Municipal Gum The author of the poem Municipal Gum is Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who is an activist who campaigned for Indigenous Australian’s rights but is also known for her poetry. The poem was written in 1966. The poem is about a gum tree that represents the indigenous Australians that were displaced and taken away from their families. This essay explores the effective representation of Indigenous Australians, and the poem’s theme is displacement, and the tone is mournful. The Author effectively explores the theme and tone. The poet was able to do this because she used a variety of poetic features including an extended metaphor, enjambment, and apostrophe. The poem features an extended metaphor to portray the theme of the poem. She believes that the gum tree does not belong in a city street, just as how, indigenous Australians do not belong in other locations. Instead, they should be with their families. Extended metaphors are used because it brings emotion, and the reader can create connections within the poem. The poem states “Gum tree in the city street, / Hard bitumen around your feet”. Thus, extended metaphor is an effective way to bring emotion and let the reader make connections within the poem. …show more content…
Noonuccal uses this to further express the displacement of the gum tree. She believes that the Indigenous Australians were taken away from their families. Apostrophe is important because it highlight the importance of an object and adds emotion. Apostrophe helps the reader to feel mournful and sad by using it in these lines “O fellow citizen / What have they done to us?”. Thus, apostrophe is an effective way to express emotion and tone to the reader throughout the
Acknowledging the wrongs against Indigenous communities in Australia is critical, as this poem shows. The Stolen Generation was a dark chapter in Australia’s history that still affects Indigenous peoples today. From the late 1800s to the 1970s, thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian government. The policy was designed to assimilate Indigenous children into White Australian culture, and many suffered abuse and neglect.
Lisa further criticises the lands council for their thirst for riches, evident in lines 22-26: "nothin'but first-class travel, where to now Canberra?" This highlights the disrespectful and horrific treatment of indigenous, provoking anger and irritation towards the land’s council. The theme of land destruction and resulting misery among first nations people are powerfully conveyed through imagery, emotional techniques, and supporting evidence. She has been able to identify atleast two main reasons which invite the reader to accept the subjects identity these include, the lack of protection the lands council is putting in toward this country aswell as how mining not only affects the aboriginals but their future chilldren and generations to come. Throughout the poem, the poet employs vivid imagery, emotional techniques, and enjambment.
"Municipal Gum" is a poem by Australian poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal that explores the theme of isolation and confinement. The poem describes a gum tree located in a city park, surrounded by concrete and asphalt, and the poet's empathetic connection to this tree. Through vivid imagery and emotive language, Noonuccal invites readers to consider the effects of urbanization and human disconnection from nature. The poem begins with the depiction of a "gum tree in the city square," which is described as "smelling of old / barbarisms, and wars, / and our strange vanities.
Personification is a powerful tool used by writers to help the reader understand what is being said. Since the invasion of Europeans in 1788, Indigenous Australians have struggled with displacement and loss of identity. This sentiment is fully examined in Municipal Gum presenting the view that all their traditions and culture have just faded away. Simile
The outside of ‘s head is outlined with neon blue lines in a pop art style. Contrasting with the dark image of Mabo is a golden background, covered in words and phrases that relate to the struggle and oppression that Aboriginal people have fought to overcome. Despite the massive amount of words, the bright background still shines through, almost rusting them away. Through this technique, Bennett shows that though Aboriginals have faced vast amounts of oppression, through the courage of Mabo and similar activists they can break through those words to not only receive the rights they deserve, but take pride in their culture. Below Mabo’s head to the left of the canvas is a geometric city
The Black Walnut Tree Analysis In “The Black Walnut Tree,” by Mary Oliver, we are introduced to a financially struggling mother and daughter arguing whether or not to sell the worthless black walnut tree to pay off their mortgage. Consequently, the two ladies reluctantly refused to relinquish the walnut tree. Throughout the poem, Oliver alluded to the possible reasoning of why the family want to keep such an unnecessary tree and the possible significance the tree may hold to the two women, through the usage of figurative language.
In the novel, trees are a prevailing symbol, as it represents the life and growth of the protagonist mental recovery after being raped. The reoccurring use of trees allows readers to understand Melinda feelings beyond the words, as readers are able to visualize her feelings literally. Readers of YA readers use symbolism as a way to understand the mood of a novel; at the beginning of the novel, Melina selects a tree as her yearlong art project, where she is asked make her “object say something, express and emotion, speak to every person who looks at it” (Anderson 11). As struggles to express emotion through her tree, she is equally incompetent with sharing what occurred the night the police was called.
The poem states “something brighter than money.” This is a metaphor that explains the significance of the tree in the family's mind. Money is
The poem My Mother The Land by Phill Moncrieff poetically describes the struggles the aboriginal people faced at the hands of the European people and colonisation throughout history. The fact that the author based the poem on accurate historical events adds to the authenticity of representations and engages the reader in an emotional journey with the struggles the aboriginal people faced with the somewhat loss of their country, culture, identity, people and place. The author uses a variety of language features and text structures to create this view point, for instance the author uses several language features and text structures throughout verse one to demonstrate the loss of culture and people. The poet uses effective language features throughout the poem to describe the loss that the narrator feels in their country, culture, identity, people
The future now is unfamiliar, barren of all things previously known. The unwelcoming nature of the internment camps only emphasizes the affects it has on those within. Trees are planted in the camp seemingly as a way of growing roots in Utah, however forced they may be. Perhaps more symbolic than the planting of roots in the camp is the following death of the trees. Due to the choking dust, or the choking nature of being removed from home, the trees are unable to grow roots and thrive.
Meanwhile, in art class, Melinda still does not know how to draw the tree she sees in her mind, the “strong old oak tree with a wide scarred trunk and thousands of leaves reaching to the sun¨ (78). Using symbolism, Anderson displays the person Melinda could be, the image of the strong tree, while also keeping Melinda the person she is now, struggling and ruining linoleum blocks with failed carvings of the simple trees she cannot get
With the aid of metaphor and visual imagery, the writer illustrates Australia as the blue plumbago and white jasmine, whilst the mulberry tree is identified as a foreigner. This depicts that the speaker is slowly
Melinda wakes to the tree in her front yard cutting down. While Melinda watches the tree, her dad explains why the tree is being cut down to a little boy by talking about the arborist and how “He’s not chopping it down. He’s saving it. Those branches were long dead from disease. All the plants are like that.
The agony the writer is feeling about his son 's death, as well as the hint of optimism through planting the tree is powerfully depicted through the devices of diction and imagery throughout the poem. In the first stanza the speaker describes the setting when planting the Sequoia; “Rain blacked the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific, / And the sky above us stayed the dull gray.” The speaker uses a lexicon of words such as “blackened”, “cold” and “dull gray” which all introduce a harsh and sorrowful tone to the poem. Pathetic fallacy is also used through the imagery of nature;
Rather than being viewed with rhyme and rhythm, it is to be seen and appreciated as a whole singular piece of poetry. Oodgeroo Noonuccal simply begins a new line every time a meaningful and important statement is made. The language of this poem paints a piercing picture of the adversities the aborigines faced. The repetition of personal language linked to the history of the traditional land owners forces the audience to reflect upon the damage and loss of the culture due to the Anglo Saxons which caused the Indigenous Australians to face great amounts of adversity.