'Often I sit, looking back to a childhoodMixed with the sights and the sounds of the wildwood,

...Songs interwoven of lights and of laughters Borrowed from be/I-birds. infar forest rafters;

So I might keep in the city and alleysThe beauty and strength of the deep mountain

valleys,Charming to slumber the pain of my losses

With glimpses of creeks and a vision of mosses.'(Bel/birds -Henry Kendell)

Australian bush culture registers as quintessentially Australian in our hearts and minds - both the beauty and harshness of the bush as well as the characters who reside within it; a place we recognise even though we have not been in the locations or met the people. For Australians, 'the bush' is a bower. Its flora, fauna and people are the brightly coloured objects to which poets and their readers - like the bowerbird and his mate - are attracted. But what purpose does this literature about artifacts of the bush serve? Surely,bush poetry is simply a recording of an observation or a text that reveals a truth about a poet's experiences?

Ithink not.

Bush poetry has enabled generations of Australians - for whom 'the bush and its people' resonates strongly -to remember who they are and what they are capable of. Now more than ever, in a capricious and complex, sometimes ambiguous and often depressingworld, classic Australian poetry reminds us we are tenacious in the face of hardship. It restores our belief in our ability, as individuals and as a community,to survive and prosper.

'South of my Days ' by Judith Wright is an excellent example of this. The opening stanza utilises allusion; locating the poet underneath the iconic Australia Southern Cross, 'south of [her] days' circle', while the Australian bush is represented with the metaphor of her'blood's country' - a place where she feels right at home. She carefully profiles her 'blood's country' with flowing asyndeton. This endows the description with in-depth imagery and personifying, alliterative sensory details - 'that tableland...[with] high bony slopes wincing under the winter' - but also seamlessly entwines herself and the bush. Powerful, precise diction is used to detail the almost oxymoronic but beautiful ruggedness of the overgrowth with the assonance of 'clean, lean, hungry country' and the scensis onomatonic kennings 'leaf-silenced' and 'willow-choked'. Such powerfully precise syntax acts as strong visual imagery, resonating in the minds of readers - enticing like a worm to a bird, masterfully showing that poetry is written in images. This medium promotes a feeling of security; what better place to comfortably remind us about our Australian identity?_

Wright becomes an omniscient narrator, introducing us to Dan who, like his old cottage, 'lurches in for shelter' on a 'cold black-frost night'. The cottage, whose 'walls draw in to the warmth' and 'roof cracks its joints ', acts as an extended metaphor of Dan - describing twofold their attributes through pathetic fallacy - describing a man who truly is 'south of

[his] days'.Wright uses anaphora to change the tone to one of nostalgia,revealing Dan has, 'Seventyyears of stories [clutched] round his bones', one for each of his 'Seventy summers '- stories which he metaphorically 'spins into a blanket against the winter'. In a paragraph rich with connotation, Wright cleverly weaves this lexical set - 'yarn', 'spin', 'blanket' to elucidate Dan - the epitomes of an Australian - as strong,able to withstand the winters by recounting summers while waiting for metonymic 'rambler roses'. With implication inherent in the alliterative description of the stories, 'hived in him like...honey',one would assume such stories to be sweet,joyous even; nothing could be further from the truth as Wright invites the reader to discover.

The diction changes from embellished description to pure denotation in reserved and colloquial dialogue. It's the bushman talking. Dan is tenacious. He's been a drover through the extremes,in times of great drought when 'the river was dust', and not only the beasts perished as we see in the simile 'the mud round them hardened like iron' but also his fellow traveller; 'the yellow boy' could not survive. It rings true for us that it would take guts and determination to witness the flies 'swarming like bees',in plague proportions, and to forge forward toward thousands of slaughtered animals. But that is who we are. We do not turn back. Similarly, when Dan faces the other extreme, the cold and rain while mustering, Wright explains with parallelism conveyed through symploce that they successfully saved the cattle - 'brought them down, we brought them down'. We can relate to Dan,strong and tenacious but also a larrikin,a bit of a swagman - aren't we all? - warning bushranger Fred 'Thunderbolt' Ward of the impending arrival of the 'troopers' in an eponym to the iconic Australian. '[Our] high lean country [is] full of old stories'; reflections of life that mirror our culture and country. It is through these stories, these characters, Waltzing Matilda's swagman, Wright's Dan, and the farmer in 'Shooting the dogs', that the Austral ian bush reminds us of our nature - our ability, as individuals and as a community, to survive and prosper.

