The River Runs Red Analysis

The river runs red by midnight oil has very strong messages about Australia and its environmental issues. This poem is describing to us how humans are destroying nature (the river). When the river is running red it is portraying blood, natures blood. Midnight oil have used blood because when we think of blood we think of death. And in this case it would be the death of nature.
In the first stanza the poet tells us what is happening to nature for example “you cut all the tall trees down”. This gives us the image of white people going out and clearing land for buildings. It also says “you’ve poisoned the land and the sea which gives the image of companies dumping all there industrial waste everywhere. And in the last line it says that “you have left little for me”, this line has a very strong meaning which is that so many people are seeking wealth and expanding companies and building more that the next generation will not be able to experience nature.
“You remember the flood and the fall, we remember the light on the hill” from the second stanza is a comparison between the future generations and the past generations. The past generations remember spectacular sights and the highlights of nature wheras the future generations remember city lights and technology. “There should be enough for us all, but the dollar is driving us still” is telling us that if we all live, only using what is necessary, then Australia would not be having these environmental issues, and in the last line of the stanza the poet almost sounds angry when he says “the dollar is driving us still”.
Throughout the chorus the poet is reinforcing the fact that nature is not the same as what it used to be, and that it is slowly being killed. “Black rain falls” from the second line of the chorus is creating a very dark mood. When the river runs red the poet is reinforcing the message behind the title and the fact that we are destroying our environment. And when the poet says “dust in my hand” it is a