Paterson now proves beyond question that Australia has produced
at least one singer who can voice in truest poetry the aspirations
and experiences peculiar to the Commonwealth, and who is to be ranked
with the foremost living poets of the motherland."
* "Fine, swinging, stirring stuff, that sings as it goes along.
The subjects are capital, and some of the refrains haunt one.
There is always room for a book of unpretentious, vigorous verse
of this sort."
* "These ballads make bright and easy reading; one takes up the book,
and, delighted at the rhythm, turns page after page,
finding entertainment upon each."
Biographical Note:
Andrew Barton Paterson was born at Narambla, in New South Wales,
on 17 February 1864, but grew up at Buckenbah and Illalong.
He became a lawyer but devoted much of his time to writing,
and gained popularity especially for his poetry and ballads.
His best known poems are The Man from Snowy River (1892)
on which a motion picture was loosely based, and Waltzing Matilda (1895)
which slowly became an Australian symbol and national song.
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