In 'Shooting the dogs' by Philip Hodgins, again a man of the land, this time a farmer, is talking. This poem, like most, has no hidden meanings; the farmer tells of the inevitable shooting of his dogs prior to leaving the farm. It is stark; there is no apparent connotation, lyricism or rhetoric.There are however subtler, underpinning techniques,which convey the message in a narrative and uncomplicated form.The tone reflects the farmer's struggle but acceptance of the unavoidable; 'There wasn't much else we could do'. Indeed, how else could this story be told? This stanza has a simple idea drawn out with redundant lines utilising pleonasm to reflect the farmer's true thoughts - we are in his head. It reflects a pivotal moment in his life, and as such,displays careful observation of seemingly ordinary things. His explanation that dogs 'know they're about to be put down' and that his 'don't seem to have a clue',is amplified through detail but understated with litotes and a void of emotion.This is the first time we're told of what he will do.Caesura aids this tone of defeat, showing each thought by the farmer as careful and exact. He attempts to justify his actions with procatalepsis, picking out petty 'faults' like 'terrorising the chooks' and 'eating the eggs'. Again the account of the actual shooting is almost easy to miss - 'I called ...enthusiastically, and got one as he bounded up' -the report is blunt.

But perhaps there is another message. Written in a time when farms were being sold and families were moving to the city, the dogs are an arguably perennial metaphor of Australian

farm life itself;'we couldn't take them into town, no-one around the district needed them, and the new people had their own'.Like the death of the dogs,the transition from rural to city life is inevitable and with that aspects of Austral ian bush culture will surely die. It is not until the final stanza, after the fact,that we first see emotion. The farmer's tone and diction becomes almost abstract,describing their burial quite hauntingly, showing that even when dead and buried,they (the dogs) and it (farm life) remains,'hang[ing] on by its nails'.That's what Australian bush culture is for all of us, a culture so familiar and one that resonates so strongly for us,that it cannot be silenced.

So how do we ensure its messages continue to resonate?

Read some Australian bush poetry. Connect and reconnect with its characters, its tragedies and joys, its birds,beaches and blue skies.

And always remember how lucky you are - born of the sunburnt country and its sweeping plains, descendants of the Snowy River riders. We, as a people, have enjoyed the good times and survived the hard. This Austral ian bush culture is ours; Austral ian bush poetry is ours. It has given us our history and if we let it,will shape our future.

Charlie CunninghamPoetry Analysis -Newspaper Column

\ A POET'S WAR //

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

- Plato /

Some of life's most unpalatable truths are best stated bluntly; and the one of the most unpalatable, war, was as familiar to the Ancient Greeks as it is to us today. Indeed, Australia -the young country -has not been spared war's pain, and its allure. So it was in 1914, as our finest men sailed into the sunset seeking glory in defence of the motherland, and returned with their spirits broken; leaving their brothers, fathers and friends lying beneath the ground. Ernest Hemingway had once said "there is no hunting like the hunting of man," and to be truthful, after twelve further wars and no reprieve, we never tire of it. How then do we heal the wounds brought home to our shores, to a country never having fought on its own soil, but bearing the pain of a dozen others? Poetry. Through this dark prism of experiences, poets can lay bare man's deepest nature and so confront our dogged faith in the recurrent nature of war.

