LIFE CYCLE

Bruce DaweLIFE CYCLE

Originated in Melbourne in 1858.

Has been played in Australia since 1915.

Australia is currently the only nation in the world where Australian rules football is played professionally.

In some regions, it is marketed as AFL (Australian Football League).

It is also the most popular sporting league in Australia, averaging over 30,000 people per game.

Context Australian rules footballBig Jim Phelan was a flamboyant, 114kg ruck player for the South Melbourne Australian Rules Football Club (now Sydney Swans).

In 1902, Big Jim Phelan revitalised Aussie Rules, which had been largely displaced by Rugby Union, in New South Wales.

He was a great enthusiast for the game, and has been called a football evangelist (a preacher who tries to convert others to a set of beliefs).

Why do you think Bruce Dawe has dedicated this poem to Jim Phelan?BIG JIM PHELANFor whom the poem is dedicated

Richmond Football Club is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Gracing their crest is a Tiger.

Their home field is the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Richmond were first established in 1885.

They have won ten premierships.

Richmond football club

Carn the equivalent of saying come on in a thick Australian accent.Beribboned decorated with ribbons.Barracking supporting.Rusk a dry biscuit (baby food).Empyrean referring to the sky, or heaven.Bludger colloquial expression for someone who evades responsibility.Covenant a pact or agreement.Race-memory a memory shared by a whole race, shared subconsciously.

General terminology

Football is a religion. ItFollows similar rites of passage.Involves ceremonial baptisms.Is a life-long act of worship.Is communal.Does not leave us after death.

Identify as many words in the poem you can that have Religious connotations.

Key ideas

Football follows the pattern of the eternal life cycle.Birth Life Death Rebirth.

Go through the poem and try to identify the four stages of the life cycle in Dawes poem.What are some key words or phrases that are linked to these stages?

Key ideas

Human needs will never change.Humans will always possess the need for something or someone that will make their lives meaningful, bring their lives to fruition, and save them.In Victoria, Dawe insinuates that this need is fulfilled by Australian Rules Football.Key ideasWhen children are born in Victoriathey are wrapped in the club-colours, laid in beribboned cots,having already begun a lifetimes barracking

Imagery Born into football. Supporters from birth.

Alliteration of club-colours consistent, unchanging.Stanza 1Carn, they cry, Carn feebly at firstwhile parents playfully tussle with themfor possession of a rusk: Ah, hes a little Tiger! (And they are)

Alliteration Carn, they cry, Carn / parents playfullyColloquialism of Carn barracking, voice of fans, Australian slang.Metaphor little Tiger, a proud embodiment of the clubs mascot. Also suggesting that they are potentially future players.Allusion Tiger, mascot of Richmond team.Ellipsis (And they are), suggesting that they are developing tiger-like qualities.

Stanza 2Hoisted shoulder-high at their first League gamethey are like innocent monsters who have been years swimmingtowards the daylights roaring empyrean

Simile like innocent monsters who have been years swimming, unbeknownst, strange and unnatural, beneath the oceans surface, unexposed to the wonders of the game.Imagery juxtaposition of the innocent monsters swimming in the darkness of the ocean, with the daylights roaring empyrean.Sensory imagery the silence of the cot, and the muffled sounds beneath the water, contrasted with the roaring fans of a packed stadium.Religious allusion empyrean, symbolism of the water, baptism into football.

Stanza 3Until, now, hearts shrapnelled with rapture,they break surface and are forever lost,their minds rippling out like streamers

Imagery hearts shrapnelledExtended metaphor break the surface (of the water). Reaching the empyrean.Religious allusion rapture, moment of enlightenment, transporting from earth to heaven.Simile minds rippling out like streamers, opening up to the world, learning. Celebratory connotations.

Stanza 4In the pure flood of sound, they are scarfed with light, a voicelike the voice of God booms from the standsOoohh you bludger and the covenant is sealed.

Imagery impact of flood, overwhelming. scarfed with light, lights of the stadium now a source of comfort, initiated.Language is rather reminiscent of religious texts, referring to the ceremonial wrapping of light around the newly initiated.the voice of God (simile/allusion), the thousands of fans barracking in unison.Covenant is sealed, child is swept up in the euphoria of the crowd, and thus, they are committed. Biblical allusion Gods covenant with man. Formalising an agreement.Stanza 5Hot pies and potato-crisps they will eat,they will forswear the Demons, cling to the Saintsand behold their team going up the ladder into Heaven,

Irony of colloquial references to hot pies and potato crisps in biblical language. Satirising football fans (making them appear ridiculous, or over the top).Religious motif playing on the nicknames of other AFL clubs (Saints / St Kilda, and Demons / Melbourne).Forswear: swear not to support.A play on biblical teachings to reject evil and practise good.Allusion If supported correctly, they will witness their team climb the ladder to heaven (win the premiership). Reference to the story of Jacobs ladder, reaching into the skies.Stanza 6And the tides of life will be the tides of the home-teams fortunes- the reckless proposal after the one-point win,the wedding and honeymoon after the grand-final

What parallel is Bruce Dawe suggesting in this stanza? How are football and the tides of life linked?

The repetition of the word, after

What does the ellipsis at the end of the stanza imply?

Stanza 7They will not grow old as those from more northern States grow old,for them it will always be three-quarter-timewith the scores level and the wind advantage in the final term,

The first line is a parody of a verse recited every ANZAC day in every RSL They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old what does this suggest?

Dawe, however, appropriates the words, having a dig at the northern States (New South Wales). What does this comparison propose with regard to the respective supporters?

Stanza 8That passion persisting, like a race-memory, through the welter of seasons, enabling old-timers by the boundary-fences to dream of resurgent lionsand centaur-figures from the past to replenish continually the present.

Alliteration passion persisting, passing on the enthusiasmConnotations of race-memory babies are ingrained with this knowledge so early that they believe they are born with it.Imagery welter of seasons, passing time. What do the terms, resurgent and replenish suggest with respect to the lifecycle?Metaphor of lions, centaur-figures, describing past players with an element of mystique. Based on this description, what characteristics do the past players represent? Why are they important to the old-timers?Stanza 9So that mythology may be perpetually renewedand Chicken Smallhorn return like the maize-godin a thousand shapes, the dancers changing.

Stanza 10

Chicken Smallhorn was once the star of the Fitzroy team, good enough to have won the Brownlow Medal.

Simile.Metaphor(Linking to previous stanza) Repetition

Quick research activity: who is the ancient maize-god? Why is this allusion relevant?But the dance forever the same the elderly stillloyally crying Carn Carn (if feebly) unto the very end,having seen in the six-foot recruit from Eaglehawk their hope of salvation.

What is the significance of repeating Carn Carn and the parenthetical (if feebly) at the end of the poem? Refer to the life cycle.

Who is the six-foot recruit from Eaglehawk?

What are the connotations of the term salvation? How is the word used in this context? What is Dawe referring to?

Stanza 11Create a three stanza poem (3/4 lines each) explaining an obsession of your own.

What gives you purpose in life? It might be a thing, a sport, a person, a jobHow do you feel about it? Make a list of terms that encapsulate your feelings towards it.How does it impact on your life? Does it influence the decisions you make? Give you comfort?Use poetic devices to illustrate what your obsession means to you.Creative activity