Man From Snowy River and Other Verses (version 2)

This is the book that gave Australia its myth. First published in 1895, Banjo Paterson's debut collection captures a vanishing world: the high country, the cattle drives, the riders who could pick a mustang from a mountain herd by the set of its ears. The title poem tells of a young man who chases a stolen horse into impossible terrain and returns triumphant, and in doing so, it forged an ideal Australian - resourceful, daring, in love with the bush. The collection roams from comic verses about pub philosophers to tender observations of drovers and boundary riders. Paterson wrote during the famous Bulletin Debate with Henry Lawson, and where Lawson saw the outback's hardships, Paterson found its romance. These 48 poems are the raw material of Australian identity, full of slang, saddle smarts, and the particular beauty of a harsh land. They endure because they capture something true about what Australians wanted to believe about themselves.