On the Boundary
{{Short description|Poem by J. S. Manifold}}
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{{Infobox poem
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|author = J. S. Manifold
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|country = Australia
|language = English
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|publisher = Overland, Autumn 1959
|publication_date = 1959
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"On the Boundary" is a poem by Australian poet J. S. Manifold.{{cite web|title= "On the Boundary" by J. S. Manifold|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C102764|access-date= 30 January 2025}}
It was first published in Overland magazine in Autumn 1959 and later in several of the author's poetry collections and a number of other Australian poetry anthologies.
Outline
While "young McIvor" is riding the boundary of his employer's property he encounters an Aboriginal woman who he tries to seduce with promises of "tucker, baccy, drink of wine". But she will have none of it and he rides off contemplating a piece of family information she has imparted to him.
Critical reception
In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems Geoff Page noted "Essentially, the story we're told is humorous but we soon sense some serious undertones, some of which even the poet himself may have been unaware of...it's on the boundary of the comic and the tragic."60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, pp 100-102
Further publications
After its initial publication in Overland in 1959 the poem was reprinted as follows:
- Nightmares and Sunhorses by J. S. Manifold, Overland Press, 1961{{cite web|title= Nightmares and Sunhorses by J. S. Manifold|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/857495 |access-date= 30 January 2025}}
- Australian Letters, 4 February 1967
- The Vital Decade : Ten Years of Australian Art and Letters edited by Geoffrey Dutton and Max Harris, Sun Books, 1968{{cite web|title= The Vital Decade : Ten Years of Australian Art and Letters edited by Geoffrey Dutton and Max Harris |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2597874 |access-date= 30 January 2025}}
- The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen, Macmillan, 1973{{cite web|title= The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/477735|access-date= 30 January 2025}}
- Collected Verse by J. S. Manifold, University of Queensland Press, 1978{{cite web|title= Collected Verse by J. S. Manifold|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2554518 |access-date= 30 January 2025}}
- On My Selection : Poems by John Manifold Chosed by the Author by J. S. Manifold, Bibliophile Books, 1983{{cite web|title= On My Selection : Poems by John Manifold Chosed by the Author by J. S. Manifold|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/485615 |access-date= 30 January 2025}}
- 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009{{cite web|title= 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page |publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4462573|access-date= 2 January 2025}}