Great-great-grandmother ("Request to a Year")
Great-great-grandmother is one of the main characters in “Request to a Year” and is most likely the great-great-grandmother of the narrator. She is a good mother and an aspiring artist, but she is also admirable for her calm and fortitude under duress.
Year ("Request to a Year")
The narrator requests “Year” to give her a gift of part of her great-great-grandmother’s character. Year is not an actual person, but a reflection of the narrator's hope for, perhaps, the new year ahead.
Blacksmith's Boy ("Legend")
The boy in this poem is the son of a blacksmith, has a black dog, and is very adventurous and bold. He does not care for the obstacles Mother Nature throws in his way, and manages to surmount them all.
Old Dan ("South of My Days")
Dan lives in a cottage in the tableland and is full of old stories that he loves to share. He is over seventy years old and thus had a rich life. He was putatively a drover, a career which was full of adventure, danger, and excitement. However, the narrator implies that people are not as interested in stories of the old days anymore.
Metho Drinker ("Metho Drinker")
The character suffers from the drugs he take, imagining a terrible "burning girl" and wishing for Death.
Magpies ("Magpies")
The magpies are birds, of course, but they remind the narrator of gentlemen in black and white. But despite their elegant attire and lovely singing voices, they are still vicious when it comes to their food.
