B Dawe

B. Dawe -Enter without so much as knocking
A.D. Hope - Australia

Enter without so much as knocking by B.Dawe and Australia by A.D. Hope can be considered as very similar poems – they both tell about people’s nature, spiritual emptiness and lack of true values in the modern world of consumerism. The first poem refers to the whole population, criticizes the attitude, morality and lifestyle of the common person whereas in the poem of A.D. Hope the descriptions of empty land, which lacks the cultural identity, refer mostly to Australia. Both poems focus on problems connected with culture, decay of morality, uniqueness and identity. In my opinion both authors have this precious ability to keep a distance and perceive the world objectively.
He knows that Australia is able to produce something, to become mature but she wastes her springs and allows the spirit to escape. In the result, she remains savage and scarlet. There is no single and stable identity; there are “culture apes”. In author’s opinion urbanized and materialistically developed country cannot be called civilization. Australia is a symbol of spiritual poverty all over the world. In the modern reality true values are lost, people have new materialistic gods, they loose individuality and become products of commercialism. In the other poem written by B. Dawe we can find a sarcastic description of the cycle of life. The poet gave us a bitter picture of our
Every single person begins in the same way, there is a silence, there is nothing at all. The child is born as tabula rasa; he has no feelings or opinions in his mind. “First thing he heard was Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7” , voices of the family are no longer important, the consumerism and spiritual poverty overwhelm the person from the very beginning. The child is still innocent and this is what makes him lucky – he is not aware of immense stupidity and triviality of the world he was born in. In the next stanza the household and the family are presented. They are described as products to sell, we read an advertisement : “like every other well – equipped smoothly-run household, his included one economy-size Mum, one Antony Squires- Coolstream – Summerweight Dad, along with two other kids straight off Junior Department rack.” All families are the same, there are some standards witch should occur, some typical features. People are just products created according to the pattern. They think and feel in the same way, their houses, clothes, physical appearances and lifestyles are almost identical. Exceptions are not accepted, every one must become a part of a mechanism, fit the