The Song of Ninian Melville

"The Song of Ninian Melville" is a poem by Australian writer Henry Kendall that was first published in the author's suppressed edition of his poetry collection, Songs from the Mountains in 1880. The poem is a set of verses satirising Ninian Melville, at that time Member for Northumberland in the Parliament of New South Wales. Immediately after publication the publisher, believing the political satire to be possibly libellous, recalled the edition after some 250 copies had been distributed. The satire was excised and replaced by the poem "Christmas Creek". The book was re-published in January 1881.