Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (26 March 1866 – 2 May 1892) was an Australian poet.

Background

Born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Boake worked as a surveyor and a boundary rider, but is best remembered for his poetry, a volume of which was published five years after his death. Boake was eldest son of

Barcroft Capel Boake Barcroft Capel Boake (12 November 1838 – 1921) was an Australian photographer. He is most famous for his mosaic of the New South Wales Contingent produced in 1885 which represents the soldiers returned from the war in Sudan. Personal life B ...

(b. Dublin, 1838) and his wife Florence Eva, née Clarke (1846–1879). In July 1886 Boake joined E. Commins, a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

, and had experience as a field-assistant, working for some time in the

Monaro (New South Wales) Monaro ( ), once frequently spelled "Manaro", or in early years of settlement "Maneroo" is a region in the south of New South Wales, Australia. A small area of Victoria near Snowy River National Park is geographically part of the Monaro. While t ...

. After spending two years in the surveying camp Boake was disinclined to return to the city, took service as a boundary rider, and worked in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. In May 1890 Boake joined W. A. Lipscomb, a surveyor, and remained with him until the end of 1891. About this time he began to send verses to The Bulletin, which were published. His poems were all published posthumously in 1897 by A.G. Stephens in a collection titled "Where the Dead Men Lie: and Other Poems". " Where the Dead Men Lie" was the most famous of his poems, which described the tragedies Australians faced during the 1891–93 depression. Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) penned ''The land of dumb despair'' (1898) in memoriam to Boake. Boake is believed to have committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. His body was found hanging by the neck from a stockwhip at Long Bay, North Sydney eight days after he disappeared on 2 May 1892. One writer on Boake's life has mentioned that the suicide took place during the 1891–93 depression when the poet was unable to find work, also noting that "it has been suggested that he killed himself for the love of one of the McKeahnie girls," sisters of the

horseman Horseman or The Horsemen or ''variation'', may refer to: People *Horseman, a person who practices equestrianism Occupations *Wrangler (profession), in the United States *Stockman (Australia), who works with horses rather than with cattle or shee ...

Charlie McKeahnie Charles Lachlan "Charlie Mac" McKeahnie (29 April 1868 – 3 August 1895) was an Australian horseman born in Gudgenby, ACT to Alexander and Mary McKeahnie into a family of five sisters. He is believed by some historians to be the inspiration f ...

.Hugh Capel
"Maybe This is the Snowy Horseman,"
''Canberra Times,'' 25 February 2002

Notes

Bibliography

* Barcroft Boake. ''

Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems ''Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897) is the first and only collection of poems by Australian poet Barcroft Boake. Edited by A. G. Stephens, it was released in hardback by Angus and Robertson in 1897, five years after the poet's deat ...

'' 1897

Individual poems

* "

Jack's Last Muster ''Jack's Last Muster'' is a poem by Australian poet Barcroft Boake. It was first published in ''The Sydney Mail'' on 13 December 1890, and later in the poet's poetry collection '' Where the Dead Men Lie, and Other Poems'' (1897). On its origina ...

" (1890) * " Where the Dead Men Lie" (1891)

References

* Hugh Capel
"Tragic End for a Bush Poet,"
''The Canberra Times'', 27 March 2002 * * Cecil Hadgraft,

, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 186–187.

External links

Barcroft Henry Boake
at Boake.net

at Middlemiss.org
Boake.info , Boake Family Genealogy
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boake, Barcroft 1866 births 1892 deaths Australian male poets Suicides by hanging in New South Wales 19th-century Australian poets 19th-century male writers Burials at Rookwood Cemetery 1890s suicides