Egalitarianism In The Tairo Fishmen

While both poets Muir and Wordsworth wrote about the happy feelings that they have towards nature the beautiful outdoors or what some people may say Mother Nature, some of which the feelings are the same and some that are different as they speak of the different plants.

Belonging is considered as a human need, providing individuals with a form of identity and offers security. The poem portrays an insight into the migrants facing separation from Australian society on arrival and thus are suffering from a lack of belonging to their new “home”. This separation from society is evident in the fourth stanza, where the composer makes reference to the visible, yet non-accessible highway. The quote “A barrier at the main gate, sealed off the highway” illustrates the separation between the migrants and contributes to the theme of loneliness and detachment from the rest of Australia. The simile “It rose and fell like a finger” continues this idea and refers to the boom gate isolating the migrants from the life outside of the neglected hostel. The personification of the boom gate as a “finger” implies that the migrants are controlled by human authority, diminishing their freedom and autonomy over their lives. This idea of uncertainty and disorientation is similarly expressed through the use of the motif of a bird. In both similes, “Like a homing pigeon, circling to get its bearings” and “We lived like birds of passage” a bird is used to convey the constant moving and unpredictability of their journey to safety. The use of “birds of passage” compares the migrants to migratory birds, it emphasises that they are constantly moving and are never

The poems by Komninos and Langley also use tone to relay the persona’s attitude. In Komninos’ poem, the persona, who happens to be the poet, is fed up of being treated differently by Australians because of his heritage and is using the poem to “assert” himself “as an Australian… as an artist.” In Langley’s poem, the Australian persona relays a positive view of Australia, representing Australians as compassionate, educated and respectful whilst relaying an unfavourable opinion of immigrants, portraying them as self-absorbed and “god-like” in an unnatural, unfitting sense. Tone is helped to represent Australian identity by the use of a persona and the use of language in the text.

With the publication `We Are Going ' in 1964, Kath Walker (1920-1993) became the first Australian aboriginal poet to publish a book of verse. This brought her an immediate success and international popularity. In this collection of 30 poems, she goes from staging a protest against the foreign oppressors to beautifully describe the delicacies of the aboriginal cultures to fight for the human rights to envision a harmonious future.

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

In addition to this, the poem uses auditory imagery to shatter the dream-like atmosphere that has been created surrounding the suburb, with the “howl of the twin-cam war party” and the “techno pulse” destroying the tranquillity, and emanating the “invasion” of Australia by the Europeans over 200 years ago. This further works to evoke feelings of empathy from the reader by allowing them to observe “eye for an eye” philosophy, present throughout the poem, in phrases such as “areas we treat with the same contempt laid upon us”. These ideologies are present throughout Samuel Wagan Watson’s body of work, with many poems throughout the anthology displaying similar attitudes towards the colonisation of Australia, and the degradation of the spirituality of the land that followed.

Robert Grey is an imagist who paints with words. Using imagery in his poems, Grey is able to visually communicate emotions and ideas. His poetry is concerned with the urbanisation effects on Australian nature and changes it brought within the lifestyle. This is metaphorically expressed in the poem ‘Journey: The North Coast’ as he dwells on the sheer beauty that can be found in the natural world in contrast to the alienated environments manufactured by men. In contrast to the idea of modernisation, Grey also expresses values of love and respect for the environment and nature through the physical and emotional journey. Additionally, the idea of Australian landscapes and strong sense of

Robert Gray is an Australian poet whose work is closely linked with nature. He grew up in the post ww11 era, and lives on the north coast. The poems ‘The Meatworks’, and ‘Flames and Dangling Wire’, express how he feels about life, his experiences and his beliefs. His poetry has such an enduring nature because it can be understood in so many different contexts, and includes universal themes which remain relevant to societies past, present and future.

Robert Gray most definitely provokes thought and stirs emotion through an effective use of language and techniques used in his poems. One of his major messages are those connected with mans effect on the environment and our constant need to create something new and yet, forget about what we already have and where that ends up. Also the sense of our society almost becoming, un-Australian and very international.

This poetry anthology is a collection of poems, which shows the people’s point of view about the wilderness and humanity. This topic interest me because I believe that most people possesses this dualistic vision that separates humanity and wilderness. I also strongly believe that us, humans, are very alike with most animals in this planet. As I started my research, a poetry book called “The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry,” edited by Rita Dove, is doubtless the most interesting poetry book I have ever read. Though, I haven’t yet had the chance to read all of the poems, but I have to announce that the ones I’ve read are very powerful and amusing. There are varieties of poems that we discussed in class, such as racism,

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people have lived on the Australian continent for at least 40 000 years. Originally travelling from Asia, their culture is an integral part of Australia today. However, this wasn’t necessarily the case when Europeans first settled here. They were not treated as human beings. They were placed into colonies to eventually die out with some dignity. The texts that have been made or written by ATSI people are a good way to gain an insight into their culture. The poem An Elder’s Passing by Jonathan Hill communicates this importance of belonging to country and culture for ATSI people by telling the story of the land’s destruction by Europeans, and about how not all people of Australia know about this mistreatment.

As there may only be 4 stanzas this poem stands out with it’s powerful meaning and IMagery within the poet’s meaningful and emotionally extravagant words. The language the poet uses is creative and relates to the purpose of the poem which is to express how the Aboriginals are treated as minorities having less power and not being able to retaliate when the white people just overtook their sacred land with no consent from anyone but just doing it because they are the superior race and because no one is going to stop them from it. This poem has a steady movement throughout with different changes in emotions but keeps a steady movement throughout the whole poem, which matches the mood of the poem. The poem uses alliteration throughout the whole poem helping provide meaning and power behind words used e.g. “Cover up the crime committed this day”, this line in a stanza provides alliteration to express itself through poetry techniques. The poem also has examples of repetition with the starting line “White men turn quickly the earth of Acacia Ridge”, this is repeated in the third stanza at also the starting line.

3. Explore the ways in which the poet vividly conveys aspects of nature and society in Lament by Gillan Clarke and the Flower-fed Buffaloes by Lindsay

To read Ted Hughes’s poetry is to enter a world dominated by nature and especially by animals so it is no surprise that one of the motivators in Hughes decision to become a poet was his love for animals and the influence of the rural landscape from his youth spent in Yorkshire. It was in the time spent in the English countryside