Old timers Poetry Quiz

Here are verses from six well known poems taken from the anthology Classic Australian Verse (Five Mile Presss, 2001). See if you can 1) Identify the poems and 2) Identify the poets, all of whom are well-known.

The answers are way down there at the end of the newsletter.

Poem 1. For howso’er anomalous,
Thou yet are not incongruous,
Repugnant or preposterous,
Better proportioned animal,
More graceful or ethereal,
Was never followed by the hound,
With 50 steps to thy one bound.
Thou can’st not be amended, no:
Be as thou art, thou best are so.

Poem 2, Well have we held our fathers’ creed. No call has passed us by.
We faced and fought the wilderness, we sent our sons to die.
And we have hearts to do and dare, and yet, o’er all the rest,
The hearts that made the Nation were the Women of the West.

Poem 3. The big mosquitoes frighten some –
You’ll lie awake and hear ‘em hum –
And snakes about the township crawl;
But shearers, when they get their cheque,
They never come along and wreck
The blessed town of Booligal.

Poem 4. But where, said I, Is the blooming stream?
And he replied, We’re at it!
I stood a while, as in a dream,
Great Scot! I cried, is that it?
Why, that is some old bridle track!
He chuckled, Well, I never!
It’s plain you’ve never been Out Back –
This is the Paroo River!

Poem 5. Dear Love, the rain will pass full soon,
Far sweeter than my sorrow,
But in a golden afternoon
The sun may set tomorrow.

Poem 6, As if I wouldn’t take his hand
Without a golden glove,
Oh! Jack, you men won’t understand
How much a girl can love.
I long to see his face once more –
Jack’s dog! Thank God, it’s Jack –
(I never thought I’d faint before)
He’s coming up the track.
+Quiz answers below+