A Drum for Ben Boyd
First edition | |
Author | Francis Webb |
---|---|
Language | English |
Publisher | Angus and Robertson |
Publication date | 1948 |
Publication place | Australia |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 37p |
Followed by | Leichhardt in Theatre |
A Drum for Ben Boyd (1948) is a long, narrative poem by Australian poet Francis Webb. It won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1948.[1]
The poem consists of fifteen numbered parts, some with titles, and some of which had been previously published in The Bulletin magazine and various Australian poetry collections. The book also includes illustration by Australian artist Norman Lindsay.[1]
Contents
- "'From Our Roving Reporter'"
- "Author's Prologue"
- [Untitled]
- "A Boat Builder"
- "Journalist"
- [Untitled]
- "Sir Oswald Brierly"
- "A Whaler"
- "A Papuan Shepherd"
- [Untitled]
- "Politician"
- "A Pioneer of Monaro"
- [Untitled]
- "The Captain of the Oberon"
- "John Webster"
Notes
Author's note: "Benjamin Boyd, a Scotsman, came to New South Wales in 1848. Possessing either unlimited wealth or unlimited credit, he invaded the financial system of the colony with amazing ease, winning over many incautious speculators, founding banks, and actually building his own town at Twofold Bay. His brief career almost ended in bankruptcy, and finally he disappeared on a lone shooting expedition at Guadalcanal. The Oberon, chartered to discover some trace of him, returned with a skull, which was later proved to be that of a native."[1]
Critical reception
A reviewer in The Advertiser stated: "Francis Webb's method is to gather a set of characters together and — with little of his own narrative — allow them to speak their impressions of Boyd. The result is an entertaining hotch-potch, with a current of serious and imaginative thought. The poetry is free and modern in sound, without eccentricity. It reads plainly, but has excitement and vigor.."[2]
The Sydney Morning Herald reviewer was impressed by the work: "Every person in the narrative sequence speaks with the colour of his type. Characterisation is more difficult in poetry than in prose, but Webb has presented each of them splendidly and from them built the significance of'fhe greater character of Boyd."[3]
Awards
- 1948 - winner Grace Leven Prize for Poetry
See also
- 1948 in literature
- 1948 in Australian literature
References
- v
- t
- e
- Pacific Sea by Nan McDonald (1947)
- A Drum for Ben Boyd by Francis Webb (1948)
- Woman to Man by Judith Wright (1949)
- No award (1950)
- The Great South Land : An Epic Poem by Rex Ingamells (1951)
- Between Two Tides by R. D. Fitzgerald (1952)
- Tumult of the Swans by Roland Robinson (1953)
- Thirty Poems by John Thompson (1954)
- The Wandering Islands by A. D. Hope (1955)
- No award (1956)
- Elegiac and Other Poems by Leonard Mann (1957)
- Antipodes in Shoes by Geoffrey Dutton (1958)
- The Wind at Your Door by R. D. Fitzgerald (1959)
- Man in a Landscape by Colin Thiele (1960)
- Time on Fire by Thomas Shapcott (1961)
- Southmost Twelve by R. D. Fitzgerald (1962)
- The North-Bound Rider by Ian Mudie (1963)
- All the Room by David Rowbotham (1964)
- The Ilex Tree by Les Murray and Geoffrey Lehmann (1965)
- The Talking Clothes: Poems by William Hart-Smith (1966)
- Collected Poems 1936-1967 by Douglas Stewart (1967)
- Selected Poems 1942-1968 by David Campbell (1968)
- A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems by Randolph Stow (1969)
- Letters to Live Poets by Bruce Beaver (1970)
- Judith Wright: Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright (1971)
- Collected Poems 1936-1970 by James McAuley (1971)
- Head-waters by Peter Skrzynecki (1972)
- A Soapbox Omnibus by Rodney Hall (1973)
- Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems by David Malouf (1974)
- Selected Poems (1975) by Gwen Harwood (1975)
- Selected Poems 1939–1975 by John Blight (1976)
- Selected Poems by Robert Adamson (1977)
- Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 by Bruce Dawe (1978)
- The Man in the Honeysuckle by David Campbell (1979)
- The Boys Who Stole the Funeral by Les Murray (1980)
- Nero's Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero by Geoffrey Lehmann (1981)
- Tide Country by Vivian Smith (1982)
- Collected Poems by Peter Porter (1983)
- The Three Fates and Other Poems by Rosemary Dobson (1984)
- Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert Gray (1985)
- The Amorous Cannibal by Chris Wallace-Crabbe (1985)
- Washing the Money : Poems with Photographs by Rhyll McMaster (1986)
- Occasions of Birds and Other Poems by Elizabeth Riddell (1987)
- Under Berlin by John Tranter (1988)
- A Tremendous World in Her Head by Dorothy Hewett (1989)
- No award (1990)
- Dog Fox Field by Les Murray (1991)
- Empire of Grass by Gary Catalano (1992)
- Peniel by Kevin Hart (1992)
- The End of the Season by Philip Hodgins (1993)
- No award (1994)
- New and Selected Poems by Kevin Hart (1995)
- Flying the Coop : New and Selected Poems 1972-1994 by Rhyll McMaster (1995)
- Path of Ghosts: poems 1986-93 by Jemal Sharah (1995)
- No award (1996)
- The Undertow: New and Selected Poems by John Kinsella (1997)
- No award (1998)
- No award (1999)
- No award (2000)
- Darker and Lighter by Geoff Page (2001)
- Versary by Kate Lilley (2002)
- Lost in the Foreground by Stephen Edgar (2003)
- Totem by Luke Davies (2004)
- Next to Nothing by Noel Rowe (2005)
- The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 by Alan Gould (2006)
- The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert Adamson (2007)
- The Australian Popular Songbook by Alan Wearne (2008)
- No award (2009)
- Phantom Limb by David Musgrave (2010)
- No award (2011)
- Another Fine Morning in Paradise by Michael Sharkey (2012)