To many, the Eureka rebellion of the 3rd of December 1854
is a defining moment in Australian history. It is not
surprising that the legendary Australian poet, Henry
Lawson (1867-1922), wrote about an event of such national
trauma - as many others have in the years since - more
than 100 works according to one source (Austlit website).
He wrote 'Eureka!' (Lee 25) in 1889, to mark Eureka hero
Peter Lalor's death, and also penned 'The Fight of Eureka
Stockade' (Cronin 115) the following year. Both could be
described as anti-establishment, as were many others of
his poems such as the first published verse, 'The
Republican' (Cronin 39), and 'Freedom on the Wallaby' (Cronin
146) about the Barcaldine (Qld) shearers' strike. As we
shall see below, Lawson was trying to light the fire of
Australian nationalism and a move to independence with
our own flag, The Southern Cross.
At the Victorian mining site of Eureka, Lalor led miners
in battle against government troops over the cost of
licences and other issues. Thirty-four miners and six
troops died at Eureka Stockade, in what is seen by some
as a battle for the 'concept of fair play and equal
opportunity' (Heritage website). Some get more passionate:
the National republicans describe it as a 'patriotic
struggle bathed in Australian blood' (alphalink website).
The miners also carried a blue and white Southern Cross
flag which has become an important anti-establishment
symbol. Lalor, who lost an arm, and the other survivors
were acquitted. He went on to become a Member of the
Legislative Council and was its Speaker when he died in
1889.
Henry Lawson was born 13 years after Eureka in 1867 in a
tent on the Grenfell (NSW) goldfields, his father a
former Norse sailor and his mother from a Kentish gypsy
family, according to Wright (viii) in a foreword to a
Lawson anthology. He goes on to say that 'at 21, Lawson
was probably the most remarkable writer of verse in
Australia' (ix). He traveled widely across Australia and
visited New Zealand and England. When he died in 1922, he
was eulogised far and wide, even by Prime Minister
William Hughes: 'He was the poet of Australia, the
minstrel of the people' (Cronin ii). Introductory author
Brian Kiernan wrote (Cronin ii): 'It was not so much that
a legend was being laid to rest as being sanctified, set
free from mere mortality.' Not bad for a man (Lawson) who
drank too much; another famous Australian, Norman Lindsay,
said Lawson had 'thrown himself away on life's rubbish
tip' (Manning 133). There is a suggestion that Lawson's
father may have been at Eureka (Phillips 79) in an
interpretation of the line: I hear the broken English
in the mouth of at least one (rebel) (21), since his
father would have had a Nordic accent.
Though 'Eureka!' would be difficult to sing, it is a
ballad of heptametrical couplets in irregular-length
verses of 10, 10, 18, 14, 8, 10, 10, and four lines.
There is some striking imagery and symbolism, though
strangely a sword Lalor carried is not referred to.
According to Stewart (xiv):
... it was Henry
Lawson who in the whole field of Australian balladry,
came closest to writing ballad poetry, as distinct
from the ballad pure and simple. Most of Henry Lawson's
verse is not ballad but a kind of vers de societe, a
melancholy rhyming on themes of politics or sociology...
often marred by sentimental and improbable anecdotes.
Lawson makes
substantial use of metonymy and metaphor, for example: the
big camp (2), referring to the hereafter; golden
strife (11) about the gold miners' fight; and flames
write Revenge (50) across the sky. He uses 'blood'
frequently, perhaps to stir the reader's passion against
authorities: the digger's blood was slow to boil
(38); the night coolness cannot cool the blood (48)
... the digger's blood is up! (52); and blood-stained
clay (64). He refers to the immigrants from
every state and nation (22), Scottish, Irish and, by
way of author (Bret) Harte (26), and his novel M'liss*
(28), the United States: the men from all the nations
in the New World and the Old (29). He has empathy
for the deaths of both diggers and troopers: For many
a someone's darling lies all cold and pallid there (68);
but it is mostly about Lalor: And many a grey old
digger sighs to hear that Lalor's dead (8). Then the
last line, in the light of later events such as the Great
War**, suggests foreboding: In the roll-up of
Australians on some dark days yet to come.'... or is
he foreseeing an uprising against the establishment to
fight for independence?
