For the listener to understand the story being told in Side Verandah Blues (remembering that a song tells a story differently to other narrative forms),they must know that kids in the country work out in the paddock. The range of activities here is contrasted with a life and world of experience in towns and cities far away.

There is still the danger that, with the move to more impressionistic imagery in subsequent drafts, the song is newgrass at best.

The exercise of writing to genre produces as rewarding results as other disciplines and exercises, even when the finished product is something other than the assignment requires.

If you don’t go in expecting to produce a Cuckoo there’s no foul