Editing Clancy of the Overflow (section)

==History==
The poem is written from the point of view of a city-dweller who once met the title character, a [[Sheep shearer|shearer]] and [[Drover (Australian)|drover]], and now envies the imagined pleasures of Clancy's lifestyle, which he compares favourably to life in "the dusty, dirty city" and "the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal".

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.</poem>

The poem is possibly based on Paterson's own experience.<ref name="abc">{{cite web|title=Was Clancy of the Overflow a real person?|date=28 February 2014|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/clancy-of-the-overflow-a-real-person/5290136|website=[[Radio National]]|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=6 May 2020}}</ref> The introduction to ''Banjo Paterson's Images of Australia'' by Douglas Baglin<ref>{{cite book|last1=Baglin|first1=Douglass|title=Banjo Paterson's Images of Australia|date=1985|publisher=Reed Books|location=French's Forest (Sydney)|isbn=0730101002}}<!--|accessdate=2016-04-11--></ref> quotes Paterson as saying that he was working as a lawyer when someone asked him to send a letter to a man named Thomas Gerald Clancy, asking for a payment that had not been received. Paterson sent the letter to "The Overflow", a [[sheep station]] 100 kilometres south-west of [[Nyngan]], and received a reply that read:

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.</poem>

The letter looked as though it had been written with a thumbnail dipped in tar and it is from this that Banjo Paterson found the inspiration for the poem, along with the meter.

Clancy makes a [[cameo appearance]] in another popular Banjo Paterson poem, "[[The Man from Snowy River (poem)|The Man from Snowy River]]", which was first published the following year.

There are claims that Clancy was based on a man called Thomas Michael MacNamara, who described the ride with the "Man from Snowy River" (his brother in law Jim Troy) in an article in ''[[The Courier-Mail]]'' in 1938 <ref>''[[The Courier-Mail]]'', Brisbane, 21 December 1938, "Stockman of whom Poet Sang"</ref>

In 1897, Thomas Gerald Clancy wrote a poem in reply to "Clancy of the Overflow", entitled "Clancy's Reply", which paints a far less romantic picture of the life of a drover.<ref name="abc" /><ref>[http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/clancys-reply.shtml "Clancy's Reply"] by Thomas Gerald Clancy</ref> There had also been a parody in 1892, "[[The Overflow of Clancy]]", which formed part of the [[Bulletin Debate]].