‘The Man from Snowy River’ by Banjo Patterson is a bush ballad, revolving around action and legend. Vast imagery is incorporated throughout the poem, with reference made to various familiar Australian scenes, locations and even plant species. Some examples of this being mountains, steep inclines, brumbies, plains, wombats, the Snowy River itself, Kosciusko, bushmen, homesteads, Karrajong, Stringy Barks and Mountain Ash (native trees), stock whips, valleys and spills The use of these words and the images that they conjure, assist with establishing the rugged setting of the story. Extensive assonance is also incorporated to assist with the flow and rhyme of the poem, and the rhythmic placement of more un-stressed syllables make the poem sound almost musical, or, like the galloping of the horses within its plot. The tone of the poem is exciting, and is designed to build tension throughout, culminating in a climatic conclusion which solidifies the image which is best known in Australian folk-law; the one of the Australian bushman hero.
But there is more to this legendary poem than a legendary story. The poem, lacking in any feminine quality, focuses on the bushman’s love affair with his environment, a more common characteristic of bush ballads. The harsh and unforgiving Australian bush is the lady.
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Clancy of the Overflow is already somewhat an Australian legend, given that he is referred to in name, and presented as the best and most capable rider, respected by his fellow Bushmen. He is the toughened, evolved British type. He is the coming man; a national type which was quite favored at the time, and may have even materialized; the strong, bronzed, well-built bushman who stands at one with his environment. In lines 17 and 21 of the poem, ‘The Man’ on the other hand, is described