National Poetry Month Poem #26: The Man from Snowy River, by Andrew Barton Pattersonn

<p>[Copypasta from Wikipedia] </p> <p>The poem was written at a time in the 1880s and 1890s when <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia'>Australia</a> was developing a distinct identity as a <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation'>nation</a>. Though Australia was still a set of independent <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonies'>colonies</a> under the final authority of <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland'>Britain</a>, and had not yet trod the path of <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation'>nationhood</a>, there was a distinct feeling that Australians needed to be united and become as one. Australians from all walks of life, be they from the country or the city (<a href='http://www.the-rathouse.com/ClancyoftheOverflow.html'>Clancy of the Overflow</a>), looked to the bush for their <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology'>mythology</a> and <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic'>heroic</a> characters. They saw in the Man from Snowy River a <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero'>hero</a> whose bravery, adaptability and risk-taking could epitomise a new nation in the south. This new nation emerged as the <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia'>Commonwealth of Australia</a> in 1901.</p> <p>A. B. "Banjo" Paterson and "The Man From Snowy River" poem are commemorated on the <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_10_dollar_note'>Australian 10 dollar note</a>. The full text of the poem is printed several times in microprint as one of the note's security devices.</p>