Barcroft Boake (poet)

Barcroft Boake
Born	Template:Birth date Waterview Bay, Balmain, New South Wales, Australia
Died	May 2, 1892(1892-05-02) (aged 26) Long Bay, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation(s)	Poet, stockman
Years active	1890–1892
Known for	Contributions to bush poetry; poem "Where the Dead Men Lie"

Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (26 March 1866 – 2 May 1892) was an Australian poet and stockman recognized for his contributions to bush poetry. His short-lived career concluded with his suicide at the age of 26.

He was born in Sydney to photographer Barcroft Capel Boake, who was originally from Ireland. After losing his mother at thirteen, Boake received education at private institutions, including a brief period in New Caledonia. At seventeen, he left home to begin an apprenticeship as a surveyor’s draughtsman. Uninterested in office work, he relocated in 1886 to the Monaro area to serve as an assistant surveyor. Later, he worked as a boundary rider and drover in the Australian Outback. Early in 1892, Boake returned to Sydney and died by suicide within a few months.

His writings first appeared in late 1890 and regularly featured in The Bulletin until his death. The posthumous publication Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems (1897) broadened his readership. His poetry frequently portrays Outback landscapes and explores themes of mortality. The poem "Where the Dead Men Lie" remains widely anthologized and helped popularize "Never Never" as a term for the Outback. Although critics of his time noted unevenness in his work, they recognized flashes of brilliance and lamented his premature passing.

Early Life

Born on 26 March 1866 at Waterview Bay in Balmain, New South Wales, Boake was the eldest son of Florence Eva () and Barcroft Capel Boake. His father emigrated from Ireland, arriving in Victoria in 1857 before settling in Sydney by 1862 as a professional photographer who eventually opened his own studio. His mother was native Australian, descending from an East India Company sailor.

Shortly after Boake’s birth, the family established their home at Lavender Bay on Sydney’s North Shore. He had eight younger siblings, though three died during infancy. Growing up near Sydney Harbour, he became skilled at swimming and boating. Nicknamed "Bartie" during childhood, he bore a scar from a window accident when he was eight years old. He often ventured into the wilderness around Middle Harbour on foot, horseback, or by boat. Measuring about , he was characterized by his father as having a "medium stature and slight build although strong and hardy."

Boake’s education began at a day school located in Milsons Point. At ten years old, he spent eighteen months living in the French territory of New Caledonia, residing with Allan Hughan—a government photographer in Nouméa and friend of his father. During this time, he attended a French school and gained fluency in French. Upon returning to Australia in 1878, he brought back Assimul, a young Kanak boy who briefly worked at his father’s photography studio.

By that time, the family had relocated to North Willoughby, New South Wales. In 1879, Boake’s mother passed away from puerperal fever following the birth of twins; one twin died soon after birth while the other succumbed during adolescence due to mental disability. Subsequently, his maternal grandmother Matilda Clarke took over management of the household.

Boake briefly enrolled at Sydney Grammar School in 1878 but soon transferred to a private school on Hunter Street, operated by Edward Blackmore, where he studied until age seventeen. His father preferred private schooling over state education due to distrust of public schools.

Adulthood

Following his departure from school, Boake undertook an apprenticeship with James Reece, focusing on technical drafting skills. In March 1885, after successfully passing a government examination, he secured a temporary draughtsman position at the Survey Office, earning £120 annually. His father observed that Boake grew tired of the sedentary office environment and the lack of activity among clerks. At 18 years old, Boake inherited £200; however, he lost half of this amount through horse racing bets and lent the remainder to Reece, which was never reimbursed. Troubled by these financial setbacks, he decided to leave Sydney and move into rural areas.

By July 1886, Boake was employed as a field assistant under Edwin Commins, stationed in Adaminaby within the Monaro region. During this period, he developed a friendship with the McKeahnie family at Rosedale Station, including Charlie McKeahnie, who is thought to have inspired Banjo Paterson's "The Man from Snowy River." Boake’s tenure with Commins concluded in August 1888, after which he took up work as a station hand at Mullah Station near Trangie. His responsibilities encompassed sheep shearing, mustering, drafting, and wool classification. Throughout the drought of 1888–89, he actively battled bushfires but became discontented with the slow pace during the off-season.

