SCHOOLING
Henry Lawson’s admission to Eurunderee school is recorded in this 1875 extract from the school admission register. Upon visiting the region again in 1914, at the age of 37, Henry was visiting with the then school headmaster James Elliot and eagerly perused the records from his formative time at the school. His nostalgia inspiring an impromptu poem which he added to the visitor book and can be found in the NSW State Archives.
On looking through the Old Punishment Book at Eurunderee School
April 20th 1914
April 20th 1914
A Dirge
I took the Book of Punishment
And ran it columns down;
I started with an open brow
And ended with a frown;
I dropped on long forgotten names
They took me unaware
I noted old familiar names
But my name wasn’t there!
I thought of what I ought have been
And, Oh! My heart was pained
To find, of all the scholars there,
That I was never caned!
I thought of wasted childhood hours,
And a tear rolled down my cheek
I must have been a Model Boy
Which means a Little Sneak!
“Oh! Give me back my youth again!”
Doc. Faustus used to say:
I only wish the Powers would give
My boyhood for a day
A Model Boy! Beloved of Girls!
Despised by boys and men!
But it comforts me to think that I’ve
Made up for it since then
Henry Lawson
Eurunderee 20/4/1914
NSW STATE ARCHIVES
@kieran.wicks #GoldRushStories #AustralianHistory #HenryLawson #LifeontheGoldfields #Poem #ChilhoodMemories #History #School#PoetryofthePioneers #Detention #Poet ♬ original sound - Kieran.Wicks
A Dirge - Poem by Henry Lawson in the Eurunderee School Visitors Book
