People & Personalities
Here are some poems about Queenslanders. Click on the titles to read the poems. Maybe you can recognize something or somebody.
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"L.L."
1909
by Eva Mary O'Doherty Far off! far off! within the desert rude, In the cold heart of that deep solitude, Two magic letters on the rugged bark, With...
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A Chance
1847
I want a situation as a shepherd, be it known, On a comfortable station--not too far from town; The country must be timberless, the waters full of...
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Alone in the Pool
1944
by E.M. England So softly I go that the heron Who waits downstream has not stirred. Perhaps he thinks me a bird; Thinks me a brown bird gliding The...
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Banjo, of the Overflow
1891
by Francis Kenna My request was not requited, for an answer came indited On a sheet of scented paper, in an ink of fancy blue; And the envelope, I...
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Dinkum Aussie
2017
He is long, he is lean, he is wiry; He is loose-limbed and carelessly hung; He is quick on the flare-up and fiery; He swears with an eloquent...
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Exhibition Cameo
1943
by Frank C Francis The music and the laughter simmer down Like an ebbing tide that slinks into the dark, As the last bright firework splutters to a...
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My Child's Warm Hand
1929
by Colin Bingham My child's warm hand is such a thing That holding it I long to sing My faith in dark futurity My child's warm hand is such a thing...
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North Queensland Lullaby
1931
by Lucille M Quinlan Sleep, my birrahlee;1 hush, my soft grey dove! Misty grows the cane-field, purple the range above. From the scrub by the...
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Old times in Brisbane
2018
To Nemo Oh well and merry passed the time When we were three years younger, When lightsome jest and sportive rhyme Wak'd mirth that lives no longer: When...
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Old Tin Liz
1927
By Alice Guerin Crist (1927). We have scrubbed, and scoured and polished, till she's looking just like new, And her good old engines singing, and...
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Queer Little Almond Eyes
1928
by Victor Kennedy Queer little deep brown almond eyes Turned to me now with grave surprise What the secrets tarrying there Baffling a world's...
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Ready Mades
1909
by Mabel Forrest All day she works at the sewing machine, in the factory opposite, Where the staring blindless windows gape in the glow of the...
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The Average Man
1894
by George Essex Evans His hat looks worn, and his coat-sleeves shine, As I see him step from his 'bus at nine; His boots are pieced and his tie...
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The First Rain
1928
by Victor Kennedy Out across the bending cane Slowly after seven moons Falls the soaking tropic rain Kindly to the parched ratoons1. And I wander...
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The lay of the diprotodon
1885
by Robert N. Gunn I DWELL in a black gully deep; My bones they are scattered around, And are daily trod over by sheep - Into dust they will soon all...
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The Net-Menders
1943
by Brian Vrepont I came upon them by a strip of sea, In a drizzle of rain mending their fishing-net, Four swift brown hands, and lean with industry, Shuttling the thin...
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The Women of the West
1901
by George Essex Evans They left the vine-wreathed cottage and the mansion on the hill, The houses in the busy streets where life is never still, The...
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Vale Old Sailor
1976
by Gwen Belson-Taylor For Jim Devaney The old sailor leaves the port Quietly, out of pain. His hand is strong upon the helm And dawning breaks...
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Waiting
2020
Some few nights in the store-keeper’s hut – tin roof and walls -scarce thirty yards from where the twelve head battery’s crushing feet pounded and crushed...