In May 1889, Boake left Mullah Station and traveled to Queensland in search of droving opportunities, involving the movement of cattle across Outback pastoral leases or to processing plants. His initial task was to drive 1,100 cattle for James Rutherford from Davenport Downs Station on the Diamantina River southward to another property near Cunnamulla. By May 1890, Boake began working with surveyor W. A. Lipscomb until late 1891. Around this time, he started submitting his poetry to The Bulletin, where his work was published. After concluding his engagement with Lipscomb in December 1891, Boake returned to Sydney to reside with his father.

Death

Boake is widely believed to have taken his own life. His body was discovered hanging from a stockwhip at Long Bay in North Sydney eight days following his disappearance on 2 May 1892. He was interred at St Thomas' Cemetery alongside his mother and siblings. Due to financial constraints faced by his father, the grave initially remained unmarked; however, in 1897, thanks to efforts by his publisher A. G. Stephens, the site was bordered with kerbing and turf and received a headstone. One narrative connects his suicide to the economic downturn during the 1891–93 depression and posits that unreciprocated affection for one of the McKeahnie sisters—relatives of horseman Charlie McKeahnie—may have contributed to his decision.

Poetry

Boake’s poetic pursuits were nurtured by his father, who authored ballads and odes and collaborated with him on various verses. He found literary inspiration in prominent Australian authors such as Adam Lindsay Gordon, Marcus Clarke, and Rolf Boldrewood. The earliest surviving poem attributed to Boake is a brief four-line piece dedicated to Matilda Kate Rout—a photographic colourist and close friend—from 1883; this poem is preserved within a locket now held by the Mitchell Library.

His poem "Where the Dead Men Lie" is widely regarded as Boake’s defining work and stands among the most frequently anthologised Australian poems. It played a significant role in popularising the term "Never Never" as a descriptor for the Australian outback. Additionally, Boake’s 1892 poem "Jimmy Wood" is recognized by The Australian National Dictionary as the origin of the expression "Jimmy Woodser," referring to an individual who drinks alone at a pub.

Themes

A significant portion of Boake's poetry delves into themes of death, often portraying individuals confronting their own mortality or contemplating concepts such as divine judgment and the afterlife. Ian Mair, a literary critic for The Age, placed Boake within the Romantic poetry tradition that embraces a "love of death," highlighting how Boake's "persona and career were deeply marked by mortality and its imagery."

Publication history

During Boake's lifetime, no anthology of his poetry was released, and definitive versions of many of his poems remain unavailable. Literary critic A. G. Stephens, serving as Boake's literary executor, compiled and edited Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems, which was published by Angus & Robertson in 1897 as part of their Australian poets series. This volume contained a concise biography, was reissued twice, and reportedly achieved sales exceeding 2,000 copies. A subsequent edition emerged in 1913, featuring four new poems and updated annotations. Additional biographical works include Clement Semmler's succinct 1966 account, Hugh Capel's semi-fictionalized biography from 2002, and Bill Refshauge's comprehensive 2007 collection paired with a detailed biography.

Stephens' role as editor has been subject to critical examination; in the 1960s, Semmler accused him of excising sections from Boake’s original texts and substituting his own poetry—a charge contested by Stephens’ daughter Alison. Financial hardships led Stephens to sell some of Boake’s manuscripts, causing the loss of original documents.

Boake wrote under the alias "Surcingle"—a term related to horse equipment—until early 1892, mere months before his death. This pseudonym usage combined with missing manuscripts has complicated authorship verification, resulting in certain poems being mistakenly attributed to him.

Reception

James Brunton Stephens commended Boake’s work, supporting a review from The Queenslander that claimed Boake "was capable of expressing the most harrowing emotions in a manner that might almost be described as agreeable."

Conversely, Cecil Hadgraft, who authored Boake’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, proposed that it is "at least debatable whether he passed away after producing his finest poetry."

Bibliography

• Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems (1897)
  • "Jack's Last Muster" (1890)
  • "Where the Dead Men Lie" (1891)

Sources

• Barcroft Boake: Collected Works, Edited, with a Life, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Bill Refshauge, 2007
• Barcroft Boake: Poet of the Stockwhip, Lansdowne Press, Clement Semmler, 1965

Journal articles

• Bill Refshauge, Fresh Light on A.G. Stephens as editor of Barcroft Boake's works, Australian Literary Studies, 2006, Vol. 22 Issue 3
• Clement Semmler, A. G. Stephens as Editor of Barcroft Boake's Poems, Australian Literary Studies, 1968, Vol. 3 No. 3

External links

• Barcroft Boake (1866–1892) at Middlemiss.org
• Dictionary of Australian Biography: Barcroft Boake
• Internet Archive author page for Barcroft Boake
• Librivox recordings by Barcroft Boake