Please include here the Australian poem you picked to be included in our own anthology.
1. Please write a short paragraph as to why you selected the poem. Include in the paragraph (a) connections to the poem, (b) anything interesting that you learnt from the poem and (c) a comment about the style of the poem and/or the poetic techniques used.
2. Then place the poem after your paragraph.
3. As you read through the poems please feel free to add your comments.
Enjoy …
blogwormz 
September in Australia – by Henry Kendall
I selected ‘September in Australia’ because it describes one of Australia’s many seasons. It has a very positive outlook and mentions all the striking wonders in the month of September. I had a connection with how I experience the first month of spring. The weather relieves the long winter I tend to struggle with, and the abundance of colour is refreshing. Henry Kendall has used personification by labelling September a female and giving it human physical qualities. I think the use of personification was used well because women, especially back in the day, presented themselves with elegance and grace. The poet has included a lot of alliteration; I thought the most effective example was line 5 because it flows beautifully and contrasts the transition from winter to spring. He has also written some metaphors on lines 9 and 13, further describing and emphasizing the Australian splendour of September.
1. Grey Winter hath gone like a wearisome guest,
2. And, behold, for repayment,
3. September comes in with the wind from the west
4. And the spring in her raiment!
5. The ways of the frost have been filled of the flowers,
6. While the forest discovers
7. Wild wings, with the halo of hyaline hours,
8. And the music of lovers.
9. September, the maid with the swift silver feet!
10. She glides and she graces
11. The valleys of coolness, the slopes of the heat,
12. With her blossomy traces;
13. Sweet month, with a mouth that is made of a rose,
14. She lightens and lingers
15. In spots where the harp of the evening glows,
16. Attuned by her fingers.
17. We, having a secret to others unknown,
18. In the cool mountain mosses,
19. May whisper together, September alone
20. Of our loves and our losses.
21. One word for her beauty, and one for the grace
22. She gave to the hours;
23. And then we may kiss her, and suffer her face
24. To sleep with the flowers.
sholziegirl – You have demonstrated that you understand the steps in analysing a poem. I especially like how you have applied what we learnt in class, that is to number the lines of a poem to make referencing easy and accurate. You have also provided evidence that you have developed a good understanding of poetic metalanguage. Excellent work!
i chose “The colours of light” by Dorothea Mackellar because i knew who the poet was from the “My Country” poem we did in class. The poem looked at australia from a different point of view of the other poems we did in class. the poem is descriptive and gives a clear picture of what australia looks like. The poet has used personification alot in this poem.
THE COLOURS OF LIGHT
This is not easy to understand
For you that come from a distant land
Where all the COLOURS are low in pitch –
Deep purples, emeralds deep and rich,
Where autumn’s flaming and summer’s green –
Here is a beauty you have not seen.
All is pitched in a higher key,
Lilac, topaz, and ivory,
Palest jade-green and pale clear blue
Like aquamarines that the sun shines through,
Golds and silvers, we have at will –
Silver and gold on each plain and hill,
Silver-green of the myall leaves,
Tawny gold of the garnered sheaves,
Silver rivers that silent slide,
Golden sands by the water-side,
Golden wattle, and golden broom,
Silver stars of the rosewood bloom;
Amber sunshine, and smoke-blue shade:
Opal colours that glow and fade;
On the gold of the upland grass
Blue cloud-shadows that swiftly pass;
Wood-smoke blown in an azure mist;
Hills of tenuous amethyst. . .
Oft the colours are pitched so high
The deepest note is the cobalt sky;
We have to wait till the sunset comes
For shades that feel like the beat of drums –
Or like organ notes in their rise and fall –
Purple and orange and cardinal,
Or the peacock-green that turns soft and slow
To peacock-blue as the great stars show . . .
Sugar-gum boles flushed to peach-blow pink;
Blue-gums, tall at the clearing’s brink;
Ivory pillars, their smooth fine slope
Dappled with delicate heliotrope;
Grey of the twisted mulga-roots;
Golden-bronze of the budding shoots;
Tints of the lichens that cling and spread,
Nile-green, primrose, and palest red . . .
Sheen of the bronze-wing; blue of the crane;
Fawn and pearl of the lyrebird’s train;
Cream of the plover; grey of the dove –
These are the hues of the land I love.
Dorothea MacKellar
This is a lovely poem that you have selected and I especially like how you mention that you have investigated a poet that we explored in class more deeply. To improve your analysis technique always write why you say something e.g. you needed to say what viewpoint the poem looked at and why it was different.
Spring Awakening by Miriam Green
The reason I chose the poem Spring Awakening was because it stood out from the other poems, everything that is read leaves a clear image in the readers head. It is detailed well and it’s all positive. The connections I had with this poem was that it reminded me how good spring actually is and all the good things that a filled in with such a beautiful season. Miriam Green has used some poetic features in her poem Spring Awakening such as personification. For example ‘Of the birds singing’ gives the reader and idea what the birds are doing but in a more creative and catching way. At the end of the poem the poet has used repetition by writing ‘ With the wind, the wind.’ The poet may have written that to end the poem nicely with a flow.
