A Bush Christening

A Bush Christening is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 16 December 1893, the Christmas issue of that publication.^[1] It has been called "a rollicking account of how the traditional pre-occupations, whisky and religion, come together".^[2]

Plot summary[]

‘Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad’ (stanza 2, line 5) who has never been christened. Magee lives "On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,"(stanza 1, line 1) and rarely sees a priest. By chance a priest passes by one day and his parents decide to christen the boy as soon as possible. The Magee (son) overhears the conversation, and, thinking that a "christening" is like branding of animals, decides to make a run for it. The priest and parents chase after him. They see that they have no chance of catching the runaway boy, ‘so the priest, flung a flask at his head that was labelled ‘Maginnis Whisky’ (stanza 11, line 43, 44). Thereafter the boy is known and christened as "Maginnis Magee". He grows up to be a justice of the peace who hates to be asked how he came to be christened "Maginnis".

See also[]

• 1893 in poetry
• 1893 in literature
• 1893 in Australian literature
• Australian literature

Notes[]

The poem has been linked by Australian literary researcher Lucy Sussex to an anonymous story, "Peggy's Christening", in the Colonial Monthly, April 1868.^[2]

Further publications[]

• The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses by Banjo Paterson (1895)
• From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore (1964)
• A Treasury of Colonial Poetry (1982)
• Singer of the Bush, A. B. (Banjo) Paterson : Complete Works 1885-1900 edited by Rosamund Campbell and Philippa Harvie (1983)
• My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years edited by Leonie Kramer (1985)
• A Vision Splendid : The Complete Poetry of A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson (1990)
• A Treasury of Bush Verse edited by G. A. Wilkes (1991)

References[]