The Ballad of the Drover

"The Ballad of the Drover" (1889) is a poem by Australian poet Henry Lawson.

It was originally published in The Australian Town and Country Journal on 9 March 1889 and subsequently reprinted in several of the author's collections, other periodicals and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.

Critical reception

A reviewer on the PoetryVerse website noted that the poem initially "exudes optimism and anticipation, painting a picture of a joyful reunion." But that ultimately "the poem serves as a tragic reminder of the harsh realities faced by those who lived and worked in the Australian outback."

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in The Australian Town and Country Journal it was reprinted as follows:

• The Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 September 1889
• In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1900
• The Coo-ee Reciter : Humorous, Pathetic, Dramatic, Dialect, Recitations and Readings compiled by W.T. Pyke, Ward, Lock, 1904
• The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913
• Selected Poems of Henry Lawson by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1918
• Winnowed Verse by Henry Lawson, Angus and Robertson, 1924
• Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925
• Poets of Australia : An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1946
• The Children's Lawson edited by Colin Roderick, Angus and Robertson, 1949
• An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1952
• Songs from Lawson edited by John Meredith, Bush Music Club, 1956
• From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, 1964
• Poems of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Ure Smith, 1973
• The World of Henry Lawson edited by Walter Stone, Hamlyn, 1974
• A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, Currawong, 1982
• A Campfire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Leonard Cronin, Lansdowne, 1984
• The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984
• ' edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984
• Henry Lawson : An Illustrated Treasury edited by Glenys Smith, Lansdowne, 1985
• Favourite Australian Poems, Child and Associates, 1987
• A Collection of Australian Bush Verse, Peter Antill-Rose, 1989
• Australian Bush Poems, Axiom, 1991
• A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991
• Classic Australian Verse edited by Maggie Pinkney, Five Mile Press, 2001
• Henry Lawson edited by Geoffrey Blainey, Text Publishing, 2002
• An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse edited by Jim Haynes, ABC Books, 2002
• Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Kathrine Bell, Gary Allen, 2007
• Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011