Judith Wright's 'The Trains' co-opts the perennial themes of the human condition and the nature of man to comment on the violence that still binds "usfast in history "; violence which is part and parcel :i?Australia's relationship with war. The opening lines are ones of contrast, with the stillness of night against the trains' "splendour ofpower "-emphasising their intrusion into the quiet orchards; theblooming trees symbolising peace.Arriving "with a sound like thunder" and "laying I a black trail over... the orchard'', these similes conjure the image of a storm; which is expounded further by use of caesura in breaking the flow of the lines. This tempest wakes both the old and young, yet it is the old man whose sleep is "scatter[ed] like glass"; an allusion to the fact that it is the old who have known both war and its pain, and are reluctant to release their hold on a fragile peace, a peace as fragile as glass.

Wright's theme of sleep also suggests that only with violence, only with the trains' "animal cry",are we woken from an eternal trance. One cannot help the Fields of Asphodel springing to mind. InAncient Greek mythology the ordinary souls languished in these fields, devoid of identity and who "without blood ... are witless, without activity, without pleasure and withoutfuture "1

• The comparison is uncanny, is it not? So too does Wright lament in harsh alliteration the "strangeprimitive piece offlesh" which defies the moral values we have adopted like an ill-fitting shoe; the vivid imagery of "blood's red thread [which] still binds usfast in history" further elucidating how all too fleeting our visions of peace are.Moreover, the allegory of the tiger prowling through "themeadows" of our heart evokes a child-like fear; as we cannol know when the tiger will leap "awake in its old panic riof' and lay a "reeking traif' across our future -Australia 's future.

For a young country -at least from a white point of view -Australia has always been touched by war's cold steel; and it is through these experiences that poets can expose our fundamental identity, confronting the necessity of conflict. Les Murray 's poem 'The Burning Truck', is a case in point.

The poem quickly establishes the motif of conflict; the simple denotation of the "dawn...figh ter planes " contrasting the silence of early morning with the now heralded violence, violence brought home to a nation never seeing it firsthand. Furthermore, enjambment is used extensively throughout the first stanza, resulting in the flowing lines which suggest the swift approach of the aircraft leaping "thesandbar one

1Homer - The Odyssey

Charlie CunninghamPoetry Analysis -Newspaper Colwnn

and one and one"-polysyndenton imparting a relentless rhythm to the planes. Being an isolated experience, Murray anchors the attack in everyday Australian life by relating how "thecrockery they shook down... [was left] spinning in the air / when they were gone".The careful employment of diction in "spinning in the air" conveys the narrator 's apparent perception of time slowing as the planes pass overhead; and only with their departure is his crockery allowed to fall and shatter. Comparisons cannothelp but be made between this passage and Australia's detached experience of war: those we love are sent to a far-away land, leaving time to pass languidly until a little piece of paper arrives bringing the pain from afar; and sends our hopes crashing southwards.

The repetition of the phrase "they came in off the sea"preludes the ferocious assault, and the metaphorical "wave of cannon-shells"that ravages the roofs carries the implications of a natural catastrophe.Following their arrival, Murray abruptly shifts the focus of the poem from the fighter planes to the impact of their deadly strike by end-stopping "across our roofs",and his use of pathetic fallacy in the following lines endows the flaming truck with more meaning than its denotation suggests, recasting it as an allegory for conflict. The sibilant "shambling by our street-doors" implies a clumsy, large, slow moving beast; yet as the wheel of war continues turning and in turn the truck keeps "coming and coming', the narrator finds himself desperately hoping "it had to stop, Ifetch up against a building, Ifall to rubble" -the use of asyndeton stressing his desperation . Murray 's adept use of allegory again forces us to see the connotations between his burning truck and war's inferno, the narrator mourning that despite "its whole I body and substance ... [being] consumed with heat ... I ... it would not stop".

