Alec Derwent Hope (1907-2000) was one of Australian’s greatest poets and a critic. He touched lives of many through his works. He is recognized as one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. He is praised for his biting satire, clarity of his language and sophistication of his poetic vision. He is also viewed as a satirical poet because several of his works criticizes the technology, conformity and the absurdity of modern life. His works ranged from satire to tender lyricism, and his poems are metaphysical, sensual, serious, frivolous, mocking, mystical and rational (Hulibandi, 2012). He was truly influenced by Australia undoubtedly. His poems reveal images of Australia and modern life. “Australia” is one of his …show more content…
Hence, Hope has indicated Australia as a monotonous and cheerless place. According to Daniel (2014), Hope has addressed Australia as a nation of destruction and death with no fertility signs. It has field which is filled with soldiers in a war of destruction. The ‘hills’ mentioned are darkened by a cover of trees of brown khaki color which is similar to the uniforms of modern soldiers. The outstretched paws are of the sphinx insinuating that Australia's hills were carved from a larger magnificent landscape. The sphinx was a figure from Egyptian myths, where it possessed the body of a lion, and the head of a man. The sphinx was always seen as creatures of great wisdom. Thus, Australia's reach and realm of intelligence and power have now been "worn away". In the second stanza, Hope has continued his negative attitude toward Australia by describing it as ‘emptiest’ and ‘dry womb’. Australia was called as a ‘young country’ to which Hope has disagreed. His image in “Australia” is not the traditional one of a young land of promise but an immensely aged land which lacks a real future. The cities and the people are depleted and not original, thereby clinging to an alien soil. Hope has described Australia as being the emptiest of lands thereby addressing Australia still being vacant (Suchting, 1962). He has also described the country as ‘A woman beyond her change of life, abreast still tender but within the womb is
Our knowledge of the generic conventions used in poetry influences our understanding of the text. “The Firstborn”, a poem by Aboriginal author Jack Davis, enables the reader to determine the poem as a graphic protest about the extinction of and discrimination against the Australian Indigenous people, and the loss of their ethnicity, as their world collides with the Western culture. By focussing on my understanding of both generic conventions and author’s context, I am able to conclude that the poem concerns a tragedy within the Aboriginal community.
Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.
In this particular poem we understand through the persona’s tone, that they do not like Australia or the people and are therefore making a judgement of, and being of a negative opinion towards, the nation. The text begins with “You big ugly.” This is instantly causing proud Australians to take offence towards the poem, we know it is about Australia because of the title. The poem continues with lines such as “you bore me. Freckle silly children… you nothing much… you’re ugly… you copy…you big awful…” all against Australia.
Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is a poem expressing Mackellar’s deep passion and love for her country, Australia. The whole poem’s intention seems to evoke the sense of praising for the country and express Mackellar’s deep relationship and passion with her land. Mackellar attains this response from the audience by using numerous language techniques such as; Juxtaposition, personification, sound patterns including alliteration and assonance, imagery, and paradox. The use of first person throughout the whole poem suggests that the theme of this poem has been evoked by personal experience.
A very noteworthy quote in Grant’s speech is easily noticed. He constantly uses repetition to highlight the ideology of “The Australian Dream”, in fact Stan Grant repeats this phrase 11 times throughout his speech. Instead of stating it after speaking of freedom, youth, wealth and joy he instead constantly repeats this expression again and again after describing the oppression, fear of humiliation and hurt of dispossession, injustice suffering and survival. Grant utilises these keywords to draw focus on the lies told by Australians told to themselves everyday. Grant speaks of the Australian anthem and to draw attention on the mockery in many verses of it and appeal to the patriotism of Australian Citizens. He constantly quotes verses from our
Through the use of poetic devices, the author has successfully encouraged the audience to explore their thoughts on Australian identity and to reflect on our nation’s history.
