Page:Facts and Fancies about Our "Son of the Woods", Henry Clarence Kendall and his Poetry (IA factsfanciesabou00hami).pdf/16

xii. This reception of Kendall's poem, "To the Muse of Australia," resulted in the Secretary asking me to give a lecture on Henry Kendall and his poetry exclusively.

This was almost an impossible task for me to undertake at the time, for I had never handled a volume of Kendall's poems, and knew absolutely nothing about him except his lines, "To the Muse of Australia," which there was no difficulty in recognising as the song of a true poet imbued with a passionate love for his country. I had no books of his poetry, nor had I happened to have read any of the various reviews then written. No one could lend me the "Songs from the Mountains." I could not buy it anywhere. I inquired for it and it was out of the School of Arts lending library at that moment. However, on informing the Secretary of my difficulty, Mr. Henderson kindly found me a volume of "Leaves from the Forests," and a review by Mr. Alexander Sutherland. Perhaps I could not have had better material to work upon as a start, for Mr. Sutherland gave very useful details, and viewed the poet's life and works in a broadminded and sympathetic manner that strongly appealed to me, and the verses referring to Kendall's earliest surroundings found in the volume, "Leaves from the Forests," decided me to confine my attention principally to the childhood of the poet and his earlier writings for my first venture in the purely Kendallite domain of literature. I then remembered that a friend and relative of mine was a great admirer of Australian poets, and I wrote hurriedly to him (for the lecture had to be delivered within three weeks from the date of notice, and time was passing), and I asked him if he could lend me any volume of Kendall's poems or give me any information of his life. I am glad now that all he could send me was the volume of Poems and Songs, published when the poet was little more than nineteen years old, and not then on the market, most of its contents consigned to oblivion, for that volume particularly appealed to me; and, after many years, I return to it with no abating interest in the author and his work, and have chosen to quote from that volume almost exclusively, with the exception of the few gems of literature selected from "Leaves from the Forests," and a few detached verses only from "Songs from the