The Man from Ironbark by A. B. Banjo Paterson
It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town,
He wandered over street and park, he wandered up and down.
He loitered here, he loitered there, till he was like to drop,
Until at last in sheer despair he sought a barber’s shop.
‘’Ere! shave my beard and whiskers off, I’ll be a man of mark,
I’ll go and do the Sydney toff up home in Ironbark.’
The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,
He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;
He was a humorist of note and keen at repartee,
He laid the odds and kept a ‘tote’, whatever that may be,
And when he saw our friend arrive, he whispered, ‘Here’s a lark!
Just watch me catch him all alive, this man from Ironbark.’
There were some gilded youths that sat along the barber’s wall.
Their eyes were dull, their heads were flat, they had no brains at all;
To them the barber passed the wink, his dexter eyelid shut,
‘I’ll make this bloomin’ yokel think his bloomin’ throat is cut.’
And as he soaped and rubbed it in he made a rude remark:
‘I s’pose the flats is pretty green up there in Ironbark.’
A grunt was all the reply he got; he shaved the bushman’s chin,
Then made the water boiling hot and dipped the razor in.
He raised his hand, his brow grew black, he paused awhile to gloat,
Then slashed the red-hot razor-back across his victim’s throat;
Upon the newly-shaven skin it made a livid mark —
No doubt it fairly took him in — the man from Ironbark.
He fetched a wild up-country yell might wake the dead to hear,
And though his throat, he knew full well, was cut from ear to ear,
He struggled gamely to his feet, and faced the murd’rous foe:
‘You’ve done for me! you dog, I’m beat! one hit before I go!
‘I only wish I had a knife, you blessed murdering shark!
‘But you’ll remember all your life the man from Ironbark.’
He lifted up his hairy paw, with one tremendous clout
He landed on the barber’s jaw, and knocked the barber out.
He set to work with nail and tooth, he made the place a wreck;
He grabbed the nearest gilded youth, and tried to break his neck.
And all the while his throat he held to save his vital spark,
And ‘Murder! Bloody Murder!’ yelled the man from Ironbark.
A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show;
He tried to run the bushman in, but he refused to go.
And when at last the barber spoke, and said ‘’Twas all in fun —
‘’Twas just a little harmless joke, a trifle overdone.’
‘A joke!’ he cried, ‘By George, that’s fine; a lively sort of lark;
‘I’d like to catch that murdering swine some night in Ironbark.’
And now while round the shearing floor the list’ning shearers gape,
He tells the story o’er and o’er, and brags of his escape.
‘Them barber chaps what keeps a tote, By George, I’ve had enough,
‘One tried to cut my bloomin’ throat, but thank the Lord it’s tough.’
And whether he’s believed or no, there’s one thing to remark,
That flowing beards are all the go way up in Ironbark.
Analysis of The Man from Ironbark by A. B. Banjo Paterson
Banjo Paterson's "The Man from Ironbark," is ostensibly a humorous poem. The poem clearly recounts the story of a bushman who travels from Ironbark to Sydney.
On his way, he enters a barber shop because he wants a new look when he gets home.
Barbing is hair and beard, he thinks, will make him extremely fashionable.
The bushman is a strong and simple man who is totally oblivious of the city life tricks. But when the barber attempts to trick the bushman, the bushman reacts in an extremely violent way.
The poem, "The Man from Ironbark," begins the first line by introducing the bushman who just arrived Sydney town.
"It was the man from Ironbark who struck the Sydney town."
The bushman wanders for a while, and deciding to have a new appearance, he therefore enters a barber shop and tells the barber that: "Ere shave my beard and whisker off, I'll be a man of mark, / I will go and do Sydney toff, up home in Ironbark."
The bushman is not used to the city life, but however for the sake of looking clean, he decides to have a new look.
Because he is not used to the city life, the barber decides to trick him. The barber is quite different from the bushman.
The poet describes the barber as a "small and flash, as barbers mostly are." The barber, thinking that he is more clever than bushman, sees the bushman as his victim.
Because of this, the barber signals the young men who are in his shop, sitting to watch how he will trick the bushman.
This makes the young men to calmly sit as they watch, so as to laugh at the bushman. The bushman, who is unaware of what is about to happen, sits quietly, while the barber shaves him.
The barber begins to shave, but he wants to make a serious joke of the bushman; thus, he heats the razor, placing it on the bushman's throat.
The skin of the bushman shows a red mark. The heat and the mark make the bushman to conclusively think that his throat has actually been cut, as he suspects.
The bushman thinks that he may really die from the cut, and thus a fight begins.
Thinking that he may die soon, the bushman yells and strikes the barber. He then turns his attention to the barber shop and damages things in the shop.
The bushman holds firm to his throat with great fear of dying anytime soon. The yelling and noise attract a policeman who enters the barber shop and attempts to arrest the bushman. The bushman bluntly refuses to be arrested by the police officer
Knowing he has caused commotion and also attracted a police officer by a trick, the barber calmly explains that the entire incident is a joke.
This baffles the bushman. Though the bushman listens to the barber saying the whole thing is simply a joke, his anger does not extinguish easily.
The poem moves from the barber shop to the Ironbark, where the bushman narrates how he narrowly escaped death from the barber who attempted to cut his throat. He stated that his skin was strong, that was the reason the barber could not cut his throat.
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