Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (26 March 1866 – 2 May 1892) was an Australian poet.
Background
Born in
Sydney, Boake worked as a surveyor and a boundary rider, but is best remembered for his poetry, a volume of which was published five years after his death.
Boake was eldest son of
Barcroft Capel Boake
Barcroft Capel Boake (12 November 1838 – 1921) was an Australian photographer. He is most famous for his mosaic of the New South Wales Contingent produced in 1885 which represents the soldiers returned from the war in Sudan.
Personal life
B ...
(b. Dublin, 1838) and his wife Florence Eva, née Clarke (1846–1879).
In July 1886 Boake joined E. Commins, a
surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is c ...
, and had experience as a field-assistant, working for some time in the
Monaro (New South Wales). After spending two years in the surveying camp Boake was disinclined to return to the city, took service as a boundary rider, and worked in
New South Wales and
Queensland. In May 1890 Boake joined W. A. Lipscomb, a surveyor, and remained with him until the end of 1891. About this time he began to send verses to
The Bulletin, which were published.
His poems were all published posthumously in 1897 by
A.G. Stephens in a collection titled "Where the Dead Men Lie: and Other Poems". "
Where the Dead Men Lie
"Where the Dead Men Lie" is a poem by Australian poet Barcroft Boake. It was first published in '' The Bulletin'' magazine on 19 December 1891, and later in the poet's poetry collection '' Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897).
Analy ...
" was the most famous of his poems, which described the tragedies Australians faced during the 1891–93 depression. Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer
Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) penned ''The land of dumb despair'' (1898) in memoriam to Boake.
Boake is believed to have committed
suicide. His body was found hanging by the neck from a stockwhip at Long Bay,
North Sydney eight days after he disappeared on 2 May 1892.
One writer on Boake's life has mentioned that the suicide took place during the 1891–93
depression when the poet was unable to find work, also noting that "it has been suggested that he killed himself for the love of one of the McKeahnie girls," sisters of the
horseman Charlie McKeahnie
Charles Lachlan "Charlie Mac" McKeahnie (29 April 1868 – 3 August 1895) was an Australian horseman born in Gudgenby, ACT to Alexander and Mary McKeahnie into a family of five sisters. He is believed by some historians to be the inspiration f ...
.
[Hugh Capel]
"Maybe This is the Snowy Horseman,"
''Canberra Times,'' 25 February 2002
Notes
Bibliography
* Barcroft Boake. ''
Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems
''Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897) is the first and only collection of poems by Australian poet Barcroft Boake (poet), Barcroft Boake. Edited by A. G. Stephens, it was released in hardback by Angus and Robertson in 1897, five year ...
'' 1897
Individual poems
* "
Jack's Last Muster
''Jack's Last Muster'' is a poem by Australian poet Barcroft Boake. It was first published in ''The Sydney Mail'' on 13 December 1890, and later in the poet's poetry collection '' Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897).
On its origina ...
" (1890)
* "
Where the Dead Men Lie
"Where the Dead Men Lie" is a poem by Australian poet Barcroft Boake. It was first published in '' The Bulletin'' magazine on 19 December 1891, and later in the poet's poetry collection '' Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897).
Analy ...
" (1891)
References
* Hugh Capel
"Tragic End for a Bush Poet,"''The Canberra Times'', 27 March 2002
*
* Cecil Hadgraft,
, ''
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia ...
'', Volume 3,
MUP, 1969, pp 186–187.
External links
Barcroft Henry Boakeat Boake.net
at Middlemiss.org
Boake.info , Boake Family Genealogy*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boake, Barcroft
1866 births
1892 deaths
Australian male poets
Suicides by hanging in New South Wales
19th-century Australian poets
19th-century male writers
Burials at Rookwood Cemetery
1890s suicides