As he begs that the "truck between our teeth to half', the use of "teeth" calls to mind a face bared in anguish, anguish further emphasised with the use of asyndeton as the narrator calls for it to "keep going, vanish, strike", if only "toset usfree ". Man's inherent tendency towards violence is further expounded by the clear parallel between those too young to have felt war's pain and the "wild boys of the streef' who - i n contrast to those who know their plosive "place and prayers"-chase after the truck cheering, blindly following it into the flames. So too is the imagery associated with the metaphorical "gorillas offlame " suggestive of man's primitive view ofconflict, and our almost animalistic aptitude for violence.

As the flaming truck rumbles on, the symbolism of keeping "onpast the last lit windows" is particularly poignant -with the lexical set of"church ", "litwindows" and "disciples" bringing religious connotations to the fore. Leaving behind the church, leaving behind the lit windows, the burning truck passes from the "world with its disciples";and when they return, home to our shores, they are never whole again.

Poetry has always been part of Australian life, almost to the extent of war. Despite never having fought on home soil, Australia nevertheless bears the scars of a dozen other conflicts; and it is in the very identity of poets to question our fundamental nature, and confront our dogged faith in war's ever turning wheel -of which none exemplify better than Judith Wright and Les Murray.

They fight a war of their own. One fought on sheafs of paper; one where dogma is confronted not with a sword, but with a pen; and one where death is but a metaphor. What war you ask? A poet's war.

Topic:Poetry is always the home of romance .Poems: Major: "The Letter " Minor: "Waiting/or the Post "Passing Reference: "A Midsummers Night Dream " and "Sonnet130 " by ShakespeareThesis: The rebirth of romantic poetry would empower romance to make a comeback in the modern age.

Poetry, Romance in the Modern Age

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" - Sakespeare, a Midsummers Night Dream

When thoughts turn to love everyone thinks of Shakespeare, or at least they used to. A skilled poet knows how to tackle a subject as complex as love. The Bard reminded us that; "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind".Nevertheless, he also knew that "hismistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ".Some say romance is dying and perhaps part of the issue is because love is no longer described in the beautiful and compelling terms used in poetry, the home of romance. Despite the cynicism of the age there are many, like myself, till believe poetry is not some strange species of writing but simply a reflection of life. Poetry is a powerful form of expression and may be the only fonn of communication capable of empowering romance to make a comeback in the modem age.

Elizabeth Riddell knew a thing or two about the intricacies of love. Although she lived long after Shakespeare, she still confidently expressed romance in the modern age. Her poem "The Letter" is a personal lyric which describes love's ambiguous feelings and identifies truths about love that we all know. This is an example of how poetry is written in images as "The Letter " contains the straight forward prose of a letter, as well as thoughts rich in connotations. The poem has no rhyming scheme and is composed of eight stanzas. "The Letter" takes the form of a letter and at one level denotes a woman writing to her loved one who has gone to war and hasn't written back for some time. This interpretation is supported in the line "ashes to shovel, broken glass to mend". This describes her loved one working in the trenches during the war. The letter is the non-italicized first line of every stanza and is interspersed with intertextual insertions representing what she is thinking as she writes. The implication of the subject's thoughts is that she has underlying feelings which convey the pain of separation and her need for reassurance.

A diacope is used in the line "beside afield of oats, beside a wood, beside a road... " which begins the typeface juxtaposed to the standard font and initiates the connection between separation and the heightened feelings of .Jove that run throughout.

The poem goes into detail to describe the loneliness and longing that comes with love; the line "a day spread out " reinforces her feelings of estrangement as the line is a transferred epithet whichunderlines her need to occupy her time without him. The passing of time is personified in order to further emphasize its slowness due to the absence of her loved one. The first stanza which describes a meadow is an extended metaphor for the day and her longing to hear from him. The line "green at the edges, yellow at the heart " continues this theme of loneliness which permeates the first two stanzas. This acts to underline his absence and describes a promising day which looks "green " but in reality is "yellow" as she still misses him. "Under apale heaven, empty of all but death" contains words richin connotation: "pal e" and "empty",implicitly indicating the tediousness of the day without her loved one.

