Khe Sanh Australian Poem Analysis

Bruce Dawe is considered to be one of Australia’s most influential poets of the 20th century. Dawe’s poems capture Australian life in numerous ways, whether it is our passion for AFL in Life-Cycle or our reckless nature towards war as in Homecoming. Dawe creates very complicated poems reflecting the author’s context relevant to the time period, your context is based upon your reading of the poem, where you may gather different meanings, to that of the original intent, hidden within the text.

In order to put these poems in proper perspective, we orient the reader with a brief outline of the aborigines in Australia and a short biography of the author before dwelling into the contents.

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.

The Apology Day Breakfast, and, Heart’s Core Lament are two powerful indigenous poems which use poetic techniques and devices to portray theme, times, places and identities. These poems both address the stolen generation and the impact that white colonisation has had on the Australian indigenous community. However, Natalie Harkin’s, Heart’s Core Lament has more impact through using graphic imagery to connect the poem to historical

The memories and feelings that the memorial brings forth from the veteran are the driving force to the tone of the poem. The poems is heavy and heartbreaking. It clearly shows that the visit to the memorial has an enormous impact on the author. The author describes several different visions he has while at the memorial. The visions that he has are as real to him as if they were physically present. The author makes it easy to see and feel things through his eyes. The words used to describe his thoughts and feeling evoke emotions of sadness and at times, even despair.

The author uses many different poetic tools, such as imagery and structure, to convey the theme of facing memories. In the beginning of the poem the narrator looks over the names of fallen comrades in the stone wall of the Vietnam War Memorial. From the very first lines

The thought of the passed communicating and informing the next soldiers is a bit unnerving and gets to someone's core. These men died for a reason. John McCrae uses the poem to give a voice to the dead. He uses it in various ways, but specifically to call the next generation to arms. He uses it to influence them and have them appreciate the blessing that the dead had left for them.

Within his poem he describes some of the struggles of war. He states, “Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue”(709). He describes the overwhelming exhaustion that war takes on the human body. The body continues to fight on and survive. He continues with, “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time”(709). This description allows us to realize that even when the body was at complete exhaustion, as described earlier, the men stay vigilant at all times in order to stay alive. At any moment death could be at their doorstep and they must be ready to combat it. Not all men were able to react as quickly as need be in wartime, as described by, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.”(709). He is unable to do anything for his dying brother, friend and fellow soldier. This is the most important glimpse into what soldiers face in the field of battle that stays with them for the rest of their lives. At points within the war, many were faced with the realization that somebody very close was dying right in front of them and there was nothing they could do to assist them. This poem can serve as the missing link for the reader to, attempt, to imagine what

How does war make you feel? Imagine how soldiers feel during the war and after, they have had to watch many innocent people suffer and die, maybe even their own friends. Both poems “Dulce et D Decorum Est” and “Who’s for the Game?” give readers a sense of what soldiers see and how they feel. War never fully leaves the soldiers even after they are not in battle anymore. Both poems give readers a little bit of the soldiers point of view and show how soldiers have to be brave even though they may be scared but who is actually up to fight. I believe the poems are supposed to give readers the effect of sadness and fright maybe just thinking of what soldiers have to endure but also makes them think about if they would be brave enough to fight themselves.

Moreover, the poem really creates an emotive state within the reader and it helps understand what it means to be courageous and brave. For example the quote "The valour of great sons who died to give it stately nationhood means that the ANZACS fought with great courage in the face of danger to give Australia the value of what it means to be a nation. There is an underpinning fee ing of acceptance throughout the poem, almost as if the soldier knows he could die but has accepted it. This sort of flow within the poem incites feelings of grief and sorrow similar to what the ANZAC soldiers would have felt a century ago and it portrays a distinct picture of the situation that an ANZAC would have been in. This is another major reason as to why it

The first poem I decided to write about is called 'The Flag'. This poem is written by John Agard who was born in British Guinea in 1949. Most of John's poems are written in a Caribbean style and it is noticeable when reading them. 'The Flag', explains how national symbols can create and massive effect on people both positively and negatively. John emphasises how a simple piece of cloth can bring people together but also, force them apart.

The poem is about the return of our troops and the support we give them. In the poem they are talking about how it affects the soldiers and their families. They also talk about the public’s reaction and how they just don’t understand, because they haven’t been where they were. Higher ranked officials take advantage of the soldiers or young people going into war. The soldiers fight for peace and don’t get it in return.

In these phrases he is describing how soldiers will probably feel after war, ringing the idea of PTSD back to the readers mind. The use of the phrase “he’s probably” seem to be shooting down assumptions that people make. People may assume that: ’he is alive, so he must be okay,’ but this poem is saying that he really isn’t fine at all. The line “it feels like my eyes have been stretched wide open” uses metaphor to convey the fact that the trauma of war makes it hard to sleep or close your eyes, because when your eyes shut it brings back the memories of the horrid place.‘Stretched’ is such a forceful word and again draws on the fact that they have no control over the trauma still effecting them when they leave war. This idea of the long lasting effect war, is also seen in the line “images of memories imprinted in my mind, the boy they knew before Is what they’ll never find” This stanza perfectly sums up the theme of the poem as it shows that war completely changes people and therefore is not a nice or pleasant

The first stanza it is opened by asking 5 questions related to the soldiers’ frame of mind. The first question that stands out the greatest is “who are those?” this shows us that the soldiers are in such a brutal state that they can’t even decipher what a human is. The next questions ask why they sit so lifeless and depressed .They present the idea that the soldiers with shellshock are in their own frames of mind , which subjects them and keeps in a mentally corrupt trance.

When the Communists planted their flag on the roof of the presidential palace, it was the moment Saigon fell and everyone’s hope felt as if it was vanishing. In this poem, the author is trying to tell us how agonising and desperate it was for the Vietnamese to see how their country fell. On the last stanza, it says “Then he adds what no one wants to hear…”, this tells us that Saigon’s fall was no good news to anyone. The tone of this poem is hopelessness, because they all knew they had just lost their homes. At the same time, relief rushed through them because of the “bombs in the greater distance” and how they knew they were safe from the Vietnam war. Há’s mother was “sick with waves from her stomach”, most people think this was because she