Judith Beveridge Speech

Judith Beveridge is a poet of great detail. Her poems are written with strong use of language. Strong imagery of her observations and contrasts of her views help create her poems meaning and effect on the reader. Beveridge’s texts are valuable to the understanding of human and nature’s precious life, and her appreciation for life in all. Through her two poems ‘the domesticity of Giraffes’ and ‘the streets of Chippendale’ these both communicate her ideas and values the strongest.
One of Beveridge’s strongest values is of life, in ‘the domesticity of giraffes’ this is displayed from the first sentence of the second stanza. ‘I think of her graceful on her plain’ Beveridge puts herself into the poem, her thoughts of the giraffe in her natural state, gracefully running in the wild. The entire second stanza is crammed with imagery; each line creates a new picture in the mind of the giraffe being free. A strong metaphor end the stanza ‘She could be a big slim bird before flight’ this metaphor symbolising that could be the giraffe’s freedom. This is Beveridge’s only positive stanza throughout this poem this is very effective to display her thoughts on what the giraffes life should look be like. Continuing into the poem, violence and pain in the giraffe is described strongly using several similes. ‘ Her tongue like a black leather strap’,’ bruised apple eyed’ words of strong violence and pain as though the giraffe appears beaten up and battered, this use of violent imagery is disturbing and makes you think deeper about how the giraffes natural appearance seems to have disappeared. Beveridge observes the giraffe licking the wire for salt and gazing around her pen, her gaze has the loneliness of smoke’. Beveridge describes the giraffes unnatural habits, she becomes a part of the poem again by ‘ offering the giraffe the salt of her hand’ ‘ the giraffe in sensual agony’, this point of desperation for the giraffe is extremely unnatural and saddening to see her have to go to