An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow-Les Murray

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow-Les Murray.

In Les Murray's 'An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow', there is a clear unconventional portrayal of the hero, and he shows many heroic concepts as a result of the dramatic techniques used to convey the notion of the weeping man not being society's 'conventional perception' of a hero.

The poems persona is simply an un-named 'observer' who tells the story, in a third person present tense narrative form ("they") which assists in portraying the notion that a weeping hero actually did walk the earth and that its just not an event created in the mind, of the peoples and society's reactions to this weeping man and the affects he has had on the people. The subject matter of this poem is the nature of this weeping man.

A concept of the hero this poem communicates is that a hero is strong, he possesses the heroic quality of power. Les Murray develops this notion of a hero through un-conventional heroic forms.
This technique is used to highlight the superiority and power the weeping man has over the people- heroic quality's which come under the notion of his strength. because there is no actual description of the man's physical superiority, his heroic strength lies in more mental aspects( uconventional heroic traight). This makes he's quality of power even greater and more heroic because he has something which not everyone else can obtain and is thus harder to come by, he's quality is special, unique and because of its power it is greatly feared (the strength which lies in a persons mind). The power and strength held in the man's mind is so great that even "The fiercest manhood, the toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us trembles with silence(at the man)". This listing emphasizes that he's strength is greater than any other that