Im Looking for a poem

[Angie]

I remember as a teenager reading at school a poem about an akubra the poem basically was about how important the hat was to its owner and in it went throungh all the things an akubra is good for, shading from the sun the, hiding behind when you feel shy, a pillow putting out a fire, drinking from etc. I wouldnt know why to start to look for it if someone could tell me who might have written it it would be greatly appricieated thanks

[Peely]

G'day Angie

The poem that you are looking for sounds like it might be "My Hat" by Will Ogilvie. Text is as below:

My Hat!
© Will Ogilvie

The hats of a man may be many
In the course of a varied career,
And some have been worth not a penny
And some have been devilish dear;
But there's one hat I always remember
When sitting alone by the fire.
In the depth of a Northern November,
Because it fulfilled my desire.

It was old, it was ragged and rotten
And many years out of mode,
Like a thing that a tramp had forgotten
And left at the side of a road.
The boughs of the mulga had torn it,
It's ribbon was naught but lace,
An old swaggie would not have worn it
Without a sad smile on his face.

When I took off the hat to the ladies
It was rather with sorrow than swank,
And often I wished it in Hades
When the gesture drew only a blank;
But for swatting a fly on the tucker
Or lifting a quart from the fire
Or belting the ribs of a bucker
It was all that a man could desire.

When it ought to have gone to the cleaner's
(And stayed there, as somebody said!)
It was handy for flogging the weaners
From the drafting-yard into the shed.
And oft it has served as a dish for
A kelpie in need of a drink;
It was all that a fellow could wish for
In many more ways than you'd think.

It was spotted and stained by the weather,
There was more than one hole in the crown,
And it made little difference whether
The rim was turned up or turned down.
It kept out the rain (in a fashion)
And kept off the sun (more or less),
Bt it merely comanded compassion
Considered as part of one's dress.

Though it wasn't a hat you would bolt with
Or be anxious to borrow or hire,
It was useful to blindfold a colt with
Or handle a bit of barbed wire.
Though the world may have thought it improper
To wear such old rubbish as that,
I'd have scorned the best London-made topper
In exchange for my old battered hat.

[Angie]

Hi! Thanks so much but that is not it! Although a great poem! The poem I read was I guess you could say a much more simple poem! I have no idea what it was called but it was part of art class and not english. ( dont ask me why!) Thanks again

[r. magnay]

G'day Angie,

I may be a little above myself here, but the fact that you said you studied this in art rather than English just made me wonder, this is a simple poem from my book "'course I'm bloody dinkum!" it is illustrated by a friend of mine who is an art teacher, or at least was then, she did all the drawings in lead pencil and they are pretty bloody good (probably the best part of the book in fact)! Her name is Teresa Ramsey. Anyway here is the poem if you are interested.

"A dusty old Akubra"

(c) Ross Magnay

A bent and twisted wooden hook,
Guards the spot the old hat took,
battered like a well read book,
a dusty old Akubra.

Followed stock 'cross grass and sand,
turkey feather in the band,
became a symbol of our land,
The dusty Old Akubra.

Soaked in sweat from bushmans brow,
from the past and still here now,
water horse or shoo a cow,
A dusty old Akubra.

Felt that's bashed in different ways
keeps out the rain and burning rays,
helps the bushman nights and days,
The dusty old Akubra.

[Angie]

Hi thanks for that. Poem does sound very familular! But its not the one im after! Thank you very much tho!