A year later he might have been trying to stir the
sentiment to action again when he wrote 'The Fight at
Eureka Stockade' (ref para. 2), referring to our
rulers... with a merciless hand/ (13) ... Still
tyranny followed! No wonder the blood of the Irishman
boiled (40), and Twas under the 'Banner of
Britain' came the bullet that ended his life (52).
In his earlier 'Republic' (ref para. 2) he had urged Sons
of the South, awake! arise! (1) and a call to arms,
...swell to an army vast (22) ... And free
from the wrongs.../ The land that belongs to you (23-4).
In the 'Wallaby' (ref para. 2), Australia will knock
the tyrants silly (6)... We'll make the tyrants
feel the sting/ O' those that they would throttle (37-8),
and the stirring final line: If blood should stain
the wattle. There are many other examples such as
these in the 'frankly revolutionary' (Phillips 80) Lawson's
work. Phillips sees:
A subconscious
longing for the release of tensions through violence.
It is an unexpected trait to find this pacific
individual who shrank from involvement in a fist-fight
and whose work so frequently celebrates the virtues
of compassion, sensitivity and tenderness.
Whatever the academic
view of Lawson - and it is mixed - he was a poet of the
people, writing it as he saw it, from the heart and mind,
sober or drunk. And he was anti-establishment, wanting to
see an independent Australia ruled by Australians. Clark
(30) quotes a source as saying Lawson wanted Australian
children to 'develop a spirit totally at variance with
the wishes of Australian groveldom... he wanted them to
learn to love the blue flag with the white cross... the
Southern Cross.' Wright declares (viii-ix): 'He was the
voice of a new movement; the ringing, surging rebellion
of his song echoed the unrest of the eighties and
nineties...'
One wonders how Lawson would feel about today's Australia:
still living with drought, country towns struggling; no
republic and a flag combining a Union Jack and a Southern
Cross; the Queen's representative still 'ruling'; but a
nation of relative wealth, equality and opportunity - not
in vain those diggers died... the triumph of the diggers
cause (75), as he wrote in 'Eureka!'. No doubt he
would still be giving 'the establishment' a difficult
time.
* Harte, Brett. 'M'liss'. 1860.
**As it happens, Peter Lalor's grandson, Captain J. P.
Lalor, was killed at Gallipoli on 25 April, 1915 [Bean C.E.W.,
'The Story of Anzac', Vol. 1 (9th Edition). Sydney. Angus
& Robertson 1939. ]
Bibliography
http://alphalink.com.au/eureka/roots1.htm. Eureka
Stockade - Birth of the National Idea. Accessed 16 August
2004.
http://www.austlit.edu.au.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/run?ex=GuidedSearch&type=simple&generalSearchString=eureka&searchWhere=subject.
Australian Literature Gateway. Accessed 24 August 2004.
Clark, Manning. 'In Search of Henry Lawson'. South
Melbourne. The Macmillan Company of Australia 1979.
Cronin, Leonard, ed. 'Henry Lawson: A Camp-Fire Yarn -
Complete Works 1885-1900'. Sydney. Lansdowne 1984.
http://www.heritage.gov.au/protect-places/scr4_05_02.htm. Protecting Heritage Places. Accessed 24
August 2004.
Lee, Christopher, ed. 'Turning the Century - Writing of
the 1890s'. St Lucia, Qld. University of Queensland Press
1999.
Phillips, A. A. 'Henry Lawson'. New York. Twayne
Publishers 1970.
Stewart, Douglas, and Keesing, Nancy, eds. 'Australian
Classics - Australian Bush Ballads'. Hawthorn, Vic. Lloyd
O'Neill Pty Ltd 1955.
Wright, David McKee. ed. 'Poetical Works of Henry Lawson'.
Sydney. Angus & Robertson Ltd. 1968.
© Kerry
White, April 2005
University of Southern Queensland www.usq.edu.au
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