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Henry Lawson

Page history last edited by Rich S 9 years, 7 months ago

This story was written by Marj Johnson

HENRY LAWSON

 

*Henry and Louisa Lawson

 

One of Australia’s most admired writers of both poetry and short stories, Henry Lawson epitomised the sentiments and skills of the bush writers of the last decade of the 19th Century. This continent, a disparate collection of British colonies, was growing up, anxious to acquire independence and self-government. This was not an imitation of England but a unique land of wildly differing landscapes, with a harsh and unforgiving outback worthy of a legend.

 

Artists like Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton were painting outback scenes, developing colours and tones that truly depicted the harshness of the land. Lawson was writing in the main from a similar perspective. The decade became somewhat of a watershed between the old and the new emerging patriotism.

 

Henry Lawson was born in a tent on the goldfields near Grenfell, New South Wales on 17th June 1867. His father, Niels Hertzberg Larsen, was a Norwegian sailor who changed his name to Lawson when he and a mate jumped ship in Melbourne to try their luck on the goldfields.

 

Henry’s mother, Louisa (born New South Wales 1848) was an exceptional student and was encouraged in her love of books. Not much is known of the courtship of Niels and Louisa but their marriage was never considered a happy one. Louisa was an energetic worker for women’s rights and, from 1888 to 1905, edited and managed The Dawn, a magazine for women, She also wrote a book of verse, The Lonely Crossing. No doubt from her, Henry inherited a love of literature and skill with words, and learnt to appreciate the hardships endured by women in the colony, particularly those working and rearing children on isolated outback properties. Who can ever forget The Drover’s Wife?

 

After Henry’s birth, Niels and Louisa took up a selection, which proved to be in unsatisfactory farming country. Henry’s childhood was not a particularly happy one, as the family was poor, work on the farm extremely arduous, and there were frequent bitter family quarrels. His education was sketchy and although he resumed study as an adult, he was devastated when he failed to gain entry into Sydney University.

 

At fourteen Henry worked for his father who had abandoned farming and was earning a living in the building trade. By this time he had become deaf due to a childhood ear infection, however he acquired various skills, but most importantly his knowledge of bush life and its characters expanded rapidly.

 

In 1883 Louisa ended her marriage and moved to Sydney. Worried that her son’s life in the bush would become aimless, she encouraged him to come to the city and had him apprenticed to a coach-painter. His mother’s house became a meeting place for the more radical thinkers of the time, people who were verbal in their condemnation of social injustice and impoverished living conditions of the city.

 

His first published work in The Bulletin was his poem Song of the Republic and two more poetry pieces followed. In a short time his work had attracted the attention of the editor, J.F. Archibald whose paper was to shape much of the public opinion of the 1890s.

 

Despite his growing popularity as the writer who espoused the Australian values of egalitarian mateship, whose writing style was starkly realistic yet compassionate, life was dogged by poverty. Lawson’s constant struggle to eke out a living caused him to feel betrayed and bitter.

 

Here's a brief excerpt from one of Lawson's poems "Knocked up"

 

Knocked Up

I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,

And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out;
I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow --
I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now.

Oh it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin', in flies an' dust an' heat,
Or it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-a-mpin'
through mud and slush 'n sleet;
It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife,
An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life.

All poems at http://www.ironbarkresources.com/henrylawson/index3.html

 

He particularly resented the way his fellow writer, A.B.‘Banjo’ Paterson glorified the bush, believing the privileged Paterson – a lawyer and land-owner with family connections – to be a city bushman. On one occasion the two conducted a poetic spat via The Bulletin. Lawson had just returned from a period in the bush and was appalled at the hardships people were enduring. His poem Up The Country is a bitter lament at the harshness of the land, ‘where the gaunt and haggard women live alone and work like men’. Paterson’s reply, In defence of the Bush, was a patronizing poem calling Lawson ‘Mr Townsman’, alluding to his growing drinking problem and the final line ‘for the bush will never suit you, and you’ll never suit the bush’, was particularly cruel. However Paterson did acknowledge that ‘Lawson put his case better than I did, but I had the better case’.

 

Within a short time The Bulletin published The City Bushman, Lawson’s reply to Paterson. He derided Paterson for his inability to experience hardships endured by the bush workers, because he travelled as a gentleman and only visited ‘greener patches’. Lawson wrote, ‘the city seems to suit you, while you rave about the bush’. The three poems tell a story of bush life from two completely different perspectives. They are well worth a read.

 

 

He married Bertha Bredt in 1893 but their union proved unhappy mainly because of his heavy drinking and radical attitude. Short stints in Western Australia and New Zealand, where his son James was born, did not improve his financial or his emotional situation. By April 1898 he was back in Sydney where he even spent time in a clinic for alcoholics.

 

In 1900, feeling bitter and undervalued in Australia, he sailed to London with Bertha, James aged two years, and baby Bertha He was well received there and more financially secure, but home-sickness, loneliness and the climate increased his reliance on alcohol and the family returned in 1902.

 

In the following year Bertha filed for divorce and Henry’s failure to obey his maintenance order resulted in a few short terms in jail. He always said that the period in England ruined him, and rarely thereafter was he able to display the literary genius the public had come to adore. The last few years of Henry’s life were wretched, and although he received a small literary pension from the Government, he was forced to rely more and more on the generosity of friends.

 

Henry Lawson died in Abbotsford (Sydney) in 1922. He was given a state funeral and is buried in Sydney’s sWaverley Cemetery. His writing will continue to delight readers, giving a worthy insight into life in colonial Australia and contributing immensely to our understanding of the selfless dedication of those who forged our nation.

 

 

Written by Marj Johnson

 

 

Literature cited:

 

The 1890’s Stories, Verse and Essays (1977) University of Queensland Press

 

Poems of Henry Lawson (1973) Ure Smith Pty.Ltd.

 

The Australian Legend by Russell Ward (1958) Oxford University Press

 

While the Billy Boils (a collection of 87 stories originally published as three volumes: While the Billy Boils, On the Track, and Over the Sliprails – 1975 in this edition – Rigby Limited.

 

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