Drifters by Bruce Dawe “Why have hope?”, is the question raised in the poem “Drifters” by Bruce Dawe. Bruce Dawe’s poem explores how change can damage a family 's relationship and cause them to drift apart. This poem has underlying and straight forward themes depicted about change. Straight forward depiction is the physical movement of the family from place to place and not everyone is in favour of this change. The very first line of the poem, “One day soon he’ll tell her it’s time to start packing”, supports the inevitable change that no one else has a say in except the man.
His poems are a rather impactful pieces, which do leave the reader with some cognisance of a marginally dystopian regime, one that is a dehumanising, yet scarcely inevitably ineluctable. Dehumanising as the regime may seem, Dawe makes us cognisant on the painful realities that circumvent the history and society itself. Homecoming fixated on the dehumanising treatment the war heroes received, On the Death of Ronald Ryan highlighted the corrupt regime at the time, accentuated the erroneous contentment of an
They show that skin color isn’t what is important and that they should be recognized for what they do instead of how they look. This road to their achievement might not have been smooth, but all that matters is that they succeeded in the end. Through imagery, the author of the poem, Sara Holbrook, portrays a deep meaning about how an individual can cope with tribulations. She writes about new opportunities and the risks that come with taking them. It starts off by saying, “Safely standing on the bank of what-I-know, Unfamiliar water passing in a rush.”
This extends to going to war. Shaun Tan and Gary Crew’s ‘Memorial’ represents how the bonds of friendship have led Australians into the most horrific of circumstances. The tree in the book embodies the memories of soldiers of past. It represents three generations of war in which Australia has fought and remembering the fallen comrades that died in battle. The book demonstrates an image of patriotism within Australia.
The poem focuses on the idea of independence and ones journey to success. Personally I don't know what my future holds, let alone how to really prepare for the ride ahead although I do know that I must be my own person in order to make my own way in this great world. In the first stanza of the poem, “the dark trees” symbolise an unknown future, full of possibilities. This is of course similar to what I and many other year twelve graduates currently feel about next year. “They would not find me changed from him they knew”
Bruce Dawe was one of Australia’s most influential poet. He was born on 28th February 1930 to a family with agricultural background of Scottish and English descent. Bruce Dawe was the only one in his family to have gone to secondary school, however he stopped attending school when he was 16 years old. He obtained many odd jobs that ordinary Australians would have had before going to university. After less than a year he also stopped attending university.
“Theories of Time and Space” leads the reader on a trip through history, observing what has happened, trying desperately to hold on to every moment and memory, even though you can “Bring only/ what you must carry” (lines 14-15). The poem starts off with a journey into the past thinking about how “there’s no going home” eventually leading to the present and future - realizing that time changes everything and everyone. This can be seen in line 19 when Trethewey discusses a photograph depicting the reader, but this image is no longer familiar due to the effects of time. The reader experiences this figurative movement, learning that time changes all and at the end of Native Guard they will be changed as
O’Brien presents a variety of stories to present the complexity of war. “On The Rainy River” is a pre-war
‘Sometimes Gladness’, a collection of poems by Bruce Dawe mention a variety of references to Australian culture; although often looked over by the reader. Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language known universally, the naming of certain places known to Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Revire of a swimmer’ gets muddled with the overall message of the poems. Moreover, even when Australian slang is incorporated into the poem, a larger audience can relate to what is being said; as Dawe relies on universally issues to form the backbone of his poetry, especially in ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Life-Cycle’. Lastly, a distinct Australian poem would only be expected to explore issues relating to the countries individual culture or issues, though
This is different to the other poems already mentioned in this essay as it refers to the innocent citizens killed as opposed to the soldiers or upper class ranking officials at the time. A theme throughout the poem is that the first line of each verse contains the person who survives and the second line contains the person of is dead or about to die. “One man shall wake from terror to his bed. Five men shall be dead”
Throught this powerful essay it is clear that MacArthur is passionate about his Country and the military who serves it. Being very vivid in the descriptions of the world at war, was a way that this essay provokes emotion. Stating “...many a weary march from dripping dusk to to drizzling dawn,slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack,blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective…” Those striking words hit the audience like an arrow piercing the hearts of those in attendance. This diction drives home the the point through the use of the audience's emotions keeping their feeling on the surface to be further affected by the speaker's words.
The poem aims to glorify soldiers and certain aspects of war, it goes on to prove that in reality there really isn 't good vs bad on the battlefield, it 's just a man who "sees his children smile at him, he hears the bugle call, And only death can stop him now—he 's fighting for them all.", and this is our hidden meaning.
This elegy is ultimately written for all soldiers of war and sends the ironic message that the soilders who have fought against each other and could have killed each other are now all floating on the same coastline receiving equal treatment and being buried with their enemy. The theme of anonymity is extensively portrayed throughout this piece as Slessor constantly refers to ‘unknown’ soldiers or ‘someone’. Slessor uses personification and dehumanization to depict the loss of identity within each of the soldiers and the obscured effects of war to show the continuous movement forward of the world despite losses and victories. Personification is shown in the second stanza, 'Between the sob and clubbing of the gunfire '; the use of this technique ironically emphasises that the guns seem to mourn the loss more than humanity does. This leaves the audience feeling distraught and pity for the soldiers as it gives them a sense of the emotions linked to war.
Essay 3- Interpretations from Influences (Tornado Child) Kwame Dawes, an author of poems, novels, and anthologies, was born and raised in Jamaica, later moving to the States in pursuit of his current employment at the University of Nebraska. He writes mainly about the themes of ethnicity, influenced by Jamaican culture and the musician Bob Marley. “Tornado Child” contains a storm of concepts.
So the soldier went to the trench to lie down and die. There is also another shift when the author says “and soundlessly attending, dies…”. In the last stanza, the audience can infer that the author is at peace with the death. He says “misted and ebullient seas and cooling shores, towards Amphibia’s empiries.” The audience can feel the relaxation.