Homecoming single work   poetry   war literature   "All day, day after day, they're bringing them home,"
Issue Details: First known date: 1968... 1968 Homecoming
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Age 6 July 1968 Z629290 1968 newspaper issue 1968 pg. 13
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    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry 1969 Vivian Smith (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1969 Z500205 1969 anthology poetry Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1969 pg. 83-84
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    y separately published work icon Beyond the Subdivisions : Poems Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Cheshire , 1969 Z547145 1969 selected work poetry Melbourne : Cheshire , 1969 pg. 2
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    y separately published work icon We Took Their Orders and Are Dead : An Anti-War Anthology Shirley Cass (editor), Ros Cheney (editor), David Malouf (editor), Michael Wilding (editor), Sydney : Ure Smith , 1971 Z267501 1971 anthology poetry short story extract biography humour Sydney : Ure Smith , 1971 pg. 74-75
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    y separately published work icon Condolences of the Season : Selected Poems Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1971 Z546924 1971 selected work poetry Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1971 pg. 77
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    y separately published work icon Twelve Poets, 1950-1970 12 Poets, 1950-1970 Alexander Craig (editor), Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1971 Z77157 1971 anthology poetry Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1971 pg. 116-117
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    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Verse Harry Payne Heseltine (editor), Ringwood Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1972 Z334403 1972 anthology poetry Selection of works by Australian poets from Charles Harpur (1813-1868) to Charles Buckmaster (b. 1951). Ringwood Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1972 pg. 391-392
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    y separately published work icon Overland no. [54] Autumn 1973 Z594629 1973 periodical issue Vietnam voices 1973 pg. 9
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    y separately published work icon Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum Geoffrey Dutton (editor), Adelaide : Rigby , 1976 Z399014 1976 anthology Adelaide : Rigby , 1976 pg. 294
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    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1978 Z543663 1978 selected work poetry

    'The sixth edition of Sometimes Gladness includes three indexes to enable readers to find suitable texts. In addition to an alphabetical index, poems are also grouped according to form, and categorised by themes such as war, family, images or dreams.'

    Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1978
    pg. 90
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    y separately published work icon The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry Chris Wallace-Crabbe (editor), Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 1980 Z62463 1980 anthology poetry

    'A collection of the best poetry of the twentieth century; Hope - Wright - Slessor - Webb - Harwood - Murray.' (Publication summary)

    Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 1980
    pg. 162
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    y separately published work icon The Collins Book of Australian Poetry Rodney Hall , Sydney : Collins , 1981 Z542215 1981 anthology poetry Sydney : Collins , 1981 pg. 293-294
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    y separately published work icon The World's Contracted Thus J. A. McKenzie (editor), J. K. McKenzie (editor), Richmond : Heinemann Education Australia , 1983 Z174491 1983 anthology poetry Richmond : Heinemann Education Australia , 1983 pg. 365-366
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    y separately published work icon Clubbing of the Gunfire : 101 Australian War Poems Chris Wallace-Crabbe (editor), Peter Pierce (editor), Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 1984 Z420039 1984 anthology poetry war literature Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 1984 pg. 201
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    y separately published work icon The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse Beatrice Davis , Melbourne : Nelson , 1984 Z315151 1984 anthology poetry biography Melbourne : Nelson , 1984 pg. 240
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    y separately published work icon Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse John Barnes (editor), Brian McFarlane (editor), Richmond : Heinemann , 1984 Z900285 1984 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) Richmond : Heinemann , 1984 pg. 195-196
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    y separately published work icon My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years Leonie Kramer (editor), Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 Z1067493 1985 anthology poetry short story Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 pg. 621
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    y separately published work icon Two Centuries of Australian Poetry Mark O'Connor (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1988 Z322247 1988 anthology poetry criticism Contains poems grouped into 18 thematic sections (19 in 2nd. ed.) ; each section has an introduction, notes and suggestions for study activities and further study. Biographical notes on authors and indexes also included. Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1988 pg. 105
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    y separately published work icon The Australian Experience of War : Illustrated Stories and Verse J. T. Laird (editor), Darlinghurst : Mead & Beckett , 1988 Z82040 1988 anthology poetry short story autobiography war literature Darlinghurst : Mead & Beckett , 1988 pg. 261
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    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1987 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1988 Z898040 1988 selected work poetry Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1988 pg. 92
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    y separately published work icon The Macmillan Anthology of Australian Literature Ken L. Goodwin (editor), Alan Lawson (editor), South Melbourne : Macmillan , 1990 Z535337 1990 anthology criticism correspondence extract poetry drama biography short story prose humour satire travel

    'Poems, stories, letters and extracts from novels, plays and journals present a great variety of responses to Australia and to the art of writing. Items have been arranged into 12 groupings that reflect different ways of seeing the material of Australian writing. Each section has its own introduction. Problems are explained, theories and contexts for a wider understanding are offered. The book includes biographical guides to all authors and a full chronological table of events in the literary history of Australia.'   (Publication summary)

