The Song of the Cattle Hunters

While reviewing a manuscript of Elijah and Other Poems, a Kendall collection that does not appear to have been published, a reviewer in The Sydney Morning Herald called this poem "full of strength and vigour." In a review of the poet's collection Leaves from Australian Forests, a writer in The North Eastern Ensign (Benalla, Victoria) commented that this poem was a "pure song". They went on to state that it was "exquisite for affluence of color and delicacy of touch [and it has] the breezy melody and rushing sweep of the true ringing lyric". ==Publication history==

After the poem's initial publication in The Empire newspaper in 1861 • The Illawarra Mercury, 6 December 1861 (the author revised the poem for this publication) • Poems and Songs by Henry Kendall, J. R. Clarke, 1862 • The Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales by G. B. Barton, Gibbs, Shallard and Co., 1866 • The Athenaeum, 17 February 1866 • Poems of Henry Kendall by Henry Kendall, George Robertson, 1886 • ''The Children's Treasury of Australian Verse'' edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Angus and Robertson, 1913 • Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stephens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925 • New Song in an Old Land edited by Rex Ingamells, 1943 • Australian Bush Songs and Ballads edited by Will Lawson, Frank Johnson, 1944 • Selected Poems of Henry Kendall edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus and Robertson, 1957 • The Poetical Works of Henry Kendall edited by Thomas Thornton Reed, 1966 • A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, 1991 • The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads edited by Elizabeth Webby and Philip Butterss, Penguin, 1993 • Sense, Shape, Symbol : An Investigation of Australian Poetry edited by Brian Keyte, Phoenix Education, 2013 ==See also==