Preview

Social Issues Explored in Bruce Dawe's Poetry

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2124 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Social Issues Explored in Bruce Dawe's Poetry
Australian Poetry

Bruce Dawe has used a variety of literary devices to represent specific marginalised groups in ways that challenge their reader’s perceptions. Two of his poems; ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Weapons Training’ are key and transparent examples of literary devices being utilised to represent specific marginalised groups. Both of these poems were set during the 1950’s, with Vietnam being written to represent soldiers pre-war and homecoming to represent soldiers returning to Australia. During this time period, the Australian nation lived via a very patriarchal manner, and had the utmost respect and admiration of their soldiers that fought during the world wars. However, it has been noted in Australian history that there was very little to no compassion given towards the returning soldiers from Vietnam; Homecoming is an attack at society for their reverence and respect-or lack of. This represents the marginalised soldiers from the Vietnam War, for the War Veterans from WW1 and WW2 had always traditionally returned home to a hero’s welcome, greeted at the airway and society’s full support to the brave soldiers who had risked and possibly given their lives for the country. Weapons Training is another war poem, but this time targets young soldiers pre-war on what can be assumed as a final addressing before taking into the ranks, this poem however various from the previous, the soldiers would have gone into the War with the expectation of being given thanks and praise for their bravery, instead they were barked at, abused and insulted. Dawe has represented both of the marginalised soldiers in both of the respective poems through his use of literary devices which can all fall under the brackets of a) Imagery and b) language, integrating into some finer details.

Bruce Dawe’s poem ‘homecoming’ is littered with imagery throughout the passage. The poem is set in the mid 1950’s, which was historically a very patriarchal time. This sense of accomplishment had been

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    HOMECOMING- Bruce Dawe

    • 329 Words
    • 1 Page

    Bruce Dawe's "Homecoming" is a deeply moving poem, which follows the long journey home for the corpses of dead soldiers. The Vietnam war inspired Dawe to write this poem but it can easily be applied to any war. The message is the same - war kills and wastes lives.…

    • 329 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Poetrylibrary.edu.au (n.d.) Brereton, John Le Gay - Poet - Australian Poetry Library. [online] Available at: http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/brereton-john-le-gay [Accessed: 24 Sep 2012].…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through dehumanising and depersonalising the soldiers in his poem ‘Homecoming’ Dawe has established a con-tem-pla-tive tone which has encouraged his readers to reassess their lives and life itself. The use of the repetiition of the word “them” aswell as the employment of emotive phrases such as “frozen sunset” and “desert empitness” all help the creation of the tone of the poem. By repeating the collective personal pronoun “them” dawe has established a disconection between how the reader perceives everyday man and the soliders in the poem, evoking thought in his readers about there lives and life in general. This challanging of the readers preconcevied ideas about life is also helped by the emotive phrases that assist in creating tone aswell as expanding ideas in the poem.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A soldier’s suffering holds no refrain from anyone, no matter what title or identity they have. In both the worlds of soldiers in those in the poem entitled “losses” by Randall Jarrell and at Devon school in “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, there are several relationships that they share. Both center around the lives of soldiers and soon to be soldiers during the cruel time of the second World War which was happening in Europe. Jarrell experiments with multiple identity in the combination of several speakers united in one, all wasted even before they could be conceded into the real experience of war. In the book World War II symbolizes many themes related to each other in the novel, from the arrival of adulthood to the triumph of the Evil…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Impact of the Vietnam War On Vietnam Veterans and their Families And the Impact of the Australian Culture…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bruce Dawe Poetry

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Many of Bruce Dawe’s poems have a heavy message and a bleak meaning relating to society’s weaknesses and downfalls.…

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Young Man in Vietnam

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Young Man in Vietnam” by Charles Coe goes against the 1980 patriotic views of Vietnam veterans, as he positions readers to be sympathetic towards veterans. Through the use of characterisation and symbolism Coe has positioned readers to be sympathetic towards the young man in Vietnam.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘Disabled’ the veteran notices how the women’s eyes ‘passed from him to the strong men who were whole’. The ‘strong men’ act as a juxtaposition for his present condition, clarifying his fragile and weak state. Also the simile ‘like some queer disease’ make him seen like an outcast from society because he is unable to walk let alone carry out menial tasks. Confined to his wheelchair, he becomes increasing isolated, as more women avert their gazes to more physically able men. Conversely, in Anthem For Doomed Youth, the home front are more passive and contrite towards the soldiers’ disabilities. The boys express their anguish through the ‘holy glimmers of goodbyes’. The euphemism of goodbyes can be taken as giving a final farewell to the deceased. It can also be interpreted as a final farewell to the former lives of joy the soldier’s had prior to the war. In both poems, the soldiers are no longer treated as equals and can never fully integrate themselves back into society’s…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bruce Dawe Poetry

    • 1068 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In what ways would you characterise Dawe as an Australian poet? Illustrate your answer in some way detail with reference to three poems.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I, George Delpratt, have grown up in a time where honour is everything; an era where people believe the sole way to demonstrate true patriotism is to pay the ultimate sacrifice for one’s country. That’s why half the men are here, at Gallipoli. Heroes, they feel the need to be memorialised as heroes. But there’s also those, like me, who are here to defend those they hold in their heart; the ones they carry with them day by day. Every day I imagine them, reminisce while we march like cattle through an ocean of sludge constantly stepping over the soulless reminders of our potential fate. Like now, for example; I dream of my family, as I trudge after my only mate, Alan Thompson, through the trenches which the war has destroyed and abandoned, where…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    ben quilty

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As a result, the portraits of these Australian servicemen and women are imbued with their experience of war. They express the dangers the soldiers encountered in Afghanistan, and the complex emotions they felt on…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that the First World War is an important time and topic for poetry. It includes some of the most famous poems in history. I will focus on the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen and explain this poets unique perception of war. However, I will also annotate a poem by Rupert Brooke called ‘The Soldier’ and review the similarities and differences between the two pieces of poetry. I will mainly explain what the poems are trying to give, in an image, to the reader.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How do Owen and Auden convey the negative effects of war in their poems ‘Disabled’ and ‘Refugee Blues’’?…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analyse the ways in which Own conveys powerful feelings about war in the poem ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Keating is able to successful in not glorifying war nor belittling it through the juxtaposition of images of “death”, “horror” and “incompetence” with the more patriotic images of “courage”, “resilience” and “mateship”. .” He then describes WWII, using inversion, saying, “It was a lesson about ordinary people- and the lesson was that they were not ordinary.” In this way Keating shifts the focus of the war effort away from the “generals” and the sweeping military victories” to the everyday people who played a part in the war, thus raising the idea that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Through the paradoxical statement, “he is all of them. And he is one of us”, he reinforces that Australian people can benefit from…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics