Oodgeroo Noonuccal Time Is Running Out

Over the course of history, poetry has been used to amuse, express feelings and provoke thought. Poetry has also been used as a powerful tool of protest to influence and change attitudes. One poet who did all these things is Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Noonuccal is an indigenous Australian woman who wrote in the 60s into 90s. She portrayed indigenous people suffering under the oppression of the European settlers in Australia. One of Noonuccal’s poems, ‘Time is Running Out’, expressed a very powerful message against mining. In this poem, she urges the indigenous people to act, defend and fight back against the oppressive and greedy European miners before the earth is destroyed. Noonuccal fulfills this purpose in several ways. Firstly, her powerful

It has 3 stanzas with 9 lines per stanza. There is no strong rhyming scheme, but this allowed Noonuccal to express her feelings in a stronger way because she doesn’t have to worry about rhyming things and can just express her feelings. There is some rhythm coupled with rhyme which connects the stanzas, for example, in the lines 3, 14, 16, 25 and 26 there is an echo of the word ‘violent’. This put some structure into it and also brings out the theme of the miners being so violent and using their greedy power against the

For example, she describes the "greedy trade" (line 5) and "filthy trade” (line 11) in the 'black blood', which is a metaphor for the oil trade. The use of ‘rapes’, ‘destroy’ and ‘violence’ of the land to mine the oil, are also very effective metaphors. In line 9, the words "giant tool and iron drill" are more metaphors describing the equipment. Another impact that the metaphors have on the poem is that they describe the miners as villainies for example when she calls them ‘greedy’ and filthy. The uses of these poetics techniques give heart and soul to the Noonuccal's