The Brucedale Scandal

"The Brucedale Scandal"
by Mary Gilmore
First published in	The Bulletin
Country	Australia
Language	English
Publication date	18 December 1924

"The Brucedale Scandal" is a poem by Australian poet Mary Gilmore. It was originally published in The Bulletin on 18 December 1924, and later in the poet's collection A Tilted Cart : A Book of Recitations, and other Australian poetry anthologies.

Outline

"Himself and me" go out for a ride on his horse-and-trap to the visiting circus, and before they have even made it home rumours are ciculating around the neighbourhood about their scandalous behaviour.

Critical analysis

In his review of The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore : Volume One 1887-1929 Philip Butterss called the poem a "fine ballad", which the editor of the volume Jennifer Strauss "rightly places in the best of the Australian ballad tradition."

Further publications

• A Tilted Cart : A Book of Recitations by Mary Gilmore, 1925
• The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984
• The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore : Volume One 1887-1929 edited by Jennifer Strauss, University of Queensland Press, 2004
• 100 Australian Poems You Need to Know edited by Jamie Grant, Hardie Grant, 2008
• Australian Poetry Since 1788 edited by Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray, University of NSW Press, 2011

Note

• Gilmore lived for a time on Brucedale Road near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. Gilmore has written that this poem is about her mother and father.

See also

• 1924 in poetry
• 1924 in literature
• 1924 in Australian literature
• Australian literature