Said Hanrahan
"Said Hanrahan" | |
---|---|
by John O'Brien | |
Written | 1919 |
First published in | The Catholic Press |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Publication date | July 1919 |
"Said Hanrahan" is a poem written by the Australian bush poet John O'Brien, the pen name of Roman Catholic priest Patrick Joseph Hartigan.[1] The poem's earliest known publication was in July 1919 in The Catholic Press,[2] appearing in 1921 in the anthology Around the Boree Log and Other Verses.[1]
The poem describes the recurrent natural cycle of droughts, floods and bushfires in rural Australia as seen by "Hanrahan", a pessimistic man of Irish descent. "'We'll all be rooned', said Hanrahan"—an adage extracted from the poem—has entered the Australian English lexicon.
Poem Description
[edit]The poem starts with the area in the grip of a drought, the worst since "the banks went bad"; a reference to the drought and banking crisis of the early 1890s.
- "If we don't get three inches, man,
- Or four to break this drought,
- We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "Before the year is out."
In time, the rains "drummed a homely tune" on "iron roof and window-pane". The problem then changed from drought to flood. "Banker" refers to a watercourse filled from bank to bank, unusual in Australia where many watercourses are ephemeral or only intermittently full.
- And every creek a banker ran,
- And dams filled overtop;
- "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "If this rain doesn't stop."
"In God's good time" the rain stopped and spring arrived with "harvest-hopes immense". The "knee-deep" grass, while good for feeding livestock, brought to mind the risk of bushfire.
- "There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
- There will, without a doubt;
- We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "Before the year is out."
Popular culture
[edit]The key refrain in the poem is "We'll all be rooned" ("rooned" is a transcription of an Irish Australian pronunciation of "ruined") which has entered the Australian lexicon as a dismissive response to predictions of disasters or hard times,[3] especially those out of the control of the speakers.
The Poem
[edit]SAID HANRAHAN
- "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- In accents most forlorn,
- Outside the church, ere Mass began,
- One frosty Sunday morn.
- The congregation stood about,
- Coat-collars to the ears,
- And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
- As it had done for years.
- "It's lookin' crook," said Daniel Croke;
- "Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
- For never since the banks went broke
- Has seasons been so bad."
- "It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
- With which astute remark
- He squatted down upon his heel
- And chewed a piece of bark.
- And so around the chorus ran
- "It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
- "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "Before the year is out.
- "The crops are done; ye'll have your work
- To save one bag of grain;
- From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
- They're singin' out for rain.
- "They're singin' out for rain," he said,
- "And all the tanks are dry."
- The congregation scratched its head,
- And gazed around the sky.
- "There won't be grass, in any case,
- Enough to feed an ass;
- There's not a blade on Casey's place
- As I came down to Mass."
- "If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
- And cleared his throat to speak--
- "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "If rain don't come this week."
- A heavy silence seemed to steal
- On all at this remark;
- And each man squatted on his heel,
- And chewed a piece of bark.
- "We want a inch of rain, we do,"
- O'Neil observed at last;
- But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
- To put the danger past.
- "If we don't get three inches, man,
- Or four to break this drought,
- We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "Before the year is out."
- In God's good time down came the rain;
- And all the afternoon
- On iron roof and window-pane
- It drummed a homely tune.
- And through the night it pattered still,
- And lightsome, gladsome elves
- On dripping spout and window-sill
- Kept talking to themselves.
- It pelted, pelted all day long,
- A-singing at its work,
- Till every heart took up the song
- Way out to Back-o'Bourke.
- And every creek a banker ran,
- And dams filled overtop;
- "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "If this rain doesn't stop."
- And stop it did, in God's good time;
- And spring came in to fold
- A mantle o'er the hills sublime
- Of green and pink and gold.
- And days went by on dancing feet,
- With harvest-hopes immense,
- And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
- Nid-nodding o'er the fence.
- And, oh, the smiles on every face,
- As happy lad and lass
- Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
- Went riding down to Mass.
- While round the church in clothes genteel
- Discoursed the men of mark,
- And each man squatted on his heel,
- And chewed his piece of bark.
- "There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
- There will, without a doubt;
- We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
- "Before the year is out."
John O'Brien
References
[edit]- ^ a b Walsh, G. P. (1983). "Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878–1952)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 9. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
- ^ O'Brien, John (31 July 1919). "Said Hanrahan". The Catholic Press. p. 19. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ^ "Australian Words: H-R". Australian National Dictionary Centre. Australian National University. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
External links
[edit]- Questioning Hanrahan: Environmental optimism and realism in the 21st century [dead link]
- Address by the Governor of Queensland [dead link]Archived 2009-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Said Hanrahan - Notes on the poem. [dead link]