Oodgeroo Noonuccal's poem 'Then and Now', refers to the once happy and peaceful Aboriginal lifestyle and the desire for it to be like it was before white colonisation. The tone is sorrowful and nostalgic. The speaker fondly recalls the time before European industrialisation and reminisces on their once peaceful life. According to the poet, this was a time when people were free, were children of nature, and most of all, were happier. A poem similar in context, 'Who Are We', by Richard Kennedy, was written in the midst of the injustice and cruel treatment of Aborigines. 'Who Are We' is a narrative poem structured with 4 stanzas. Each stanza reveals injustice and hardship experienced by the Aboriginal community. Both poems were written at a time where they were rendered speechless and use of written word, evident throughout history, was used as a powerful tool for conveying their experiences during times of oppression. The authors wrote these poems uncovering change, retribution and the prominence of Indigenous in society. Many poets use figurative language and imagery to evoke certain emotions and create mood. One such poet is Richard Kennedy, who wrote the poem titled ‘Who are we’.
The poem's tone is set by the blunt statement: where in the world do we feel free, when born into life as an Aborigine. This
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Both poems discuss the severe impact not only on the Indeginous community, but also the environment. 'Then' refers to the time before white settlers came to Australia, where Aborigines could roam their country peacefully, their lifestyles were able to be expressed. 'Now' refers to everything being changed; constricting their lifestyles and their beliefs because their dreams and values have been shattered by the European colonisation and industrialisation. The impact of the European settlers changed the lives of the Indeginous people, and the lives of future generations,
The poem is written in the style of free verse. The poet chooses not to separate the poem into stanzas, but only by punctuation. There is no rhyme scheme or individual rhyme present in the poem. The poems structure creates a personal feel for the reader. The reader can personally experience what the narrator is feeling while she experiences stereotyping.
and that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. In this I essay I have shown how successful the poet was in making me share this view by using his thoughtful and intense language, word-choice and imagery techniques.
There are many cultural aspects of the poem. In the poem, “the secrets of your dreaming” refers to the Aboriginal belief called the Dreamtime. The three lines, “while waters of tears carry ancient stories down your jagged crevasses”. In these lines, “Ancient stories” and “down your jagged crevasses” refers to the Aboriginals rituals of ancestral spirits that take place near cracks in the stone walls of Uluru, such as crevasses. The first line in the poem, “Isolated rock” refers
lust. To his Coy Mistress is a pure lust one even though in parts may
...Moreover, the antithesis in “fine big house” and “shack” reflects the unbridgeable gulf between the two races. At the same time, it heightens the issue of segregation and racial discrimination which the African-Americans are suffering from. Meanwhile, words like “wonder”, “neither”, and “nor” show Hughes’ bitter sense of estrangement since he is unable to determine to which race he belongs. Thus, the poem is also a reminder by Hughes to his people of the tragic consequences of this social system on the mulatto offspring who have no place in either race. In this poem, Hughes dramatizes the inherent tensions of a mulatto who resents his mixed origins and ascribes his failure in life to it. Though blaming his parents at the beginning for his dilemma, Hughes ends by forgiving them and pitying himself for his dislocation and disenfranchisement from the American society.
During the poem the speaker does not address his readers. The readers are simply overhearing a man assessing the society in which he lives as he daydreams about what is could be and yet what it is not. It is evident that his goal is to get the readers to look down upon this society which is so caught up in daily routine; prohibiting anyone from having freedom of imagination. This detachment that is created between the speaker and his readers incorporated with the boring monotone at the very beginning of the poem gives the readers a negative impression of the society before they begin to analyze the actual words of the poem.
not racist but ‘’ by Anita Heiss is an anthology of poems reflecting the writer personal experience and thoughts as a proud, strong, contemporary Australian woman with Aboriginal identity.
In about every primary school in Australia Walker’s poem are used as literacy devices in teaching the younger generations about Indigenous culture
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
These constant feelings of discontent, and annoyance were seen frequently by African Americans who suffered from injustice acts from the white majority during these times. Many of the poems written during this time showed some sort of historical reference of maltreatment, or inequality. For years, African Americans were not allowed to have a voice, and if they did they wen’t unheard. However, when poems got published, the deep emotion, and rage that African Americans lived through for many years was released to the public, and shocked a majority of people when they quickly became influential to society.
The clash between racial reality and idea is what is artistically shown in “on being brought from Africa to America”. Wheatley is a subtle rebel. At the beginning of her poem she shows thanks for being enslaved because it brought happiness to her life in finding Christianity, but as time goes by we start to see the true tone of Wheatley, which clearly show in the last two lines of the poem, now Wheatley begins to take a big position of power as if she already has the attention of the reader. Wheatley continues by saying that Africans may not be perfect but the Christians who enslave human beings aren’t
In William Wordsworth’s poem, Resolution and Independence, Wordsworth describes the moods of the poem through the description of nature. The first appearance of the speaker, himself, is shown in (line 15); where he classifies himself as a traveler who has been seduced, as he states, “The pleasant season did my heart employ” (line 19). We see the traveler as a bright and joyful person as Wordsworth’s characteristics of nature as a means of description continues throughout the poem. As the poem progresses, the speaker’s attitude changes in (line 26), where he tells us that his mood is lowered. It is here that the speaker presents himself as “a happy child of earth” in (line 31); as once again Wordsworth...
Lyric poetry is based off song and establishes human condition, in this poem the condition of African Americans.