Analysis of the Poem Enter without So Much As Knocking by ruce Dawe

Bruce Dawe’s poems “Katrina”,” A Victorian Hangman Tells His Love”, “Homo Suburbiensis “ and “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” depict life and death through the use of similar poetic techniques such as metaphors, imagery, onomatopoeia, tone and similes, although, with different circumstances. The events in these four poems evoke emotions within the reader, the most common being sadness and frustration. These emotions are explored, in all four poems, through the tone of melancholy.

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

Bruce Dawe is one of the most inspirational and truthful poets of our time. Born in 1930, in Geelong, most of Dawe’s poetry concerns the common person – his poems are a recollection on the world and issues around him. The statement ‘The poet’s role is to challenge the world they see around them.’ Is very true for Bruce Dawe, as his main purpose in his poetry was to depict the unspoken social issues concerning the common Australian suburban resident. His genuine concern for these issues is

To start off, Bruce dawe’s text Americanized effectively portrays negative views on consumerism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor which involves a mother and a child symbolizing America and less powerful countries. The significance of using a mother and a child effectively conveys how the less powerful countries constantly need guidance from America. Throughout the poem, it is shown that the mother has power over the child which represents how America dominates them. This again shows us that the smaller countries cannot look after themselves and are heavily influenced by the American lifestyle. the quote “ today, I’ll let you play with mummy’s things “ portrays how the less powerful countries use American products and that the products are constantly seen as a necessity. Dawe effectively uses the idea that the countries will lose their culture and identity through consumerism.

Dawe is concerned that we have become desensitised to human suffering because it is presented to us as entertainment: a product rather than an issue. The irony is that we have become emotionally distanced from reality even though the world enters our homes via television. The title and the film description are references to 'The Good Earth'' based on a novel by Pearl Buck. Set during the Japanese advance on China during the late 1930s, it contains ideas that the land sustains life and that suffering is rewarded. This poem describes a family viewing the film, complete with the advertisements, and their reaction (or rather, lack of) to it. They never actually see the end as the father trips over the cord in the darkened room.

end of the poem his character flaws and downsides are revealed entirely. He is so

Dawe arouses our senses in the third and fourth stanza by stating through the use of olfactory and auditory imagery, ‘somebody’s rubbish/burning, hearing vaguely, hearing a dog, a kid, and whisper of traffic.’ However, in the movie Darryl doesn’t confide completely in his poolroom and the prized possessions that are located within it, he has a loving family in which he can solve his problems with and can share his emotions, he is more advantaged than the man Dawe describes in his poem as he has living individuals who can give him words of support and people who can give him the exact amount of emotional connection to him that he has towards his poolroom. Whenever Darryl states, “this is going straight to the poolroom” he says it with much pride which helped shaped my general understanding of the Australian identity being so emotionally invested in inanimate objects rather than their loved ones but also Dawe helped me create a sense of understanding towards people who choose to live their lives devoted to something else rather than a

Throughout the poem the speaker mentions things that relate to consumerism in America. An example in the poem that speaks about consumerism comes from lines 1-4

by using imagery and other literary devices to appeal to the reader. This poem was created to help society realize that there is a much needed change with young men who lives are constantly ending due to gang violence. The poem focuses on an undertaker who specializes in recreating the natural state of dead bodies, ones that have been mutilated. The undertaker specializes in this recreation for a specific group of young men, “gang members”.

Poets have the power to present their perspectives of the human experience through their poetic voice. Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, and Bruce Dawe, all Australian poets have all expressed common ideas expressed by their unique poetic voice.They also speak for those who have no voice, such as the soldiers in Bruce Dawe’s poem Homecoming and in Gwen Harwood's poem Mother Who Gave Me Life where she gives a voice to the Mothers. A key theme resinating through all of these poets poems would be their common ideas on society and the role of a mother.

In the first poem mentioned: Enter Without So Much as Knocking, Dawe shows the living of a child in the Baby Boomers period, and the era after World War 2 (1950's

This internal war starts the second that you set foot in this unknown word as a baby, all the way up to the last step you take to say your last goodbyes to this world. The poem begins with a life of a child in whom people around him tended to call the child “...crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy and made [the child] an alien…”(Sexton), and the child “...drank their acid and concealed it.”(Sexton) illustrating how painful it is, not react and take actions,but counseling is the best method the child seemed fit. Furthermore, courage in a person can also cause a war, in which the author shows the imagery, how the child’s “...courage was a small coal that [the child] kept swallowing.”(Sexton) and encouraging to society to make his own future. As an adult, the person endured many difficulties, such as the of enduring “...a great despair…”(Sexton), but you didn’t do it with a companion but rather “...did it alone.”(Sexton) and endured that suffering within yourself. Being an adult is not only passing a time with your loved ones and remembering the ones that sacrificed their time to make you who you are now, from your teachers to your peers to your parents, but to actually live your life the fullest and make each day worth living.Until the last moment that has been waiting since the beginning in which the death “...opens the back door...” and “...[the adult will] put on [his] carpet slippers and stride out.”(Sexton), exemplifying how all you have done, from engulfing the pain given by the society to living your whole life just to see a tear of happiness from seeing your grandchild, will not be taken with you at the moment when you really need it the

While reading the poems “Richard Cory” and “Ezra Farmer”, it is almost immediately evident which poem is an original and which is a parody. Both poems are clearly about men that are popular among those he meets, but once the reader looks beneath the surface, they notice how the diction plays an important role in relaying the theme to the audience it is presented to. In the poem “Richard Cory” written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, the theme being portrayed is that people are not always as how they seem.

Main Idea: The poet, born in Jamaica and moved to America, has to go through the day to day struggles in order to tolerate the hate he receives only because of his race. The people do not see him for who he really is, however, he can see them for who they really are. Ultimately, he sees himself as better than his haters because he never gives into his rage like the people do.

Throughout the poem Auden satirizes conformity. Throughout the poem the man was praised for working at an automobile company, and paying his dues, two actions that are relatively mundane. This poem showcases how living a society encouraged is in fact ones downfall. The man went to war when there was war, further emphasizing how he followed society, conforming to the fact that you have to enlist when drafted. Auden emphasizes how the lifestyle society strives for people to attain is in fact brainwashing them into conformity. The man never questions why he has to carry out his life in this way, and for that reason the man dies anonymously just another subject of society, who never learned how to deviate off the standard