Analysis of Bruce Dawe and his Poetry Essay

Bruce Dawe is one of the most inspirational and truthful poets of our time. Born in 1930, in Geelong, most of Dawes poetry concerns the common person. His verse forms ar a recollection on the world and issues around him. The statement The poets role is to challenge the world they see around them is truly real for Bruce Dawe, as his main purpose in his poetry was to depict the unspoken social issues concerning the common Australian suburban resident. His genuine concern for these issues is obvious by his mocking approach to the issues he presents in his poems.Drifters is about a family who play from place to place, as the father needs to move by the demand of his job. Dawe wrote this poem in a very casual language however, if you read it carefully you would be able to see the seriousness of what he is saying. The young children are growing up to learn no other way of life except the life of incessantly moving, as they are all waiting for the day they shall move again.The chil dren get very excited about moving from place to place and the kids leave yell truly. The eldest is becoming aware that their roaming lives may neer change the oldest girl is close to tears because she was happy here. She is becoming frustrated with her life. Dawe shows pity for the married woman, as she has to gone through this so many more(prenominal) times before she wont even ask why theyre leaving this time.Dawe writes sympathetically about the wife, equal when she asks her husband gobbler to make a wish in the last line of the poem Make a wish, Tom, make a wish. Because this is a continuous event, the wife is getting frustrated, as at the time of packing once again she finds that she has not unpacked from there last move.Even though this poem is written in a happy tone Dawe is being serious about the issue of how a family gets upset about being stuck in a life that is continuously moving around and not being permanently settled anywhere.Homecoming was written in 1968 duri ng the Vietnam War with the intent of making its audience aware of the pointlessness and tragedy of war. The poemdeals with the numerous stages of manner of speaking the dead home for there homecoming, a supposedly joyous occasion worthy of prominent celebration. The deed serves as a constant reminder of what may have been. Rather than coming home celebrating their Heroic survival, they are being bought home dead.Theyre bringing them in, piled on the hulls of Grants, in trucks, in convoystheyre zipping them up in plastic bags.Dawe uses a number of clever poetic techniques in order to express his feelings towards war. The reiterate use of they and theyre in the first section hints at the impersonal relationship between the bodies and their handlers. Dawe shows his audience how this is the harsh reality of war, if people allowed the usual human race compassion to overcome them every time they saw yet another dead body, it would be too unbearable.Rhythm is also used a great deal in the first section, making it sound more or less chant-like through the use of pauses that form a direct beat. This rhythm suggests a slow, mechanical process, almost like an assembly line.Interestingly, Dawe goes against conventional methods of breaking his poem up into unalike stanzas. Despite this, it is evident that the poem exists in three main sections the gathering of bodies in the jungles of Saigon, the flight back to Australian for the dead soldiers, and finally the bodies returning home.In the second phase of the poem, this monotonous rhythm is abandoned. Gone is the human touch from in the jungles of Saigon, now the bodies are being lifted high, now, high and higher, suggesting that the bodies are being taken to be laid to rest in heaven.Words like noble, whine and sorrowful are used to express the sorrow and regret that Australians will feel as their dead youths are bought home.Through the use of the personification of the planes, Dawe voices the sadness and futilit y of the situation, tracing the blue curve of the Pacific with sorrowful quick fingers.In the final phase of Homecoming Dawe focuses on the soldiers finally cominghome, home, home.The tone changes, and the lines echo the feeling of homesick Australian soldiers. As the planes approach Australia the coasts swing upward to meet the planes. This is the coastline that would have been so familiar to the soldiers had they been coming home alive, yet now they dont have the opportunity to see the knuckled hills, the mangrove-swamps, the desert emptiness, an environment vastly different from the jungle they had fought so valiantly in.A Victorian hangman tells his love is about a man who enjoys what his job consists of. His job consists of hanging criminals as a punishment for the crimes they have committed. Bruce Dawe writes this poem from the hang mans perspective, it tells the audience how he feels about execution. Dawe explains that the hangman is ashamed to wear his hangman clothes in fro nt of his wife. Two piece tracksuit, welders goggle and a green cloth cap like some gross bee- this is the states idea. He thinks of a hanging as a nuptial, and by knowledge these lines you can tell how special hangings are to him. The tone is of this poem is ashamed and idealistic, the hangman is ashamed because of the cheap clothes he has to wear when it is so special to him and proud because -= Dawe writes about the hangings as if they are a ritual, This noose with which were wed is something of an heirloom, the hangman feels as if the hanging gives them some kind of special connection.The human condition is explained throughout this poem, the way people feel towards these hangings and the way the hangman feels about these hangings. This was the last hanging to take place in Australia, it was very controversial and Dawe writes about it as if the hangman is very upset, as this will be his final hanging. It is very Australian in setting as it is a defining moment in our history a s Australia. It was the last life taken forcapital punishment in Australia. Dawe writes this poem in a controversial way as it describes how the hangman enjoys hitting the door lever, you will go forth into a new life this hangman thinks that he is doing these men a favor by taking their lives.On the Death of Ronald Ryan is about a man who is going to be executed for a crime he supposedly committed. Dawe writes this poem in Ronald Ryans wifes or rooter perspective. The reader can feel her sadness towards Ronalds execution, and her respect for him dying most horrifyingly like a man. The human condition is undeniably Australian as there is the sign of a true fighter annealed un-tranquilized, scorning a final statement. Dawe writes of the wife as if she wished Ronald died with far more self-respect than the shabby ritual which gave you credit for.