It was originally published in the poet's collection Cuckooz Contrey, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.[1]
Critical reception
In the UQP Studies in Australian Literature volume devoted to the poet, Kenneth Slessor: Critical Readings edited by Philip Mead, Vincent Buckley called this "the most sprightly of his short poems",[2] and Peter Kirkpatrick referred to the poem's "dozy bucolic irony" being "possible because it is evocative of human spaces: towns."[3]
While reviewing the poet's 1944 collection, One Hundred Poems: 1919-1939, in The Sydney Morning Herald, R. G. Howarth commented that with this poem "we have, all together, accurate observation, humour, and true poetry."[4]
Author's note
In his commentary about the poem in his essay "Some Notes on the Poems", included in his poetry collection Selected Poems (Angus and Robertson, 1988), Slessor stated: "It refers to no country town specifically but is a composite of many which have seemed the same. Its period is fading, or perhaps has already vanished, since farmers today prefer motors to mares and buggy-wheels are seldom heard."[5]
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication Cuckooz Contrey in 1932[1] it was reprinted as follows:
One Hundred Poems: 1919-1939 by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1944[6]
Poets of Australia: An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, 1946[7]
An Australasian Anthology: Australian and New Zealand Poems edited by Percival Serle, R. H. Croll, and Frank Wilmot, Collins, 1946[8]
This Land of Ours: Australia edited by George Farwell and Frank H. Johnston, Angus and Robertson, 1949[9]
New Land, New Language: An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Judith Wright, Oxford University Press, 1957[10]
Australian Poets Speak edited by Colin Thiele and Ian Mudie, Rigby, 1961[11]
Modern Australian Verse edited by Douglas Stewart, Angus and Robertson, 1964[12]
Songs for All Seasons: 100 Poems for Young People edited by Rosemary Dobson, Angus and Robertson, 1967[13]
Silence Into Song: An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Clifford O'Brien, Rigby, 1968[14]
The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen, Macmillan, 1973[15]
Australia Fair: Poems and Paintings edited by Douglas Stewart, Ure Smith, 1974[16]
Poems by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1975[17]
Australian Verse from 1805: A Continuum edited by Geoffrey Dutton, 1976[18]
The Collins Book of Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall, Collins, 1981[19]
The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984[20]
My Country: Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer, Lansdowne, 1985[21]
The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Vincent Buckley, Faber, 1991[22]
Kenneth Slessor: Poetry, Essays, War Despatches, War Diaries, Journalism, Autobiographical Material and Letters edited by Dennis Haskell, University of Queensland Press, 1991[23]
A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991[24]
Kenneth Slessor: Collected Poems by Kenneth Slessor, Angus and Robertson, 1994[25]
Fivefathers: Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era edited by Les Murray, Carcanet, 1994[26]
Australian Verse: An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998[27]
Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Kathrine Bell, Gary Allen, 2007[1]
The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009[28]
Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011[29]
The poem was also translated into Esperanto in 1988.[1]
Notes
The full text of the poem is available on the All Poetry website.[30]
Poet David Rowbotham, in his column Chronicle Arcade in 1952, for The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, referred to a line from the poem: "Public-houses of yellow wood with '1860' over their doors," noting that one such pub exists in Yetman, New South Wales.[31]
↑""Historic Inn"". The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 18 December 1952. Retrieved 8 January 2026.
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