In Susannah Watts' book
the Prologue is stated to be written by "A Gentleman",
but there is no clue to the name of the author. Mr. Barron Field,
Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, printed in Sydney in 1819
his "First Fruits of Australian Poetry", for private circulation.
Field was a friend of Charles Lamb, who addressed to him the letter
printed in "The Essays of Elia" under the title of "Distant Correspondents".
Lamb reviewed the "First Fruits" in `The Examiner', and one wishes
for his sake that the verses were more worthy.
The first poem of any importance by an Australian is
William Charles Wentworth's "Australasia", written in 1823
at Cambridge University in competition for the Chancellor's medal.
There were twenty-seven competitors, and the prize was awarded
to W. Mackworth Praed, Wentworth being second on the list. Wentworth's poem
was printed in London in the same year, and shortly afterwards
in `The Sydney Gazette', the first Australian newspaper.
In 1826 there was printed at the Albion Press, Sydney,
"Wild Notes from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel" by Charles Tompson, Junior,
the first verse of an Australian-born writer published in this country.
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