Themes of Henry Lawson's works

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Henry Lawson is an iconic Australian writer and poet, and one of the best-known writers of the Australian colonial period.

Many of Lawson's popular works explore similar themes regarding Bush life, and present Lawson's personal views as a City writer, an opinion than often conflicted with the views of other Australian writers, particularly his well-known contemporary Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson.

[edit] Significant Themes

• The Emotional Impact of Bush Life

Throughout the course of Henry Lawson's works, it becomes apparent that Lawson seems to believe that prolonged bush-living will inevitably result in its inhabitants becoming "weird" or unbalanced, at least by City standards.

Lawson explores these effects to varying extremes, from the outright eccentricity of The Bush Undertaker to the somewhat peculiar attempts of The Drover's Wife to remain civilised. Mrs. Spicer (of 'Water Them Geraniums') is often described as being "past carin'" about anything, though her unbalance does not stretch as far as that of Emma, the frustrated poet (of 'A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father').