'We're All Australians Now' single work   poetry   "Australia takes her pen in hand,"
  • Author:agent A. B. Paterson http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo
Issue Details: First known date: 1917... 1917 'We're All Australians Now'
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Notes

  • A version of this poem appeared in the Warwick Examiner and Times in July 1917, with the title 'To the Australians at the Front'. According to the Warwick Examiner, Patterson had sent the poem to a reader in Warwick, who then passed it on for publication. This 1917 Warwick Examiner version appears to have been an early draft which Patterson later expanded and revised.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: To the Australians at the Front
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Song of the Pen, A. B. (Banjo) Paterson : Complete Works 1901-1941 A. B. Paterson , Rosamund Campbell , Philippa Harvie , Sydney : Lansdowne , 1983 Z499850 1983 collected work novel short story poetry Sydney : Lansdowne , 1983 pg. 371-372
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Vision Splendid : The Complete Poetry of A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson A. B. Paterson , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z266275 1990 selected work poetry drama satire humour North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Book of Australian Popular Rhymed Verse : A Classic Collection of Entertaining and Recitable Poems and Verse : From Henry Lawson to Barry Humphries Jim Haynes (editor), Sydney : ABC Books , 2008 Z1495972 2008 anthology poetry Sydney : ABC Books , 2008 pg. 299
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Banjo Paterson : The Man Who Wrote Waltzing Matilda Derek Parker , Warriewood : Woodslane Press , 2009 Z1647168 2009 single work biography ' A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson was not simply the author of the words of Waltzing Matilda, Australia's unofficial national anthem, and many other classic ballads such as The Man from Snowy River and Clancy of the Overflow. Though it is now almost forgotten, he was a first-rate war correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald. His dispatches from the Boer War are as vivid and exciting to read today as when they were frantically scribbled under the guns of Boer sharp-shooters, and delivered on daring rides from the front to the nearest telephone office. He was a friend of 'Breaker' Morant, whose notorious trial and execution was one of the sensations of that war. He was also an expert horseman, a man who knew everything there was to be known about horses and horse-racing, winning prizes at polo matches and race meetings. Returning from South Africa, The Banjo (as he always signed himself) worked for Sydney newspapers, and travelled to China and England (where he stayed with his friend, the poet Rudyard Kipling), and for a while led a relatively sedentary life as editor of the Sydney Evening News. At the outbreak of World War One, he failed to get accreditation as a war correspondent, and served as an ambulance driver in France, and finally to Egypt where he headed a team of rough-riders and trained horses. Major Paterson came back to Sydney to edit The Sportsman and the earliest collection of traditional bush songs, and to become a popular and well-known broadcaster in the early days of radio. By the time he died everyone in Australia knew the verses of Waltzing Matilda but scarcely anyone could have told you they had been written by 'Banjo' Paterson as he had sold the copyright outright for five pounds!' Source: Dust jacket. Warriewood : Woodslane Press , 2009 pg. 250-253
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Banjo Paterson Treasury A. B. Paterson , 2013 Z1933217 2013 selected work poetry short story 2013 pg. 114-117
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Related Works

We're All Australians Now i "Our six-starred flag that used to fly,", A. B. Paterson , 2003 extract poetry war literature ('We're All Australians Now')
— Appears in: From Gallipoli to Gaza : The Desert Poets of World War One 2003; (p. 38)
y separately published work icon We're All Australians Now A. B. Paterson , Mark Wilson (illustrator), Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2015 8705505 2015 single work picture book poetry

'In 1915 Banjo Paterson wrote as an open letter to the troops a poem he titled We're All Australians Now'

'Australia takes her pen in hand,

to write a line to you,

to let you fellows understand,

How proud we are of you.'

'Illustrated by Mark Wilson (A DAY tO REMEMBER by Jackie French), this moving and beautiful picture book follows in the tradition of previous A & R classics such as MULGA BILL'S BICYCLE and tHE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER and is a timely contribution to our WWI Centenary publishing program.' (Publication summary)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)
Last amended 6 Jul 2015 12:11:51
Subjects:
  • Gallipoli,
    c
    Turkey,
    c
    Middle East, Asia,
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