Analysis Of Homecoming By Bruce Dawe

In the two forms of art, imagery is used to provide an audience with an insight to multiple senses. Carla Starrett illustrates, “Both poems and lyrics

Wilfred Owens poem “Dulce et Decorum est” and Bruce Dawe’s poem “Homecoming” are poems from different wars, however both highlight the indignity of war. Owen’s poem is broken up into three sections, where he expresses the torture soldiers suffer

Homecoming (1968), a narrative piece of elegy by Bruce Dawe delineates the Australian soldiers who died in Vietnam war. The whole poem’s tone appears to be ironic and the tempo is inexorable as if the appalling episodes of soldiers are occurring unremittingly. The title itself is ironic because when I think of homecoming it’s something celebratory and lots of partying. But within this poem, Dawe doesn’t

The author of ‘Homecoming’, Bruce Dawe, illustrates and describes the catastrophes of the Vietnam War in a calm but negative tone. Dawe uses this poem to represent the soldiers and the experiences they went through during WW1. The poetic techniques that he used in this poem “homecoming” were Imagery, Onomatopoeia and Repetition throughout the whole poem. Bruce Dawe helps the readers to understand the theme of how war is bad and a tragic waste of human life. This poem takes the readers to a place in time where our ancestral blood lines fought and lost their lives during WW1, in the hopes that future generations would have a better future in life.

The word “homecoming” is universally associated with a celebration of the returned and is linked to feelings of happiness and anticipation. Dawe however, employs this word ironically as the “homecoming” described in the poem correlates to the death and mourning of the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War and depicts the arrival of their nameless bodies. Through establishing this irony Dawe is about to effectively capture the brutal reality of war and highlight the emotional trauma associated with its dehumanising

Homecoming by Bruce Dawe describes the homecoming of dead Australian Soldiers from the Vietnamese War, (lines 2-3). The poem has its poet expressing his opinions on man’s response to wars and how vital human life is, the soldier need to be brought home and the brutality and futility of wars between the human’s race. In contrast, Suburban, by David Malouf, expresses to the reader the facade of modern suburbia, lukewarm residency clouded by public idealism and picket fences. “Suburban” suggests similar themes of masked anxieties by apparent political or social orders, which is clearly expressed through the way Malouf describes modern suburbia; as dull and emotionless. Homecoming directly contrasts this and describes a chaotic and destructive, this is demonstrated through the entirety of the poem, poetic

Imagery allows the reader to hear and connect to the story by using onomatopoeia and see what is happening in the poem.

"they’re picking them up, those they can find, and bringing them home, they’re bringing them in, piled on the hulls of Grants, in trucks, in convoys, they’re zipping them up in green plastic bags, . . . they are bringing them home." The use of repetition, and the poem’s rhythmic style, we are given the impression of an endless conveyor belt. This quote also gives us meaning; that war is almost like a business, manufacturing soldiers and sending them home. "curly-heads, kinky-hairs, crew-cuts, balding non-coms" Imagery is used in this quote to show that war is indiscriminate, war does not care for race, religion, background etc. "in their sterile housing they tilt towards these like skiers– taxiing in, on the long runways" Metaphor is used to show the dead soldiers moving about in their coffins before landing on the runway, this quote also gives the reader a realisation of the reality of

The title “Homecoming” symbolises irony because the soldiers never return home. This poem is in free verse which shows the deeper meaning of what happens in the war always stays with you. “They’re zipping them up in green plastic bags” is

Analyzing different mediums can enhance an individual’s overall appreciation and understanding of a particular idea or story. While analysis of a painting can reveal the mood of the artwork, an analysis of a poem can reveal the author’s tone. Much more then that, analysis provides an opportunity to explore each work in an attempt to understand human nature through each author’s perspective. While exploring the painting “Ulysses and the Sirens” by J.W. Waterhouse and the poem “The siren song” by Margaret Atwood, a universal truth presents itself. While the painting focuses on the thematic idea of Odysseus being stubborn while his men care for his safety to get home, the poem holds a different view. In contrast, the thematic statement from the poem discusses the idea that the Siren hates singing and being in a bird suit, but is asking for help but it’s still tempting to hear the song. Although differing in point of view, both the painting and the poem explore an aspect of human nature that are relevant to society today. There are two different authors for the painting and the poem. However, the two are different when compared to each

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

An anti-war poem inspired by the events of the Vietnam War, Homecoming inspires us to think about the victims of the war: not only the soldiers who suffered but also the mortuary workers tagging the bodies and the families of those who died in the fighting. The author, Australian poet Bruce Dawe, wrote the poem in response to a news article describing how, at Californian Oaklands Air /Base, at one end of the airport families were farewelling their sons as they left for Vietnam and at the other end the bodies of dead soldiers were being brought home. Additionally, he wrote in response to a photograph, publishes in Newsweek, of American tanks (termed ‘Grants’ in the poem) piled with the bodies of the dead soldiers as they returned to the

Imagery is a strong element that helps portray a lot of internal feelings for the audience to fathom with, thus creating an experience that the audience can enjoy. Imagery is the language represented by sense experience and a literary device that helps create a mental picture for the reader to understand what the writer is trying to say to the audience (Johnson, Arp 779). The following is the poem by Langston Hughes: “The calm,/Cool face of the river/Asked me for a kiss.” (Hughes 1-3) When examining the poem, “Suicide’s Note”, it is full of imagery with only three lines present. The

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

Next let’s have a look at imagery which is words that appeal to our five senses to create a vivid