The Man from Snowy River (poem)

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"The Man From Snowy River" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, in April 1890.

The poem tells the story of a horseback pursuit to recapture the colt of a prizewinning racehorse that escaped from its paddock and is living wild with the brumbies (wild horses) of the mountain ranges. Eventually the brumbies descend a seemingly impassably steep slope, at which point the assembled riders give up the pursuit, except the young hero, who spurs his pony down the "terrible descent" to catch the mob.

Several characters mentioned in the early part of the poem are featured in previous Paterson poems, "Clancy of the Overflow" and Harrison from "Old Pardon, Son of Reprieve".

Contents

[edit] The River and 'The Man'

The Snowy River is indeed a real river in Australia, with its headwaters in the highest section of the Great Dividing Range near the easternmost part of the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Corryong, a small town on the western side of the range, claims stockman Jack Riley as the inspiration for the character, and like many other towns in the region uses the image of the character as part of the marketing to tourists.

There is a possibility that another exceptional and fearless rider, Charlie McKeahnie, who was born in 1868, might have been the inspiration for the poem, because of a dangerous riding feat in the Snowy River region in 1885, in which Charlie McKeahnie took part when he was only 17 years of age [1] [2].

A third possibility, as the inspiration for Banjo' Patterson's The Man, was Noel Gray's grandfather, George H Hedger, who owned a property near Dalgety in New South Wales.

[edit] Jim, the Man

In both the movies and the theatre musical, 'The Man' is given the name of Jim — however, the surname of 'The' Man differs between the films and the musical:

The location of the ride in the poem is left unspecified, though clearly it takes place somewhere in the Great Dividing Range.

[edit] The historical context of the poem

The poem was written at a time in the 1880s and 1890s when Australia was developing a distinct identity as a nation. Though Australia was still a set of independent colonies under the final authority of Britain, and had not yet trod the path of nationhood, there was a distinct feeling that Australians needed to be united and become as one. Poems like "The Man from Snowy River" suggested to the many Australians at the time who read The Bulletin magazine of Sydney, that they shared a unique land and that the characters and heroes who inhabited this land had so much in common. Australians from all walks of life, be they from the country or the city, looked to the bush for their mythology and heroic characters. They saw in the Man from Snowy River a hero whose bravery, adaptability and risk-taking could epitomise a new nation in the south. This new nation emerged as the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.

[edit] Currency commemoration and tribute

AB 'Banjo' Paterson and "The Man From Snowy River" poem are commemorated on the Australian $10 bank note [1]. The full text of the poem is printed several times in microprint as one of the note's security devices.

[edit] End of an Era

In 2005 the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks announced that Victorian cattlemen would be banned from using Victoria's "High Plains" to graze cattle, ending a 170 year tradition. Stockmen had been fearing this decision since 1984, when a labor government led by John Cain excised land to create the Alpine National Park. 300 cattlemen rode horses down Bourke street in protest. Victorian National Party leader Peter Ryan was quoted as saying that Bracks had "killed the man from Snowy river".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charlie McKeahnie (Boake)
  2. ^ Charlie McKeahnie (history pages - Hsnowyman)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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