought so hard to cope with in the early years. ( There are statues of the first explorers in the Melbourne Town square for heaven's sakes)
Hence the immense popularity of Banjo Paterson's poems. Even Aussies who are complete city slickers have this fixed ideal of a typical Aussie bloke as being a country guy who's tough, straight talking and fair. His poems celebrated those guys....and turned them into fictional heroes of the Australian past;the colloquialisms he threw in only served to reinforce the idea of an idealized Australian identity.
All the same, the fact that this country nearly turned a song about a sheep stealer and law breaker into their national anthem warms the cockles of my heart. It just shows their ability to not take themselves too seriously; something the Singaporeans should definitely learn.
It a homey, folksy piece written with alot of colloquial slang thrown in. The poet,(Andrew Barton Paterson aka 'Banjo' Paterson was the most celebrated guy in Australia at one point. He wrote and set to music that iconic Australian folksong ' Waltzing Matilda', which very nearly became the raw young country's national anthem.
There's been so much discussion online about Singaporean Blogs that I'd really like to talk about something different now.(And I'm not the only one who thinks so, Nicholas Liu does too)After all, if the purpose of the defamation suit was to defend its good name, then I think we ALL know that it has failed miserably. Even if he took AcidFlask to court now, there wouldn't be a point. Too much bad press online and off has already been generated.
So for today, I'd just liked to talk a little bit about Australia instead. The poem, folksy and simple as it may be, celebrates the unsung courage and pluck of early Australian settlers. It is also an unsubtle reminder of how good the later generations had it.
In a country where the climate and geography is so harsh, the ordinary bloke's ability to challenge and conquer the elements is still much celebrated today. Australians readily identify themselves with the land they fought so hard to cope with in the early years. ( There are statues of the first explorers in the Melbourne Town square for heaven's sakes)
Hence the immense popularity of Banjo Paterson's poems. Even Aussies who are complete city slickers have this fixed ideal of a typical Aussie bloke as being a country guy who's tough, straight talking and fair. His poems celebrated those guys....and turned them into fictional heroes of the Australian past;the colloquialisms he threw in only served to reinforce the idea of an idealized Australian identity.
All the same, the fact that this country nearly turned a song about a sheep stealer and law breaker into their national anthem warms the cockles of my heart. It just shows their ability to not take themselves too seriously; something the Singaporeans should definitely learn.
posted by adinahaes at 7:19 PM
2 Comments:
another singaporean studying law in melbourne, yay! join the club
Waltzing Matilda is a remarkable poem/song, the fact that the guy committed suicide at the end is just plain bizarre! But maybe that's what makes the whole song so wonderful...
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