Verse is more than just pleasant, jingling rhyme. It can document history, heroics and current events, tell stories, comment on social issues and satirise. At best it can be a subtle and satisfying form of literature, but its primary purpose is entertainment - whether for reading, writing, performing or listening. Like its predecessor An Australian Heritage of Verse, this book features hundreds of classic poems f rom Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Will Ogilvie, Victor Daley, C.J. Dennis and Leon Gellert alongside contemporary writhers such as Denis Kevans, Colin Wilson, Bruce Simpson, Ted Egan and Rupert McCall.