C The Colonial Mortuary Bard 'Reo, The Fisherman; and The Black Bream of Australia Louis Becke

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The Colonial Mortuary Bard; 'Reo, The Fisherman; and The Black Bream of Australia

by Louis Becke

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Pages: 17

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About this book

Memorial rhymes provide an unlikely starting point for Louis Becke's three pieces about seafaring and coastal life. The first draws comic examples from a visitors' book at Longwood on St. Helena, then considers the words sailors and miners leave in remembrance of the dead. Becke enjoys the awkward verse and practical details that mingle with solemn intentions, turning inscriptions into glimpses of the people who composed them.

The next piece introduces 'Reo among traders at Apia. Given a small loan, he buys fishing lines and hooks, heads through the surf in a frail canoe and returns with a substantial catch. The Australian piece recalls the author's family home at Mosman's Bay, where boys watch different fish enter a lagoon with the rising tide. Readers can move between social comedy, an enterprising fisherman's skill and closely observed memories of fish and water.

About the author

Louis Becke

Louis Becke was an Australian short-story writer and novelist whose years as a trader and traveler in the Pacific supplied much of his subject matter. Born George Lewis Becke in Port Macquarie, he went to sea young, worked in Samoa and Micronesia, survived shipwreck, and later turned those experiences into fiction.