This text response will be looking the comparison of the two poems, ‘Drifters’ by Bruce Dawe, And ‘In the park’ by Gwen Harwood under the name of Walter Lehmann. Drifters is about a seemingly constantly moving family, it describes the process the family will go through leaving their newest home. In the park is about a seemingly single mother raising her children, it describes the mother sitting in the park with her children when a previous lover comes by and talks about the children. With in each poem, the form and structure, language techniques and the tone and message will be analysed and compared with the other to gather a grater understanding of the Australian voice. In both ‘In the park’ and ‘Drifters’, The poets use form and structure to create mood. Harwood makes use of Stanzas while Dawe makes use of Free Verse. Harwood’s Stanzas each contain a different mood whilst Dawe uses Free Verse to emphasis the poems story of constant movement. The use of …show more content…
This is achieved in both poems through the use of a third person narrator. Again in both poems the narrator again is in the position of observing events. Bothe Dawe and Harwood use words like ‘his’, ‘she’, and ‘they’ this places the reader at a distance to the characters which creates the feeling that you have a greater knowledge overall than if it would forwardly just depict a single scene. Harwood uses present tense ‘ allowing the audience to make inferences on the past and future of the mother and her children. Dawe takes a different approach to this making the poem future tense implying that what is going on in the poem happens constantly and can now be predicted. Harwood also makes use of past tense ‘she loved once’ but reverts back to present tense ‘too late’ adding melancholy to the poem. Both poets effectively convey emotions experienced by people living on Australian land through the use of narrative
The Australian suburban lifestyle in the 1950s and 1960s was centred around the idea of a “new and modern” variety of man that was different from those that could be found elsewhere. In “Enter without so much as knocking” suburban living in Australia is also explored however it is quickly related to a conformist ideology due to the rules the society followed. In the poem, this is shown through the use of capitalised imperatives used in truncated
White Australians state “shame when [their] kids they die from colds or from sheer neglect. Shame when [they] live on the river banks. While collectin' [they’re] welfare cheques. Shame when [they’re] blind from trachoma. Shame when [they’re] crippled from blights.” The rhyming scheme in the stanza makes poem flow seamlessly constructing a conversational tone as if the narrator is speaking directly to the audience. This feature purposefully lulls the reader into agreeing with the white Australia’s arguments as it constructs an image that the Indigenous people are refusing to integrate themselves with modern society and suffering the consequences of those decisions. The mention of welfare cheques also contribute to the perspective that white Australians are attempting to mend the lives of Indigenous individuals, however this could not be further from the truth and message of this
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.
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.
Gilbert’s poem portrays many Aboriginals plight’s within Australia and conveys notions of despair, anguish and anger for his fellow Aboriginal comrades. Again, Gilbert uses strong visual imagery in “the anguished death you spread” which helps convey the persona’s feeling of horror and anger at the Europeans. This is further emphasised through the poet’s vehement and repetitive use of second person pronouns in “you” which conveys a sense of blame and accumulates into an accusatory tone and generates a strong sense of detachment between the author and the European settlers. Furthermore enjambment enhances the accusatory tone in “you pollute all the rivers and litter every road” because the lack of punctuation and pauses makes the lines sharp and quick, creating a sense of anger in the author. In addition the author’s use of metaphors in “humanity locked in chains” creates a sense of struggle and inability to escape the oppression the Aboriginals are in, whereby the word “chain” is symbolic for trapped and lack of freedom. Kevin Gilbert’s emotional poem brings light to the pain and suffering Aboriginals are going through, which is a stark contrast to the image of Australia, being a free and accepting
The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.
Bruce Dawe, an Australian known poet, born 1930 is still one of the biggest selling and most highly regarded poets of Australia. His ability to write such influential poems has made an impact on a number of people, as each poem can be related to the ordinary living lives of Australians throughout the years. Bruce Dawe's poems are interesting because they comment on the lives of ordinary people. This statement is agreed on. In relation to the statement, three key poems can be linked being Enter Without So Much as Knocking (1959), Homo Suburbiensis (1964) and Drifters (1968).
As evident by the title of this poem, imagery is a strong technique used in this poem as the author describes with great detail his journey through a sawmill town. This technique is used most in the following phrases: “...down a tilting road, into a distant valley.” And “The sawmill towns, bare hamlets built of boards with perhaps a store”. This has the effect of creating an image in the reader’s mind and making the poem even more real.
Slessor is without doubt one of Australia’s great poets as his poetry invites us to feel and think about human experience in new ways. He shapes meaning in his poems through the use of sophisticated and appropriate language. Within the poem “Beach Burial” Slessor provides various insights on how the human condition is questioned and allows the reader to experience personal encounters with death, loss and grief that he laments throughout this poem, thereby underlining the futility of war. He also demonstrates the everyday struggles during the Great Depression in Kings Cross within the poem “William Street” during the financial state in the 1930s.
Living close to nature or living in harmony with nature is the whole purpose of Aboriginal life. There was no superior and inferior status between humans and nature. In fact for aboriginals the land and all the creatures have become inseparable companions. (Eds Dwight N Hopkins, P.71) But over the decades after settlement in Australia, Europeans disturbed the bond aboriginals have established with nature. In the following poems, one can see the poignant agonies of aboriginals for the disappearance their culture.
Throughout the journey of life individuals experience many incidences of adversity that initially begin as obstacles however increase our inner strength. Throughout Bruce Dawes body of work ‘sometimes gladness’, such a concept is demonstrated especially in the poems ‘Migrants’ and ‘drifters’. Drifters is a poem that gives responders into the challenges of living a life on the move as well as the impact of such a lifestyle on the various members of the family, displaying the inner strength required to embark on such a life long journey. Furthermore, ‘Migrant’s’ details the struggles associate with a migrant families bid to assimilate into an unknown land, an emotional and physical journey that truly tests ones inner strength.
The poem touches on the culture of the Aboriginals slowly eroding and being replaced with British culture. An analogy is a comparison and is used frequently throughout this poem along with repetition and rhyme to create imagery of Aboriginal traditions that have been lost. Use of allusions such as “now we got an atom-bomb” shows how fast technology is advancing and that Aboriginals view it as destruction. The euphemism used, “End every-body” implies that all these advances in technology may result in death. These two poetic devices help show just how destructive the introduction of British culture to Aboriginal culture has been. The repetition and refrain used in the form of “now” and “No more” shows just how large of an impact these changes have had. The rhyme scheme used in this poem is ABCB and can be used as a way to portray the image of the poem more efficiently. Poetic devices such as allusions, euphemisms and analogy all help to convey the ideas of the loss Aboriginal culture in the poem No More
On the emotional side of the poem, the author placed words in the way that readers acknowledge what the writer is talking about. As an example of this is
The representation of landscape in both Lawson and Baynton’s works is pivotal to the depiction of Australian national identity in which the characters portray. For instance in The Drover’s Wife our heroine displays an abnormal idea of female national identity as she is given masculine qualities so she is able to fight the hostile feminine threatening landscape and loneliness against the land. In The Chosen Vessel the bush woman carries a more conventional representation of national identity which allows her to be a target but, rather than having to battle the land she must face the taunting men that the land has to offer. Both texts represent the important and recognition that women should have receive in colonial gothic literature and the
Poetry has long been an important aspect of the Australian literary tradition. From Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson’s romantic idealisation of ‘the bush’ to Dorothea Mackellar’s passionate declaration of love