Spring is the joy
Of the birds singing,
Raindrops trickling down the gum trees.
When spring is here I am alive,
Everything is rushing to hatch,
All animals,
All flowers,
Now fresh and fragrant.
Everything about spring is airy and new,
Flowing freely, fragile, but strong.
Nothing can break the happiness in spring,
The energy, the laughter, the joy.
Spring is the inspiration for artists,
Fine colors of the rainbow are
The most beautiful to me.
I love spring, the flowers and the rainbow,
the long green grass swaying gently
With the wind , the wind.
Are you sure ‘of the birds singing’ is personification?
I chose this poem because out of all the Australian poems I read, this one stood out the most to me. The connections I shared with this poem were the way the Australian outback and bushlands were described. I had a really good image and clear understanding of this poem. I learnt from this poem how beautiful Australia really is. The poet has used a lot of personification in this poem as she refers to Australia as ‘she/her’.
‘My Country’
by Dorothea Mackellar
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft, dim skies-
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror-
The wide brown land for me.
The stark white ring-barked forests
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
That filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendors,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
The reason I chose ‘The Australian Sunrise’ was because it sounded nicer than all the other poems I found. It describes what Australian sunrises look like really well. The poet makes the sunrise sound mysterious and beautiful. The poet uses personification in the poem quite a lot. For example “Waned the grey awakening that heralded the light” and “ The pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb”.
THE AUSTRALIAN SUNRISE
By James L Cuthbertson
The Morning Star paled slowly, the Cross hung low to the sea
And down the shadowy reaches the tide came swirling free.
The lustrous purple blackness of the soft Australian night
Waned in the grey awakening that heralded the light;
Still in the dying darkness, still in the forest dim
The pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb,
Till the sun came up from ocean, red with the cold sea mist,
And smote on the limestone ridges, and the shining tree-tops kissed;
Then the fiery Scorpion vanished, the magpie’s note was heard,
And the wind in the sheoak wavered and the honeysuckles stirred;
The airy golden vapour rose from the river breast,
The kingfisher came darting out of his crannied nest,
And the bulrushes and reed-beds put off their sallow grey
And burnt with cloudy crimson at the dawning of the day.
1. I chose this poem called ‘The Australian’ by William Henry Ogilvie. I chose it because I liked the way William described the poem as if Australia was a person, he used personification very well in this poem and I enjoyed his use of describing words and how it rhymes on the end of every second line which is what I like because I find poems with rhyme more eye catching and makes me enjoy the poem more. William describes Australia as “The bravest thing God ever made” and I like how he did that because it lets you understand how strong, brave and fearless Australia is. Williams poem really shows just how strong Australia really is and it’s a positive poem about Australia which is also very lovely.
a) The connections I found in this poem were The skies that arched his land were blue, His bush-born winds were warm and sweet, And yet from earliest hours he knew’ The tides of victory and defeat; From fierce floods thundering at his birth, From red droughts ravening while he played, He learned to fear no foes on earth – “The bravest thing God ever made!” because it really stood out to be and connected to me as it shows how strong Australia is and it shows a good strong side to Australia.
b) I learnt from this poem that Australia is a very strong country and if Australia was a person it would be a very strong fearless person.
c) This poem is broken up into four stanzas and is a personification poem.
The skies that arched his land were blue,
His bush-born winds were warm and sweet,
And yet from earliest hours he knew
The tides of victory and defeat;
From fierce floods thundering at his birth,
From red droughts ravening while he played,
He learned to fear no foes on earth –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
The bugles of the motherland
Rang ceaselessly across the sea,
To call him and his lean brown band
To shape imperial destiny;
He went, by youth’s grave purpose willed,
The goal unknown, the cost unweighed,
The promise of his blood fulfilled –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
We know – it is our deathless pride! –
The splendour of his first fierce blows,
How, reckless, glorious, undenied,
He stormed those steel-lined cliffs we know.
And none who saw him scale the height
Behind his reeking bayonet blade
Would rob him of his title-right –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
Bravest, where half the world of men
Are brave beyond all earth’s rewards,
So stoutly none shall charge again
Till the last breaking of the swords;
Wounded or hale, won home from the war,
Or yonder by the Lone Pine laid,
Give him his due forever more –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
By: W.H.Ogilvie
Well done Emma, you have successfully analysed this poem but go the next step and number your lines and use that as the reference in your analysis in the future.
I picked ‘The Australian Sunrise’ because I thoroughly enjoyed reading this poem and it brought back some fond memories into my head. After reading line 7 ‘Till the sun came up from the ocean, read with the sea mist’ I was reminded of a personal experience. Also it is written in a different historical period, the poet wrote it in the year 1880 after he migrated to Australia. It was interesting to compare this poem to the one we analysed in class ‘Australia’ by Ania Walwicz, although they are written in completely different times where the circumstances were changed, the poets share completely different views on their country. The poetic techniques included in this poem are rhythm, every second line rhymes creating a nice flow. There were also a few examples of personification, like in line 8 ‘and the shining tree-tops kissed’. I also found the first line fascinating, how the poet referred to the ‘The Cross’ as the constellation of the Southern Cross becoming lower in the sky with the backdrop of the morning sun.
