"Clancy of the Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889.[1] The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.
The poem is written from the point of view of a city-dweller who once met the title character, a shearer and drover, and now envies the imagined pleasures of Clancy's lifestyle, which he compares favourably to life in "the dusty, dirty city" and "the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal".
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.
The poem is possibly based on Paterson's own experience.[2] The introduction to Banjo Paterson's Images of Australia by Douglas Baglin[3] quotes Paterson as saying that he was working as a lawyer when someone asked him to send a letter to a man named Thomas Gerald Clancy, asking for a payment that had not been received. Paterson sent the letter to "The Overflow", a sheep station 100 kilometres south-west of Nyngan, and received a reply that read:
Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.
The letter looked as though it had been written with a thumbnail dipped in tar and it is from this that Banjo Paterson found the inspiration for the poem, along with the meter.
There are claims that Clancy was based on a man called Thomas Michael MacNamara, who described the ride with the "Man from Snowy River" (his brother in law Jim Troy) in an article in The Courier-Mail in 1938 [4]
In 1897, Thomas Gerald Clancy wrote a poem in reply to "Clancy of the Overflow", entitled "Clancy's Reply", which paints a far less romantic picture of the life of a drover.[2][5] There had also been a parody in 1892, "The Overflow of Clancy", which formed part of the Bulletin Debate.
Publication history
After its original publication in The Bulletin on 21 December 1889, the poem was reprinted in numerous newspapers and magazines as well as the following anthologies and collections (among many others):
A Golden Shanty : Australian Stories and Sketches in Prose and Verse (1890)
Contemporary recordings of the poem include Jack Thompson's recitation on Jack Thompson: The Bush Poems of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson (2008)[6] and Jack Thompson, Favourite Australian Poems, Fine Poets Collection, volume 5 (2010).[7]
The poem "Clancy of the Overflow" has also been set to music and recorded several times, including:
John Cameron's recording of Albert Arlen's setting, with an orchestra conducted by George S. English (1955)[8]
Melbourne-based production company Yut Art produced a contemporary version in 2013.[14]
Proposed film
In 2004, there were plans to make a movie of "Clancy of the Overflow", a sequel to the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River, but this fell through due to financial reasons. The director was to have been Simon Wincer, who was a co-producer for The Man from Snowy River.[15]Bruce Rowland (who composed the music for both the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River and its 1988 sequel film The Man from Snowy River II, as well as composing music for The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular, was to compose the music for the film. The film was to have been funded by private investors, but the A$22 million minimum investment was not met by the deadline of June 2004, and the film has been shelved indefinitely.[16]