"The Brucedale Scandal" is a poem by Australian poet Mary Gilmore.
[1] It was originally published in The Bulletin on 18 December 1924,[2] and later in the poet's collection A Tilted Cart : A Book of Recitations, and other Australian poetry anthologies.
"Himself and me" go out for a ride on his horse-and-trap to the visiting circus, and before they have even made it home rumours are ciculating around the neighbourhood about their scandalous behaviour.
In his review of The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore : Volume One 1887-1929 Philip Butterss called the poem a "fine ballad", which the editor of the volume Jennifer Strauss "rightly places in the best of the Australian ballad tradition.
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