| "Up The Country" | |
|---|---|
| by Henry Lawson | |
| Original title | "Borderland" |
| Written | 1892 |
| First published in | The Bulletin |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Bulletin Debate |
| Publication date | 9 July 1892 |
| Full text | |
 Up The Country at Wikisource | |
"Up The Country" is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson.[1] It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title "Borderland."[2] Its publication marked the start of the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson asserting contrasting views of the true nature of life in the Australian bush.
In Up The Country, Lawson recounts his trip to the barren and gloomy Australian bush, and criticises "City Bushmen" such as Banjo Paterson who tended to romanticize bush life.[3][4]
Paterson later responded with a poem of his own, entitled In Defense of the Bush, in which he accused Lawson of representing bush life as nothing but doom and gloom, famously ending with the line "For the bush will never suit you, and you'll never suit the bush."[5]
- ^ "Up the Country". Austlit. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
- ^ Lawson, Henry (1892). "Borderland". The Bulletin. 12 (647): 21 – via TROVE.
- ^ Wikisource article – Up the Country by Henry Lawson
- ^ Henry Lawson: Australian Writer Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal
- ^ Wikisource article – In Defense of the Bush by Banjo Paterson