The second stanza further dismantles her feelings of loneliness and longing. In particular, the line "along the neatpiled ruin of the town" is an effective metaphor that describes these feelings, likening them to ruined buildings.

"The Letter " deconstructs the idea of the ambiguity and complexity oflove, shown in the line "and hope my heart will choke me", a metonymous use of the word heart which alludes to her sensation of becoming overwhelm,ed and perhaps wishing that she.would die.Italso dramatically personifies the heart and emphasizes the despair she feels. "Iput out my hand, to touchyou and touch air" is a metaphorical synecdoche which represents her longing for her loved one and her mentally "reaching out" to him.

Reading Riddell's poem is moving and invigorating at the same time. The modem reader realizes that love, absence, longing, and everything associated with love and relationships between people are complicated. Things have never been more ambiguous and uncertain between couples than in the modem age. We need poetry more than ever to express the nuances of romance. Verbs such as "tremble", "sweat", and "glower", in the sixth stanza of the poem are used to symbolize her loved one's presence as she asks if he will "still stretch a hand for (her) at dusk" -the same metaphorical "hand" she stretches out for him. The line; "Show me the leaves and the towers, the lamb, the rose " represents his return to her and home, leaving war behind. The poem personifies the heart in order to methodically describe her feelings of love.The line: "Andfeel my heart swell " is at once a metonymy and symbolism for her feelings becoming heightened or "swelling". Sibilance is employed to create imagery of the town they live in, shown in the lines "thescent of stocks, the little snore offire, the shoreless waves of symphony". A diacope which emphasizes the word "love" in the last stanza reminds the readers of the overall theme of the poem. "The Letter" is the epitome of the power of poetry -more than adequate to the task of empowering romance to make a comeback.

Dorothy Auchterlonie also knew that poetry was the home of romance as she explored that through a ritual we can all relate to -waiting for the mail. "Waitingfor the Post " is a free verse poem which utilizes an extended metaphor to describe a woman who waits each day for a letter with news of her loved who has left for the war. "Death has a.freckled nose and wears a khaki shirt" personifies the postman as "death".The woman describes death as being an innocent looking postman instead of the cliched grim reaper with a "shiningscythe" and "black swirling coat ".The postman is personified this way as he is the one who delivers the news of the men who have died in the war. Once again a letter becomes a synecdoche for a woman's "doomed love". Despite this, her love is so great that the only way to adequately describe it is through the transferred epithet of the "earth turns over ". Such are the depths of her feelings. Deep Jove like this hasn't died; it just needs to be revived by a

forgotten art form. 'g-Both "The Letter " and "Waiting/or the Post" skillfully illustrate the complexitieslromance. These

poems do so by utilizing extended metaphors to create imagery which explains love§ nuances in a way that any reader, in any age can understand. Poems have never sought to conquer love. AsShakespeare said "Assoon go kindlefire with snow, as seek to quench thefire of love with words ".In this age of visual imagery, so often tawdry, more and more people are coming to see poetry as the modem hope of reviving the fire of romance.

YEAR 11POETRY COLUMN TASK 2016

TOPIC:The heritage of Indigenous Australia

POEMS:Major 7 'We are Going' -Oodgeroo Noonuccal Minor 7 'The Dispossessed' -Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Isabelle GardenerMr. Evans

PASSING REFERENCE: 'Beds are Burning ' by Midnight Oil (lyrics attached and video clip available online)

THESIS:Poetry, like the lyrics of a song, offers a powerful means of communication for modern Indigenous people. It also offers an insight into the experiences of Indigenous Australian people.

ALMOST GONE

"We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low.

We are nature and the past, all the old ways.

Gone and now scattered."

