While World Poetry Day was not introduced until 21 years after Sir Robert passed away, in many ways, most days were for him an occasion to celebrate the artform. Menzies grew up in an Australia that was arguably far more literate than that of today, with even the smallest of country towns having a Mechanics’ Institute, where people could read widely and expand their horizons, reflecting a pervasive culture of self-improvement. Not only did Menzies’s tiny hometown of Jeparit have its own Institute, but it was a venue with which Robert would have been very familiar, as his father James would frequently use it to give speeches as a councillor and later an MP.

Growing up, Menzies was inculcated in this literary culture from a very young age. Going so far as to pen his first poem about a local football match between Jeparit (the Jeps) and neighbouring Rainbow (the bows) at just 10 years of age:

…The match is now started,

And the men have soon darted

Away with the ball to the North,

From which place it is punted by Alf Garwith

And this in the match,

Jeps vs. Bows…

This would prove to be just the start of young Robert’s experiments with verse, which would bloom along with his increasing educational attainments. Most of which involved winning scholarships, and living up to the self-improvement ethos which then prevailed, particularly among the lower middle class. By the time he was in High School at Wesley College, the future prime minister was already displaying the passionate and articulate patriotism with which he would one day inspire his country:

…Long years ago, when o’er our sunny landscape

The black man held his old nomadic sway,

The bearded pioneers of a new nation

Set forth in the wilds to find a way.

One was the spirit that impelled the wand’rings

Of Leichardt (in some unknown grave he’s laid!),

Or that which left brave Burke and Wills to perish

Beneath the drooping gumtrees’ scanty shade…

But the moment when these occasional experiments with the pen would really take off and become a consistent endeavour was as a university student. From his first days as an undergraduate, Menzies became heavily involved in the production of the Melbourne University Magazine, eventually receiving the prestigious honour of becoming its editor. And this gave him the opportunity to hone his craft for a public audience of his peers. Moreover, the context of the Great War, with so many of his classmates going off to serve, and some paying the ultimate sacrifice, led to some particularly stirring outpourings:

…“Farewell, brave hearts!” The simple words proclaim

   The passage of swift years, and the swift leap

   Of worlds to arms, and with no laggard’s creep,

Your answer to the call. Oh, deathless name

Of glory shall be yours; your glowing fame

   Be one with those who saw the mighty sweep

   Of Trafalgar, and heard upon the deep

The guns boom out the sceptred Island’s claim;…

Poetry remained a life-long passion, even as the free time of a student was replaced by one of the busiest schedules in the land, first as a budding lawyer before the High Court, and then as one of Australia’s political leading lights. Whether it was a humorous stanza written in haste for the rowdy and eccentric meetings of the ‘West Brighton Club’, or a way to fill time during a lull in a parliamentary session, Menzies was always keen to put pen to paper. And his writings offer a unique insight into the internal dynamics of the parliament in which he thrived:

…And so I toast THE MONSTROUS A.J.A.

Who owe their prestige and their noble pay

To ISAAC ISAACS and to MING, R.G.,

Whose names are reverenced in the Gallery!

I often sit below at Question time

And gaze aloft at the salubrious clime

Where dwell the journalists in their array,

Both blind and deaf to everything I say…

Despite Menzies’s misgivings about being ignored or misrepresented by the press, even they eventually got wind of his secret artistic side. For in 1959, as Menzies approached 10 consecutive years in office, a fortnightly journal called Nation devoted an edition to highlighting several of the thoughtful poems Menzies had produced as a student. And while this was later complemented by Troy Bramston’s biography Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics, which likewise had a special segment devoted to Sir Robert’s verse, there has never been a comprehensive collection of his works, until the Robert Menzies Institute released Collected Poems and Other Writings. Which offers not only numerous memorable musings, but also a unique insight into the great man and just how distinctive and imaginative was the early 20th century Australian culture he embodied.