    South Melbourne : Macmillan , 1990
    pg. 291
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    y separately published work icon Contemporary Australian Poetry : An Anthology John Leonard (editor), Knoxfield : Houghton Mifflin , 1990 Z361533 1990 anthology poetry humour war literature Knoxfield : Houghton Mifflin , 1990 pg. 68
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    y separately published work icon Bruce Dawe : Essays and Opinions Ken L. Goodwin (editor), Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1990 Z337494 1990 selected work criticism poetry autobiography correspondence interview review Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1990 pg. 37
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    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry John Tranter (editor), Philip Mead (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 Z151302 1991 anthology poetry Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 pg. 175-176
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    y separately published work icon Homecoming : Images of Vietnam Jean Williams , Jill Morris (editor), Nambour : Homecoming Publications , 1991 Z482529 1991 anthology poetry satire humour war literature Nambour : Homecoming Publications , 1991 pg. 44-45
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    y separately published work icon The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse Vincent Buckley (editor), London : Faber , 1991 Z563845 1991 anthology poetry war literature satire humour London : Faber , 1991 pg. 157-158
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    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century Robert Gray (editor), Geoffrey Lehmann (editor), Port Melbourne : Heinemann , 1991 Z27032 1991 anthology poetry Port Melbourne : Heinemann , 1991 pg. 252-253
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    y separately published work icon Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems, 1954-1992 Bruce Dawe , Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1993 Z470171 1993 selected work poetry humour satire Melbourne : Longman Cheshire , 1993 pg. 85
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    y separately published work icon The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse Beatrice Davis , Melbourne : Nelson , 1984 Z315151 1984 anthology poetry biography Sydney : State Library of New South Wales Press , 1996 pg. 240
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    y separately published work icon The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English John Thieme (editor), London : Arnold , 1996 Z818232 1996 selected work extract poetry short story London : Arnold , 1996 pg. 231
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    y separately published work icon Family Ties : Australian Poems of the Family Jennifer Strauss (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 Z115299 1998 anthology poetry South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 pg. 133-134
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    y separately published work icon Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology John Leonard (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 Z461207 1998 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) A thorough survey of poetry by Australians in English, beginning with a selection of contemporary work by younger poets, and going backward in time to the early colonial period. In addition to poems in the literary tradition, it indudes performance poetry, convict songs and old bush ballads. An extensive selection has been provided from the work of five major twentieth-century poets: Les Murray, Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, A.D. Hope and Kenneth Slessor. Several features are provided to assist the reader: the date of first publication of each poem is provided; footnotes explain unfamiliar words and allusions; and brief biographical notes assist in locating each poet in his or her place in time. Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1998 pg. 143
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    y separately published work icon 50 Years of Queensland Poetry : 1940s - 1990s Philip Neilsen (editor), Helen Horton (editor), Rockhampton : Central Queensland University Press , 1998 Z893557 1998 anthology poetry Rockhampton : Central Queensland University Press , 1998 pg. 49
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    y separately published work icon Sunlines : An Anthology of Poetry to Celebrate Australia's Harmony in Diversity Anne Fairbairn (editor), Canberra : Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs , 2002 Z948024 2002 anthology poetry Canberra : Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs , 2002 pg. 74-75
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    y separately published work icon Seven Centuries of Poetry in English John Leonard (editor), South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2003 Z1058257 2003 anthology poetry (taught in 6 units) Contains poetry from twelve countries, including Australia, and spans the development of English poetry over seven centuries. South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 2003 pg. 61
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    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 785-786
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bruce Dawe : Life Cycle Stephany Steggall , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2009 Z1627487 2009 single work biography

    'Bruce Dawe: Life Cycle acknowledges one of Australia's best known poets and one of his best known poems. His life cycles have been poverty, perseverance and personal happiness; the rhythms of his being are the rhythms of his poetry - persistently fearless in speaking out on social and political issues; consistently sensitive and lyrical about painful concerns; insistently witty and satirical on just about anything. His range of poetry resists wrong and reveals a great love of his fellow man and a deep understanding of life. This biography is the first time that Dawe's life has been interpreted in full through his poetry, and the poems take on new significance when read in this context. The subject is telling some of the story in his own words - in poems.

    Sometimes Gladness is Dawe's signature title and a best-seller of about 130,000 copies. Now in it's sixth edition, the book expresses a life long attempt to understand the balance between gladness and grief, the common factors of human experience. Verse cartooning and satirical humour, the constants of more than fifty years of writing, are much admired and enjoyed by readers and listeners of all ages. Dawe, one of Australia's first and most successful performance poets, provides imaginative scope to fill the spaces between humour and the pathos.