- "We are Going" by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

"Gone and now scattered" ... I wonder how many modern Australians would like the idea of present culture being obliterated like that? The uncomfortable truth is, Aboriginal Australians have seen their culture and their connection to their land severed in just such a way. I won't go into the political debate that has arisen from these events, but people often forget that the development and prosperity of Australia is in great part a result of dispossessing indigenous people of their land.

As members of the modern Australian society, we are often reminded of the trauma that the first Australians experienced through popular culture. "How do we sleep when our beds are burning?" - an/unanswered rhetorical question, posed by Midnight Oil in their 1987 iconic protest-ballad, 'Beds Are Burning ', raising the issue of Indigenous land rights. The lyrics repetitively pose rhetorical questions, asking "How can we dance.../ How can we sleep...", highlighting the disappearance of the Aboriginal cultural identity with the loss of their land, the basis of their spirituality. Lead singer, Peter Garrett, refers to the land rights of the Australia 's lost generation, advocating "Itbelongs to them, let's give it back".

Poetry, like the lyrics of a song, offer5a powerful means of communication for modern Indigenous people: it offers an insight into their experiences. Oodgeroo Noonuccal's poignant writing style expresses an evocation over dispossession, their plight and their future. The celebrated Aboriginal poet writes about the "quick and terrible" trauma that was inflicted on Aboriginal tribes as they lost the rights to their land - saying that they "are as strangers [there] now". She gives voice to the cry of the people as only poetry can.

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Isabelle GardenerMr. Evans

'We are Going ' is a politically themed, didactic poem that offers an Indigenous perspective on the colonisation of Australia, comparing the cultures of Aboriginal and Euro-centric Australians. The poem laments the whittling away of traditional ways through the strategic use of poetic devices; primarily in the first five lines. The first and final line of the poem form an oxymoronic contrast, saying "they came into", and "we are gone", pointing to removal from ancestral lands, and the despair that followed. The alliteration of "subdued and silent" in line two emphasises the defeated submission of Noonuccal's community, which extends to the simile of "many white men hurry about like ants" representing the busy, fast-paced environment that their previous home has evolved into. Between these two lines, Noonuccal speaks of the "old bora ground" - a raised mound of earth, where corroborees took place - which is rich in connotations associated with the repression and oppression of Indigenous Australians and the dispossession of their land.

In the following lines six and seven, the intertextual insertion of the colloquially signed notice: "Rubbish May Be Tipped Here" emphasises the contempt for the Indigenous Australian culture by the Euro-centric population. This is further developed in line nine, "we are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers'', where the diacope of strangers exaggerates the theme of the poem, and echoes the question of how their tribe became strangers, when it is actually the White-Australians who are the strangers.

Anaphora and metaphor are conjunctively used between lines eleven and fifteen, and the repetition of "we are'', emphasises the whole of the Indigenous culture, beginning a set of metaphors that explain what Noonuccal' s people represent. Examples of these include: ''the old ways", "the wonder tales of Dream Time'', ''the past, the hunts", "wandering camp fires" and ''the lightning bolt over Gaphembah Hill". The following line, "gone and now scattered" accentuates Noonuccal's thoughts following the metaphors. Noonuccal refers to her tribe as "the nature and the past"- expressing that nature is eternal, and therefore Indigenous culture is as well. The epiphora of the word "gone" in lines twenty-two to twenty-six emphasises the disappearance of the Indigenous Australian culture, and the polyplotonic ending of the poem, "and we are going" changes the theme of the disappearance of culture to the disappearance of actual people when the previous repetition of "gone" changes into "going".

We are Going can be better understood when read in light of 'The Dispossessed ',another well regarded poem written by Oodgeroo Noonuccal. The savage massacres of NSW in the late 18th and early 19th centuries are addressed in this free verse poem, Noonuccal uses verse to tell the gripping story of how "white Colonials stole" peace from the Indigenous Australians. The denotative meaning of this poem is easily recognisable, describing the loss of the Aboriginal culture. Noonuccal is directly speaking of the tragic losses. However, as the reader begins to understand the truth of the poem, violent connotations emerge in lines two and three through the strong verbs "stole", "rape'', "murder raid", "shot", "poisoned" and "enslaved".

