Emily Bulcock - Maryborough's Forgotten Poetess

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Shelley Hansen
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Emily Bulcock - Maryborough's Forgotten Poetess

Post by Shelley Hansen » Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:04 pm

Greetings All -

This week's local newspaper The Maryborough Sun carried a fascinating article about poet Emily Bulcock (nee Palmer) (1877-1969). She was born in my home town of Maryborough, in the suburb where I currently live - Tinana. She was the elder sister of Australian poet Vance Palmer (1885-1959). I remember his poems The Pathfinders and A Farmer Remembers the Somme from Call of the Gums, our high school poetry anthology of the late 1960s. During her lifetime Emily was regarded as Queensland's unofficial poetess laureate, and was awarded an OBE for services to literature in 1964.

I was interested in a particular aspect of this article, written by Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour. He speculates on why Emily's work has been largely forgotten, whereas Mary Poppins author PL Travers (also born in Maryborough) is famous. This is what he says ...

"Why do we know so much about one and not the other? In terms of contemporary popular culture, a poet will obviously struggle to see their work last in the way a writer whose work can be adapted by Walt Disney can. With changes in technology and lifestyle we seem to have neither the attention span nor the inclination to delve into poetry."

He goes on to state ... "It is lamentable that the identity of such a great writer has slipped from our collective memory, but for anyone who values the life of the mind, the contemplation of the world around us and the beauty of language; the poetry of Emily Bulcock is there to be discovered and enjoyed."

How true! It seems that the passing of time has not changed the challenges that we poets face!

Several of Emily's poems and a short biography can be read on this website: https://www.oldqldpoetry.com/emily-bulcock

I've attached a scan of the article. You can enlarge it by clicking on the image, but it is still not very easy to read. If anyone would like a copy, send me a private message through the Forum with your email address.

Gary Harding - this may be of interest to you.

Cheers
Shelley
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Shelley Hansen
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Gary Harding
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Re: Emily Bulcock - Maryborough's Forgotten Poetess

Post by Gary Harding » Thu Feb 17, 2022 5:54 am

Shelley,

Thank you for finding and presenting for fellow ABPA members this interesting article by our local mayor George Seymour. I had not heard of poet Emily Bulcock and yet she is local (Tinana).

George of course produced those three excellent books on Bannerman (balladist) noted in a previous post.

He refers to Emily in his article as a "great writer" which after sample-reading some of her verse, I consider to be a term that I would certainly not personally apply to her. However, there must surely be people somewhere who might appreciate and even enjoy her poems??

His comments about poetry in general are fair enough. We live in a world of the instant gratification offered by TV and computer screens. Thus imagination and thinking tend to get pushed into the background. Mind pictures created by words in poetry (or even in old- time radio serials) are sidelined. It is unfortunate, but you cannot halt "progress". The brain should be stimulated to "output" and not just dumbly accept visual inputs from those ubiquitous screens! haha I am certainly guilty of this, being a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) fan on TV.

George says..."With changes in technology and lifestyle, we seem to have neither the attention span nor the inclination to delve into poetry."

That is why in general if proper poetry (balladry I mean) is to survive with at least a small place in the future, then it follows that the simpler and shorter a skilfully-written ballad is.. the quicker it is for a Reader to grasp... then the better its chances of survival. The less flowery and complex the language and less use made of convoluted phraseology the better for the public at large!! It is perhaps why Emily is "forgotten".

Keep it short, simple and on a plane for the common man... if you want to be remembered by him? :)

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Shelley Hansen
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Re: Emily Bulcock - Maryborough's Forgotten Poetess

Post by Shelley Hansen » Thu Feb 17, 2022 6:53 pm

Thanks for your response Gary.

I guess when considering Emily's poetry we have to place her in the context of her times. While Banjo, Henry and some of their contemporaries lifted Aussie poetry into the straight-talking language that we are more familiar with, as you know there was that school of poets who favoured the more florid style that harked back to writers like James Lister Cuthbertson - and even the English poets of centuries past.

Emily was obviously a fan of highly descriptive lines - though she did venture into free verse, so I guess she wasn't totally bound by style.

Cheers
Shelley
Shelley Hansen
Lady of Lines
http://www.shelleyhansen.com

"Look fer yer profits in the 'earts o' friends,
fer 'atin' never paid no dividends."
(CJ Dennis "The Mooch o' Life")

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Catherine Lee
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Re: Emily Bulcock - Maryborough's Forgotten Poetess

Post by Catherine Lee » Fri Feb 18, 2022 1:07 pm

Thank you Shelley for bringing Emily to my attention, as I'd not heard of her before. I will definitely check out the website, especially as others may not have heard of her either so she could possibly be a good one to highlight on one of my Poets Pages in FreeX.

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