    The reader of Bruce Dawe: Life Cycle shares a large experience, which effectively starts with 'Strictly En Passant', the first poem in the first book, No Fixed Address. Dawe looks forward to the multiplicity of 'feel and fragrance, sound and sheen' that his life will hold and he anticipates that, while he may not fully understand yet the meaning of a satisfactory existence, 'Time may build on this...' the existence culminates in 'Autobiography', in which Dawe measures what has been built. He says that he 'wouldn't have missed for anything' the experience of his life.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2009
    pg. 175-6
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry John Leonard (editor), Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 Z1674214 2009 anthology poetry (taught in 16 units) Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2009 pg. 192-193
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    y separately published work icon Australian Poetry Since 1788 Geoffrey Lehmann (editor), Robert Gray (editor), Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 Z1803846 2011 anthology poetry (taught in 1 units) 'A good poem is one that the world can’t forget or is delighted to rediscover. This landmark anthology of Australian poetry, edited by two of Australia’s foremost poets, Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, contains such poems. It is the first of its kind for Australia and promises to become a classic. Included here are Australia’s major poets, and lesser-known but equally affecting ones, and all manifestations of Australian poetry since 1788, from concrete poems to prose poems, from the cerebral to the naïve, from the humorous to the confessional, and from formal to free verse. Translations of some striking Aboriginal song poems are one of the high points. Containing over 1000 poems from 170 Australian poets, as well as short critical biographies, this careful reevaluation of Australian poetry makes this a superb book that can be read and enjoyed over a lifetime.' (From the publisher's website.) Sydney : University of New South Wales Press , 2011 pg. 584-585
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Weekend Australian 25 April 2020 19278873 2020 newspaper issue 2020 pg. 17
First line of verse: "All day, day after day, they're bringing them home, = Den ganzen Tag, tagelang, schicken sie sie nach Hause,"
Language: English , German
Notes:
English and German texts on facing pages. The title was not translated.

Works about this Work

Songs, Poems Speak of Fresh Ordeals Neil McMahon , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25 April 2013; (p. 9) The Canberra Times , 25 April 2013; (p. 4)
Dear Mr Dawe i "I am the boy flown home", Nic Rowan , 2005 single work poetry
— Appears in: Friendly Street Poets : Twenty-Nine : Blur 2005; (p. 82)
Much More Could You Say : Bruce Dawe's Poetry Noel Rowe , 1998-1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 24 no. 1998-1999; (p. 102-117)
'Bruce Dawe's reputation as a vernacular poet can be a disadvantage. I once heard an eminent Australian critic remark that once you'd read his poems there wasn't much more you could say. The implication was that his work had an immediate appeal but no depth and that to exercise one's critical faculties on work so colloquial in pitch and perspective would be a waste of a well-trained mind. At the same time I encountered the poetry of Philip Martin. Martin is a writer Dawe acknowledges as his friend and mentor, yet Martin's poetry seems at first very different: the accent is more cultivated and the focus more personal. There is, however, at least one important similarity: both practise 'the art that conceals art', exercising great control of rhythm and speech stress to create an apparently uncomplicated voice. It is only when you do read their poems — that is, read within rather than over their poems — that you find there is much more you could say.' (Author's abstract)
y separately published work icon A Study Guide to Bruce Dawe's Sometimes Gladness Kilian McNamara , Ballarat : Wizard Books , 1996 Z516198 1996 single work biography criticism
Australian Literature and the Problem of History Bob Hodge , Vijay C. Mishra , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Dark Side of the Dream : Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind 1991; (p. 1-22)
Dear Mr Dawe i "I am the boy flown home", Nic Rowan , 2005 single work poetry
— Appears in: Friendly Street Poets : Twenty-Nine : Blur 2005; (p. 82)
Much More Could You Say : Bruce Dawe's Poetry Noel Rowe , 1998-1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sydney Studies in English , vol. 24 no. 1998-1999; (p. 102-117)
'Bruce Dawe's reputation as a vernacular poet can be a disadvantage. I once heard an eminent Australian critic remark that once you'd read his poems there wasn't much more you could say. The implication was that his work had an immediate appeal but no depth and that to exercise one's critical faculties on work so colloquial in pitch and perspective would be a waste of a well-trained mind. At the same time I encountered the poetry of Philip Martin. Martin is a writer Dawe acknowledges as his friend and mentor, yet Martin's poetry seems at first very different: the accent is more cultivated and the focus more personal. There is, however, at least one important similarity: both practise 'the art that conceals art', exercising great control of rhythm and speech stress to create an apparently uncomplicated voice. It is only when you do read their poems — that is, read within rather than over their poems — that you find there is much more you could say.' (Author's abstract)
Songs, Poems Speak of Fresh Ordeals Neil McMahon , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25 April 2013; (p. 9) The Canberra Times , 25 April 2013; (p. 4)
Me and This Poet i "We've taken opposite sides", Geoff Goodfellow , 1989 single work poetry
— Appears in: Bow Tie & Tails 1989; (p. 51-52)
Bruce Dawe Dagmar Strauss (interviewer), 1990 single work interview
— Appears in: Facing Writers : Australia's Leading Writers Talk with Dagmar Strauss 1990; (p. 79-92)
Last amended 23 Sep 2013 13:55:26
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