How do Mackellar and AD Hope use literary devices to convey their perspective of Australia?
Introduction
Mackellar and AD Hope use literary devices like imagery, personification and tone to convey their perspective of Australia. The Poem Australia by AD Hope describes his negative opinion of Australia as he looks down on Australians way of life. Contrastingly, the poem My Country was written by Dorothea Mackellar at age 19 in 1904. She wrote while she was homesick in England and she expresses her deep passion and love for Australia as she compares the natural beauty of Australia to the landscape of Britain.
- Poem Australia by AD Hope
- describes negative opinion of Australia
- looks down on Australia and there way of life
-Poem My
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Mackellar and AD Hope utilize imagery to highlight their view of the Australian landscape.
Personification
Mackellar and AD Hope use the poetic technique of personification to express their perspective of Australia. In both poem the country of Australia is personified and referred to as “her” and is given human qualities. By making Australia a ‘her’ the audience can see the tender and caring nature of a woman in the good events, like rain that makes things grow, after the destruction, like fires. The audience can also associate the ‘beauty’ with that of a woman. Some examples of personification are ‘I love her far horizons’ and ‘all you have not loved her’ (Mackellar, 1908). My Country uses personification to help the audience understand the beauty and nature of Australia. AD Hope also gives Australia human qualities he refers to the land as a women "they call her a young country'. Australia is Hope's criticism of general Australian society and the country itself. Australia is mentioned as 'women beyond her change in life, a breast still tender but within the womb is dry”. He furthermore says that people may call Australia "a young country, but they lie". Australia to him is the "last of lands, the emptiest” AD Hope is trying to express that
- "of droughts and flooding rains".
-This describes Australia as cruel in times of droughts and unpredictable in the rainy
It is crucial that we study Australian Narratives as it creates insights into events we may have not explored. This is evident in the novel "Crow Country" written by Kate Constable. It teaches us about Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality, Australia's History and respect, as we experience what it feels like to live in rural Australia, creating an understanding about Aboriginal people. Therefore, through a close read and study of "Crow Country", readers are able to learn new and important things about our past and present, showing that it is crucial to study Australian Narratives.
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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.
Mackellar introduces the idea of Australia’s distinctiveness firstly in the opening two stanzas, by juxtoposising Australia’s
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
This examination will focus on topics such as the poetic techniques used, how Australian identity is portrayed, the effect the text has on the reader and my opinions.
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
Similarly, how a person is treated where they live can drastically change their sense of self. This is visible for the whole duration of the poem Australia (By Walwicz) through the distinct voice of the persona. Through the use of Allegory and very basic language, it helps make an emphasis on every word, this quote taken from the novel interprets the statement beforehand, “you big ugly. you too empty.”. The writer portrays her emotion as they are and does not elaborate on them because of her poor English in the poem which also depicts that she is an outsider to Australia as a country and illustrates her as different to the rest of the population that is fluent in English. The poet feels limited because of the way that the Australian culture treats new people and how she wasn't accepted into the community. The examples
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
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Imagery illustrates that Corrigan is a town that only worry about themselves and positions the readers to reject the town’s values and attitudes. Silvey has done his research to capture how the 1960’s Australian life would have been due to the fact that he has included all the aspects such as anti-intellect,
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