Noonuccal continues to use powerful language for the duration of the poem; strong adjectives and verbs such as "greedy private'', "broken", "degraded and "oppressed" are used to express feelings of betrayal and domination . Techniques such as the chiasmus of the phrase containing the word ''justice" in line eight, and the polysyndeton of "and disease,.the liquor and the gun", are used to exaggerate the negative aspects of dispossession. The poem ends on a powerful note, documenting the continuous battle for justice and equality. The line "but oh, so long the wait has been, so slow the justice due" implies that Indigenous Australian culture is being rebuilt in modem Australian society, however, the final line cements the cataclysmic destruction: "courage decays for want of hope, and the heart dies in you". The metaphor of a heart dying represents the Aboriginal spirit.

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Isabelle GardenerMr. Evans

'We are Going' and 'The Dispossessed' can be seen as an epitaph for Indigenous Australians. They have been unceremoniously pushed out of and away from their land, and with them have gone the "Dream Time" tales, "the laws of the elders", "the hunts'', "the laughing games" and the "wandering campfires". Oodgeroo Noonuccal writes to us about the consequential loss of scrubs, animals, and traditions, encouraging the reader to reflect on the choices made by the Government and enacted by White-Australians. ·

In the poems 'The Dispossessed' and 'We are Going', the poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal conveys the effects of colonisation in Australia through the use of poetic techniques. These two poems offer the modem society of Australia an insight into the experiences of Indigenous Australia. As the great Athenian playwright, Euripides once said, "what greater grief than the loss of one's native land". Through poetry, Oodgeroo Noonuccal conveys the thoughts, feelings and unheard voices of Aboriginal people, as they endeavour to be reunited with their spiritual homelands. It belongs to them ... Let's give it back.

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REFLECTION

Poetry Column

Term 3 English 2016

But say, to a stead y beat of drum and guitar

Paul, Ringo, John and George all shouted 'War,'

Or 'Kill,' or 'Bomb,' or 'Rape,' or 'March,' or 'Hate,'

What one of us, or them would know our fate?

reserved only for the high class and safely ignored by the rest. Today it is socially dominant and international in nature. You need a powerful medium to describe a phenomenon like that - powerful enough to have come from before the time of mass culture. I'm talking about poetry. Some still see it as the writing of a separate

WILSEN CONNAuthor

What if I told you that there is something that you can't swallow which has the ability to change your mood, alter your op1mons, increase your mental capacity, improve your sleepingquality and reduce depression and

species - much like some viewed the music of The Beatles. They're clearly wrong. Poetry is simply the reflection of life and the record of a culture in images. Geoffrey Dutton and Bruce Dawe knew this when they penned 'The Beatles in Adelaide' and 'December gth, 1980.'

Geoffrey Dutton 's The

anxiety? No, I'm not talking about Beatles . Adelaid.

e

c.d :u. j,prf

an alien ray-gun or mass hypnosis - although some people initially did equate it with that. This isn't a "what's black and white and read all over" joke either. I refer of course to popular entertainment.

There was a time when that term itself was purely a niche idea,

mass hysteria; the transition into anew age of rock music and the influence those four men had over hundreds of thousands. The poem begins with simile, likening the swelling of Adelaide's streets at the reception of the stars to the bulging of 'trousered bottoms of squealing sixteen. ' Over 300,000 people took

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s

to the streets of the 'square city,' giving an unprecedented welcome comparable to that of royalty . They stayed in the South Australian Hotel, a

famous building 'where Schnabel and Menuhin once were seen,'

showing how theywere ushering in the new era - one of rock music and throwing

away one's inhibition . This overturning of previously held

values was Adelaide's 'first revolution ,' and 'the barricades are out tonight' - a metaphor

likening the crowd control barriers to barricades as used

in a revolution . This contributes to the sinister theme

developed throughout the poem, through language such as 'strum and shout to themselves in the focussed glare' and 'they twitch like wound up dolls on remote shelves.' Geoffrey

