The Poems of Henry Kendall | Page 5

whom he came to know Nicol D. Stenhouse, Dr. Woolley, and others of the small group of literary men in Sydney. Michael, a London solicitor, had been a friend of some of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists, and was much more interested in literature than in the law?when the lure of gold brought him to Australia in 1853.?Himself a well-read man and a writer of very fair verse, he recognized the decided promise of Kendall's work and gave him a place in his office. In spite of their disparity in years they became friends,?and Kendall undoubtedly derived great benefit from Michael's influence and from the use of his library. When in 1861 Michael left Sydney for Grafton, Kendall either accompanied him or joined him soon afterwards. He did not, however, stay long at Grafton. He found employment at Dungog on the Williams River; afterwards went to Scone, where he worked for a month or two, and then made his way back to Sydney.
Restive over the long delay in publication, and anxious to get a critical estimate of his work, Kendall in January, 1862, made copies of some pieces and sent them to the `Cornhill Magazine' with a letter pleading for special consideration on account of the author's youth and the indifference of Australians to anything produced?in their own country. A reduced facsimile of this interesting letter is printed here. {In this etext, the letter has been transcribed and is included at the end of this section.} Thackeray was editor of `Cornhill' up to April, 1862, but may not have seen this pathetic appeal from the other side of the world. At any rate, no notice of it was taken by `Cornhill', and in July of the same year Kendall sent a similar letter with copies of his verses to the `Athenaeum'. The editor printed the letter and some of the poems, with very kindly comments, in the issue of 27th September, 1862.
In October, 1862, before this powerful encouragement reached the young writer, `Poems and Songs' was published in Sydney by Mr. J. R. Clarke. `The Empire' published a favourable review. Further notice of his work appeared in the `Athenaeum' during the next four years, and in 1866 it was generously praised?by Mr. G. B. Barton in his `Poets and Prose Writers of New South Wales'.
Meanwhile in August, 1863, Kendall was, through Parkes' influence, appointed to a clerkship in the Surveyor-General's Department at one hundred and fifty pounds a year, and three years later was transferred to the Colonial Secretary's Office at two hundred pounds a year. During this period he read extensively, and wrote much verse. By 1867 he had so far overcome his natural shyness that he undertook to deliver a series of lectures at the Sydney School of Arts. One of these, on "Love, Courtship and Marriage", precipitated him into experience of all three; for he walked home after the lecture with Miss Charlotte Rutter, daughter of a Government medical officer, straightway fell in love, and, after a brief courtship, they were married in the following year.
The year 1868 was a memorable one for Kendall in other ways. In April, James Lionel Michael was found dead in the Clarence River, and in June Charles Harpur died at Euroma. Kendall had a great admiration for Harpur's poems and wrote to him in the spirit of a disciple. They corresponded for some years, but did not meet until a few months before the elder poet's death. Kendall describes Harpur?as then "a noble ruin -- scorched and wasted by the fire of sorrow."
In 1868, also, a prize was offered in Melbourne for?the best Australian poem, the judge being Richard Hengist Horne, author of `Orion'. Kendall sent in three poems and Horne?awarded the prize to "A Death in the Bush". In an article printed in Melbourne and Sydney newspapers he declared that the author was a true poet, and that had there been three prizes,?the second and third would have gone to Kendall's other poems -- "The Glen of Arrawatta" and "Dungog".
The result of winning this prize was that Kendall decided to abandon routine work and try to earn his living as a writer. He resigned his position in the Colonial Secretary's Office on the 31st March, 1869, and shortly afterwards left for Melbourne, where his wife and daughter soon joined him. Melbourne was then a centre of greater literary activity than Sydney. Neither then, however, nor for a long time to come, was any number of people in Australia sufficiently interested in local literature (apart from journalism) to warrant the most gifted writer in depending upon his pen for support. Still, Kendall managed to persuade Mr. George Robertson,?the principal Australian bookseller of those days, to undertake the risk of his second book of poems -- `Leaves from Australian Forests' -- which