Australia... land of the sun, beaches and kangaroo’s, known for being a free and multicultural country accepting you, no matter whom you are... or so we thought. Kevin Gilbert’s insightful poem ‘The New True Anthem’ tries to uncover the faults hidden under Australia’s picturesque surface. It depicts an Aboriginals’ view of Australia, comparing images of Australia to the harsh reality that the author feels is happening in this country. The destruction of the environment and the poor treatment of Aboriginal people are common themes that can be seen throughout the poem which contrast ideas about Australia such as natural beauty and freedom.
Wright’s 1945 poem, The Hawthorn Hedge, is a representation of the predatory power of the Australian landscape over those who refuse to unite with it. It details an unspecific persona’s attempts to establish security by planting a hawthorn hedge, separating her from a harsh, imagined landscape. The specificity of “the hawthorn hedge” reveals that this is introduced British species. As the hawthorn hedge is traditionally used as a natural fence, this clarifies that the persona is attempting to block out the landscape around her. Secondly, the fact that the hawthorn hedge is a British species suggests that the persona is also attempting to establish a reminder of her homeland, Britain. A tenet of Wright’s poetry is the strength of the true Australia and the concept of Australia’s break-away from Britain, exemplified in
Dawe, born in Fitzroy, Victoria in 1930, became known as the ‘poet of suburbia’ living an unconventionally conventional life. Having been born during the great depression Dawe worked many occupations. This allowed him to develop a great deal of empathy with and give voice to ‘ordinary Australians’ through his poetry. Maguire however, born 1935 in Oklahoma lived an ‘average American life’ and from that perspective was able to compose his song ‘eve of destruction’. Maguire’s song, like Dawe’s poem
Hello ladies and gentlemen, I am here to bring forth some poems that represent our beautiful country for the Australian day anthology. Australians identity is a wonderful thing with our mate ship and way of life respected throughout the world. Our acknowledgement of our past makes us the country we are and creates the country we have, with the pride shared between all who happily call Australia there home. These poems explore our country’s pride through times of hardship, this being the Vietnam war. And how our strong mate ship and pride helped us prevail through this time. These are very clear throughout the poems becoming clear staple pieces for this era.
“That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth” (1). Those are among the first lines in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, so it’s obvious from the very beginning that the truth, or lack thereof, is a major theme in the book.
Australia’s identity has always been a complicated one. Starting with Aboriginal genocide, 1800’s cowboys and villains, two world wars and a bunch of poems describing them, it makes it difficult to conclude on what being an ‘Aussie’ really is. Thankfully, the two thought-provoking poems Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore by Komninos Zervos, and My Country by Dorothea Mackellar both use their discerning selection of themes to reflect modern attitudes in some extent. Along with their themes, Nobody Calls Me a Wog Anymore and My Country both use their story to capture the attributes modern Australians possess to some degree.
Living in the 1800's wasn't an easy task. There were many hardships that a person had to endure. In the novel, The Adventures of Huck Finn, the author Mark Twain portrays the adventure of a young boy. Huck, the young boy, goes on a journey with various dilemmas. The novel starts off in Missouri on the Mississippi River. Huck is taken from his guardians by his father and then decides to runaway from him. On his journey, he meets up with his former slave, Jim. While Huck and Jim are traveling down the Mississippi River, they meet a variety of people. Throughout the novel he takes on many different tasks which help shape his moral conscience. Taking on a new friend which society
In 1876, in his preface to Adam Lindsay Gordon’s Poems, novelist Marcus Clarke coined the phrase ‘Weird Melancholy’ in reference to what he perceived to be the ‘dominant note’ of his country’s landscape and his subject’s verse. In doing so, he distilled the entire mood of Australian Gothic into one eerie essence, an essence present, to varying extents, in all texts of that genre. This can be seen through an examination of two exemplary Australian Gothic texts, each vastly different from the other in form and content, but united by their pervasive aura of Weirdness and Melancholy: Henry Lawson’s 1894 short story ‘The Bush Undertaker’ and Peter
‘We’re all Australians now’ draws the reader to see the war from a positive Australia home front perspective. Texts from