Dutton expresses dissaproval of the group and the way their fans were immobilized through this powerful imagery, and he writes of the danger of their influence later in the poem. The second stanza of Dutton's work de cribes the atmosphere during a Beatles show. They played in the Centennial Hall - a grand hall in which exams were often held. The

lines 'In summer cold feet / shuffled under the silent islands of

exam desks' uses the juxtaposition of summer and cold to portray the room as a lifeless and dim place even in warm seasons. The metaphor that compares exam desks to 'silent

islands' shows the room to be a

place of loneliness, full of students on individual islands. The presence of The Beatles brought these students together, 'like great flocks of birds that suddenly wheel / as one' - an effective simile. The third stanza focusses on the sinister potential The Beatles (and thus wider popular entertainment) had - the line 'war / is first declared in unconditional surrender' in conjunction with the likening to 'the tender / Youth of Germany,.once rigid with such ecstasy' uses extended metaphor to liken the fans at the concert to the Hitler Youth , stating that war is started when many people plJge absolute allegiance to a leader. In this poem, those leaders are The Beatles. Dutton expresses relief that 'the cry is 'Love" and that they are 'still humming 'I only want to hold your hand." The absolute power The Beatles and other popular entertainers had over their fans was quite dangerous - without even trying, The Beatles inspired Charles' Manson 's crazed visions and murders. What if they actually had tried - what if 'Paul, Ringo, John and George all shouted 'War ,'/ or 'Kill,' or 'Bomb,' or 'Rape,' or 'March,' or 'Hate,' / What one of us, or them, would know our fate?' The manipulation of poetic devices in Geoffrey Dutton's The Beatles in Adelaid e proves poetry to be a very suitable medium through which to discuss the influence of popular entertainment, and reflect life and culture through literary images.

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Even the normal milestones of a star's life, such as marriage, retirement and death can attract great attention and influence fans,

hich leads into my next poem)

Bruce Dawe's poem December gth, 1980 focusses on the death of The Beatles' frontman, John Lennon, and the impact it had. It uses the metaphor of 'pumping bullets into the history of the sixties' to show how destructive the act of murder was. The figure that stepped 'forward out of the shadows of the Dakota' had such a terrible effect on the fans of The Beatles and popular culture at the time, and saddened many, 'over and above the great disparity / between public and private fates, and the surpressed eagerness / of the media (midwives and morticians of the global village).' The metaphor that compares the media to midwives and morticians

'What rises from the paste- dampened scrap-books.' This 'What' is not Mark David Chapman, it is the death of any large, revered public figure, and the effect it has always fades, 'stepping back into the shadows.' It leaves the street 'momentarily maddened by ambulance-men and / police' - this use of alliteration shows how all outrage and chaos is temporary, using the dull consonant 'm' to express the dull disbelief of fans soon after the act, and the dull, surreal mood that would have decended on The Dakota. Dawe's poem shows how in life and death, and even when crossing between the two, the figureheads of popular entertainment have great influence over their fans.

Music and the wider category of popular entertainment has astounding effects on fans and followers. The ability to inspire a

shows how the media have the power to start or end a celebrity's

'stiffeningthousands

rapture,' 'makeone' and the

career, and they are almost always present when somebody new enters the public eye, or a well -known person drops out of it. This dark, shadowy figure was never significant for us to care for his name - Mark David Chapman - instead he was known for his act of violence. Dawe's poem refers to 'What steps forward out of the shadows', 'What saddens over and above the great disparity' and

'unconditional surrender' of the fans show just how powerful celebrities can be. Through the use of common poetic devices and independently innovative writing styles, Dutton and Dawe explored this quite effectively, demonstrating the greatness of poetry as a medium and that poetry is simply a reflection of life and the record of a culture in images.

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