SOURCE: "Henry Lawson Revisited," in Meanjin, Vol. XXIV, No. 100, 1965, pp. 5-17.

In the following essay, Phillips offers a stylistic and thematic analysis of Lawson's short fiction.

Revisiting Henry Lawson, reading straight through all his most significant work, has proved for me a surprising experience. Before I enlarge on the surprise, I had better declare myself on the begged question in my first sentence. What constitutes the significant part of Lawson's work?

First, I have ignored his verse. That is only partly because it is not consistently good enough to be patiently readable in quantity. Mainly I have set it aside because I am uncertain how truly it contains the mind of its writer. Too often, one feels, the ballads are not by Henry Lawson. They are the work of a persona, bearing his name and cashing his cheques, who assumed the rôle of the Australian folk-voice. Lawson...