The Author Banjo Paterson creates a persona that has a passion to live a free, effortless life as a drover. The poem is illustrated to be set in the late 1800s and is set in a pallid, dirty city. Patterson’s purpose in authoring this poem is using the persona story to indicate his passion towards the outback and it’s carefree lifestyle. Patterson intends for the reader to understand his passion towards the outback. Clancy of the Overflow is a poem about Patterson's wish to life a free life. The poem portrays the comparison between country life and city life. Paterson wishes for the peaceful and simple life that he imagines Clancy, the drover, must be experiencing. The poem ends with a sense of regret as the narrator realizes that he is …show more content…
The persona, situated in his office, receives the news that his former acquaintance Clancy has gone droving in Queensland. The poem depicts Clancy's life on the road as a drover, amongst the natural beauty of the outback, surrounded by the "murmur of the breezes" and "the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars". The use of metaphor’s in describing Clancy's experience highlights his easy going life. "The foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city", "the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street." Paterson uses brief descriptions of both rural and urban landscapes to anchor the poem's central concern- the desire for a life that allows us to grow and flourish, amidst natural beauty and good company. In conclusion, Paterson's "Clancy of the Overflow" is an ode to the timeless values of simplicity, freedom, and nature. The poem contrasts urban and rural life, using poetic devices to emphasize the superiority of natural living as metaphors and similes. Through the narrator's regretful reflections, the poem presents a yearning for a simpler, more meaningful existence, one that can be found in the outback, amidst the "vision splendid of the sunlit plains," and the warm company of friends and loved ones. The enduring popularity of this poem speaks to the fundamental human desire for a life suffused with natural
He is trying to spread the message that we influence how we affect the world, emphasising that people are an important part of nature. The poem focuses attention on the different ways immigrants have come to Australia, from the first fleet of ships and canoes to more recent refugees looking for a place to live. The poem discusses the significance of maintaining the bond between people and the land and the need to keep in mind ancestors, such as the first fleet or the aboriginals. Farrant reminds the audience to keep in mind that they are the land and that we can achieve a better future by caring for the land. Farrant uses lines such as ‘you are the forest, the plains of sand.’
‘Clancy of the overflow’ by Banjo Patterson is a poem which connotes the views and values of the urban areas of Australia and the Australian Bush. The poem is set in the past, it was published in 1889. The poem is about a person imagining in his office about Clancy having a great life in Northern Sydney. Obliquely, Banjo Patterson talks about the different types of personalities people have, beauty of nature and mankind. In the poem ‘Clancy of the overflow’ the poet attempts to make the reader visualise how ideal the Australian bush is and the urban lifestyle and areas of Australia are too compact.
In Tim O'Brien's "On The Rainy River" from the novel Things They Carried, the author emphasizes the meaning of the River. " On The Rainy River" explores the meaning of separation between O'Brien's two different futures. As O'Brien battles his two different lives, he worries about what consequences will come with each side. O'Brien highlights how he was impulsive and began heading for the border where his life would be at the most risk. "
‘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
The opening line which is a description of Cannery Row, includes many metaphors. He says that Cannery Row is a poem, but it means that it is like a poem. We have a lot of describing through the chapters and the plot seems to not be in that big of a role. The narrator in the text is either an all-knowing narrator or a detached narrator.
In the poem, “The Street”, author Ann Petry uses a variety of literary devices to describe an antagonistic relationship between a girl named Lutie Johnson and 116th Street. Petry’s use of imagery establishes a real environment that is filled with paper, trash, strong winds, and dust. To further engage the reader, personification and other figurative language elements are used to describe the urbanized setting and the characteristics of the wind while a woman is finding her way of staying on this street. Throughout the poem, the November weather is established as a war zone while personifying the wind as it battles with the urbanized society.
Childhood as lost paradise is a theme which plasters James Merrill’s 1962 volume Water Street. In spite of not being generally considered a typical confessional poet, his poems are autobiographical without being dramatic. It seems that Merrill takes a long time to choose his words because he does not simply want to reveal everything at once, but gradually, through a feeling of being an incomplete, resentful man who lost something important to him, in memory-dressed images. Simple moments in his life become complex meditations. Judith Moffett articulates this kind of distance by comparing Merrill with a truly confessional poet, Robert Lowell, stating that A continuing access to childhood memories and insights nourishes Merrill’s verse; with
Furthermore, as she questions her motives she asks herself why she set her hopes on such “moldering dust” (Bradstreet 39). Unlike God, material possessions decay over time. Bradstreet is frustrated that she put so much hope in the survival of her belongings despite knowing they would not last forever like God. McKay’s poem also writes about an internal conflict, however, he feels conflicted between New York and his homeland. Being away from where he once called home creates “a wave of longing” and desire to go back (McKay 10).
Metaphors are being used throughout the poem to compare the difficult terrain of the swamp to our speaker’s challenge with going through life’s hardships. An example is, “Here is swamp, here is struggle, closure – pathless, seamless, peerless mud.” This quote compares the struggle of walking through muddy swamps to the struggle of finding closure. They are both seen here as pathless, seamless, and peerless. Mary Oliver was able to shift the overall mood of the poem by showing two different sides of the speaker’s emotions.
As the end of the poem approaches, Dawe justifies his positioning by informing the readers that the mother and children silently renounce their individual desires and accept the ‘drifter’ lifestyle in order to belong to the family in which they feel safe and loved. Dawe’s father was a farm labourer who moved from place to place to find employment. His mother longed for the stability in life that circumstances
The postcard is the stimulus for the persona’s continuous pursuit of his identity. He has a dynamic identity which constantly changes throughout the poem, as he can neither identify himself as Australian, nor Polish like his parents. The ever-changing nature and absence of a fixed identity is conveyed through the personification, “I never knew you/Except in the third person”. The poet does not have any recollection of life in Poland, but is constantly reminded of it through the postcard which symbolises the connection between the past and how it has an impact in shaping his identity. The psychological barrier hindering his attempt to form a concrete identity is the interactions with his past, forming uncertainty in whether he should reject or accept his Polish identity.
as in her final moments the narrator recalls her earliest connection to the landscape. A key theme throughout the poem is the importance of embracing nature, emphasized by the metaphor of the “fine pumpkins grown on a trellis” which rise in towards the “fastness of light”, which symbolizes the narrators own growth, flourishing as a fruit of the earth. Through her metaphors and complex conflagration of shifting perspectives, Harwood illustrates the relationship that people can develop with landscapes, seeing both present and past in
He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
The second stanza of McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” reminds the reader
In his essay “Here,” Philip Larkin uses many literary devices to convey the speaker’s attitude toward the places he describes. Larkin utilizes imagery and strong diction to depict these feelings of both a large city and the isolated beach surrounding it. In the beginning of the passage, the speaker describes a large town that he passes through while on a train. The people in the town intrigue him, but he is not impressed by the inner-city life.