Cirrus@Austlit

'A Birthday Petition to a Butterfly' is included in AustLit because it is published (in part or in full), advertised or reviewed in Australian newspapers and magazines during the colonial era; and/or is the subject of Australian literary comment, adaptation or creative writing.

'A Birthday Petition to a Butterfly' was published in Poems Written for a Child: By Two Friends (1869). The 'two friends' are sisters Menella Bute Smedley and Elizabeth Anna Parsons. The sisters identified authorship of the poems in their collection with the initials 'A' and 'B. It is not known which sister used which initial, although the initials can be matched to their middle names. Until authorship can be verified, both names are attached to this poem.