Australia's Call to Arms by John B. O'Hara

The Coo-ee Reciter

by VARIOUS ( - )

Recitation was a vital part of the curriculum in education in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It not only enabled students to gain practice in addressing groups in public, but also provided models for the study of accent and elocution – vital skills in the days before public address systems were universally available. Accordingly, a number of “reciters,” or collections of texts suitable for recitation, were published in this period. The Coo-ee Reciter, published in 1904, was one of the most popular of these collections in Australia. In the words of the anthologist it contains a variety of "humorous, pathetic, dramatic and dialect recitations and readings" by Australian, British and American authors.Inevitably, these collections featured many items that featured the events and attitudes of the period. While many of the pieces can make no claim to be great literature, they do have great value as windows into the experiences, expectations and aspirations of the people at the time. - Summary by Algy Pug

Listen next episodes of The Coo-ee Reciter:
A Desperate Assault by Donald MacDonald , Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene by Matthew Gregory Lewis , An All-around Intellectual Man by Thomas Masson , Australia's Springtime by W.L.Lumley , Caudle has been made a Mason by Douglas Jerrold , Der Shpider und der Fly by Charles Follen Adams , Free Trade v Protection by Garnet Walch , Good News by Garnet Walch , Her Ideal by Kate Masterson , How Uncle Mose Counted the Eggs by anonymous , Jim Bludso by Colonel John Hay , Lariat Bill by G W H , Mrs Caudle's Lecture by Douglas Jerrold , Ode for Commonwealth Day, 1st January, 1901 by George Essex Evans , Prejudice by Charlotte Perkins Stetson , Seeing's not Believing by Thomas Haynes Bayley , The Elf Child; or, Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley , The Engineer's Story from the Denver Post , The Game of Life by John Godfrey Saxe , The Happy Farmer by Mortimer Crane Brown , The Lion's Cubs by Garnet Walch , The Little Duchess by Ethel Turner , The Man that saved the Match by David McKee Wright , The Mile by David McKee Wright , The Negro Baby's Funeral by Will Carleton , The Poor and the Rich by James Russell Lowell , The Son of a Soldier by Owen Oliver