Foreword
Sincere expressions of thought and feeling, these poems by "Ironbark" breathe the spirit of the Australian working people their independence, gaiety, detestation of snobbery, their loyalty to each other and their courageous struggle for a better way of life. "Ironbark" writes with the lyrical impulse which drove Robert Burns. "The man's the gowd for a' that."
His songs and poems have come to him through brooding over the incidents and experiences of a lifetime. You get them in "Lightning Jack", "Corrie's Dog" and "The Pommy Ploughman".
All are imbued with sardonic humour and the kindliness of a man who knows his mates and is proud of them. "Organised", I think, is a gem. Wittily and skilfully portrayed, it holds in a nutshell, as it were, the character of the Australian worker.
"Ironbark" is a poet of the people, of socialism, a poet who sees not only the hardships and injustices the workers suffer. He foresees the future they may inherit as the result of their struggle for better living and working conditions. In "Last Will and Testament" he leaves them "the great wide earth" to make a place of peace and happiness. Congratulations to a grand old battler on this collection of his poems, dedicated to other battlers, those who have gone before, and those who will carry on the work of making Australia "safe from greed and hunger", and the barbarous insanity of war !
Katharine Susannah Prichard.
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