Song of Hope by Kath Walker

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

The loss of Aboriginal ethnicity is also highlighted when the land asks “Where are the laws and legends I gave?” This dates back to the Aboriginal culture, as their spirituality is inextricably linked to the land. They believe everything on the vast landscape has meaning and purpose. As long as they look after the land, the land will thereby return the favour. However, through time, Aboriginals have begun shifting away from their original beliefs as their world collides with the Western world. Different meanings could be made out of this; such as the more Aboriginals walk away from their culture, the less inclined the land will be to look after them, thus breaking the chain of their spirituality and beliefs. Caesuras such as full stops and question marks are used are pauses for a moment of reflection. Through the reader’s understanding of the poem’s structure, they are able to not only understand how the poem is to be read but also get the feel and emotions coming across from the poet.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet, activist, artist and a campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Her poems ‘We are going’ and ‘Let us not be bitter’ conveys the loss of the Indigenous culture and how much they suffered because of this. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s perspective on Aboriginal rights is impassioned, concern and worry for the loss of her family and home. She expresses these emotions using imagery, poetic structures and poetic techniques, such as inclusive language and symbolism, to strongly represent what she is feeling and how much the Indigenous people have suffered through.

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

A little pondering suggests that the poem has a keen focus on the Australian environment. The poet is successful to grab our attention with descriptive explanation in the line in the

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

At first glance and after reading through Amazing Grace, it seems that Jonathan Kozol is going to take us on a journey through the lives of the underprivileged, but similar to the ones you read about, or hear in the news. However, this is not the case; the real underlying theme seems to be how the life and society they live in is very alike to a life in a prison, not because it talks explicitly about prison conditions in this area, but also because their lives are portrayed as being a prison. Kozol uses the views of children and adults throughout this book to emphasize this theme through their living conditions and personal lives, background and struggles.

She responds deeply to the past and present difficulties of her people – Aboriginal people because she identified with them. The brutal treatment of Aborigines and the sad loss of culture is confronting for her. It leads her to new values and speculations that the future can be positive. The context of her poems leads the reader to the new values and ideas about the values. She is trying to influence the people and society by telling the Aboriginal cultures and stories.

The poem is written to represent all soldiers, regardless of allegiance, and shows that in death we are all joined as one, ‘the sand joins them together'. It does not boast about victory but rather the irony that no matter their race or country they all end up ‘on the other front'. Again the lines 17 and 18 really emphasize that in death the countries the soldiers were fighting for are irrelevant. Although the poem has a worldview, an Australian perspective is brought out through the ‘sway and wander' and ‘waves and fades' recreation of the sea. Kenneth Slessor is presenting a less optimistic view of the war perspective in Australia, one that does not celebrate the call to

In Tracy K. Smith’s poem, she paints a dream world that provides safety for herself and for those underprivileged within our society. By juxtaposing space and safety with a world filled with prejudice, Smith adequately communicates a utopia in which we are all equal.

Throughout Kevin’s life, he rarely received the appreciation that he deserves for all the hard work he completed. For that reason, and the obvious dedication he had for Aboriginals of all generations, along with his compelling poetry, to which adjusted the mind set of many of the national citizens, he is the rightful nominee for the Indigenous Poetry Australia Award.

One of the first things you notice is the usage of an almost perfect rhyme scheme. Dunbar uses this frequently through the entire poem, using the AABB method. I personally think that Dunbar uses this to fit in well with other poems, so peers understand that it is, in fact, a poem.

Mary Braxton a 38-year-old married woman who has four children and lives in Megget, South Carolina went to China five times. She is a member at “Bring Me Hope” a nonprofit company in California that helps orphans in China with adoption and places the orphans in summer camps. The company is not a religious group it only made to help thousands of needy-orphaned children in China. Mary became troubled about the orphans in China when she and her husband-to-be watched a documentary called “The Dying Rooms”. When she was almost thirty, she searched adoptions in China and learned about “Bring Me Hope” and soon in 2011; she was going to travel to China. Therefore, Mary relies on donations to help fund her trip to China. So far, she has made

The language in the poem is more practical than poetic as the poem is about the ‘identity’ of a person, a rather straightforward topic.

The main theme which Wright has tried to imply throughout this poem is how badly Aborigines were treated when the white settlers took aver Australia and how they were forced to adopt different ways of living.