The Digger's Song single work   poetry   "Scrape the bottom of the hole: gather up the stuff!"
  • Author:agent Barcroft Boake http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/boake-barcroft
Issue Details: First known date: 1891... 1891 The Digger's Song
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Bulletin vol. 11 no. 611 31 October 1891 Z590405 1891 periodical issue 1891 pg. 22
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems Barcroft Boake , Alfred George Stephens (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1897 Z866614 1897 selected work poetry Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1897 pg. 65-66
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Silence into Song : An Anthology of Australian Verse Clifford O'Brien , Adelaide : Rigby , 1968 Z413694 1968 anthology poetry extract Adelaide : Rigby , 1968 pg. 129
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse Les Murray (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 Z427532 1986 anthology poetry Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 pg. 77-78
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse Les Murray (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1986 Z427532 1986 anthology poetry South Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1996 pg. 77-78
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Classic Australian Verse Maggie Pinkney (editor), Noble Park : Five Mile Press , 2001 Z864790 2001 anthology poetry Noble Park : Five Mile Press , 2001 pg. 65-66
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Barcroft Henry Boake Hugh Capel , Wanniassa : Hugh Capel , 2002- Z947979 2002- website Features 21 full text poems, some biographical material and family photographs. Wanniassa : Hugh Capel , 2002-
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse Jim Haynes (editor), Sydney : ABC Books , 2002 Z985597 2002 anthology poetry Sydney : ABC Books , 2002 pg. 105-106
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Barcroft Boake: Collected Works, Edited, with a Life Barcroft Boake , W. F. Refshauge (editor), Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2007 Z1433606 2007 collected work poetry 'The 1890s produced an extraordinary outpouring of distinctively Australian writing. The most famous writers now are Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, but others were as well known in their day. Among the half-forgotten poets is Barcroft Boake, who as a young man from Sydney found a job up country, and fell in love with the bush way of life. From Western Queensland in summer to Adaminaby in winter, he lived that life, and it sustains his writing. His wrote about what he found: very real people, often people he knew, and their successes and disasters. But he was also a casualty of the hard times of the early 'nineties. In the grip of depression, aged just twenty-six, he killed himself. His best-known work is the ballad 'Where the Dead Men Lie', an Australian classic. He wrote many others as attractive but less well known. Here, they are all carefully edited, and the extensive notes include background on the events and characters in the poems.' (Publisher's blurb) Melbourne : Australian Scholarly Publishing , 2007 pg. 75-76; notes 254-255
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Two Centuries of Australian Poetry Kathrine Bell (editor), Smithfield : Gary Allen , 2007 Z1472336 2007 anthology poetry Smithfield : Gary Allen , 2007 pg. 94
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon 60 Classic Australian Poems for Children Chris Cheng (editor), Sydney : Random House Australia , 2009 Z1656747 2009 anthology poetry children's

    'The 60 poems in this collection appear in their original, or near original, form and are wide-ranging in their subject matter: animals, the countryside, the struggle of bush life, early transport, sport, growing old, being young and having fun with words! But whether they are humorous, serious or playful, they are simply a joy to read!

    No matter if we grew up reciting these classic poems at school, quote from them on important occasions or are meeting them for the first time, there is no doubt that these classic poems embody what it is to be Australian.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    Sydney : Random House Australia , 2009
Last amended 9 Nov 2009 11:58:15
X