The Australian Sunrise
1)The Morning Star paled slowly, the Cross hung low to the sea,
2)And down the shadowy reaches the tide came swirling free,
3) The lustrous purple blackness of the soft Australian night,
4) Waned in the grey awakening that heralded the light;
5) Still in the dying darkness, still in the forest dim,
6) The pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb,
7) Till the sun came up from ocean, red with the cold sea mist,
8) And smote on the limestone ridges, and the shining tree-tops kissed;
9) Then the fiery Scorpion vanished, the magpie’s note was heard,
10) And the wind in the sheoak wavered and the honeysuckles stirred;
11) The airy golden vapour rose from the river breast,
12) The kingfisher came darting out of his crannied nest,
13)And the bulrushes and reed-beds put off their sallow grey
14) And burnt with cloudy crimson at the dawning of the day.
The poem is by James Lister Cuthbertson.
I chose the poem ‘My Hat’ because the name initially intrigued me but once I read the poem I understood why it was labelled ‘My Hat’ I found out why someone would write a poem about a hat. I feel that this man felt strongly about his hat and loves it dearly. The poem had many interesting aspects and made me look at the hat in a new perspective not as some old thing found on the side of the road but as something that was loved and well worn. Some of the poetic techniques used are that every second line rhymes he also used a lot of alliteration as well as metaphors.
My Hat!
The hats of a man may be many
In the course of a varied career,
And some have been worth not a penny
And some have been devilish dear;
But there’s one hat I always remember
When sitting alone by the fire.
In the depth of a Northern November,
Because it fulfilled my desire.
It was old, it was ragged and rotten
And many years out of mode,
Like a thing that a tramp had forgotten
And left at the side of a road.
The boughs of the mulga had torn it,
It’s ribbon was naught but lace,
And old swaggie would not have worn it
Without a sad smile on his face.
When I took off the hat to the ladies
It was rather with sorrow than swank,
And often I wished it in Hades
When the gesture drew only a blank;
But for swatting a fly on the tucker
Or lifting a quart from the fire
Or belting the ribs of a bucker
It was all that a man could desire.
When it ought to have gone to the cleaner’s
(And stayed there, as somebody said!)
It was handy for flogging the weaners
From the drafting-yard into the shed.
And oft it has served as a dish for
A kelpie in need of a drink;
It was all that a fellow could wish for
In many more ways than you’d think.
It was spotted and stained by the weather,
There was more than one hole in the crown,
And it made little difference whether
The rim was turned up or turned down.
It kept out the rain (in a fashion)
And kept off the sun (more or less),
Bt it merely comanded compassion
Considered as part of one’s dress.
Though it wasn’t a hat you would bolt with
Or be anxious to borrow or hire,
It was useful to blindfold a colt with
Or handle a bit of barbed wire.
Though the world may have thought it improper
To wear such old rubbish as that,
I’d have scorned the best London-made topper
In exchange for my old battered hat.
Will Ogilvie
Australian Poetry Anthology
1. I investigated many websites with the heading Australian poems and while searching came across a poem that really stood out to me. Drought by William Henry Ogilvie. A poem about drought and how Australia’s outback suffers from this appalling crisis. This poem stood out to me as it resembled the way Australia is looked upon. Australia is well known to be the driest country, but it connected to me as this poem reminded me about our shack up at Moonta. Moonta is a small town that has dusty roads but is very calm and a wonderful place for a holiday. Having Moonta’s scenery in my mind, it helped me picture what this poet was describing Australia as. Moonta is a special place to me and by reading this poem it made me realise how special Australia’s outback is to Will! It also shows how he wants to help the situation of Drought!
This poem rhythm is slow paced, which helps you picture and analyse what the poet is trying to say. Majority of the poem is rhyme. This helps the reader use the poet’s descriptive language and convert it into their own meaning. For example ‘My road is fenced with the bleached, white bones’ was used to show how the road has fences alongside with bright white paint covering it. Alliteration was also used. An example of this is ‘My hurrying hoofs in the night go by’. This phrase is saying how he puffs during the night hoping the rain will come soon. Repetition was used as well to create a sense of meaning for particular things in the poem. For example ‘They have carried their outposts far, far out’ was used to impact the length.
This poem made me learn that drought is affecting Australia and Ogilvie is really concerned about it! I feel as this poem has great meaning!
Drought by William Henry Ogilvie
My road is fenced with the bleached, white bones
And strewn with the blind, white sand,
Beside me a suffering, dumb world moans
On the breast of a lonely land.
On the rim of the world the lightnings play,
And the heat-waves quiver and dance,
And the breath of the wind is a sword to slay
And the sunbeams each a lance.
I have withered the grass where my hot hoofs tread,
I have whitened the sapless trees,
I have driven the faint-heart rains ahead
To hide in their soft green seas.
I have bound the plains with an iron band,
I have stricken the slow streams dumb!
To the charge of my vanguards who shall stand?
Who stays when my cohorts come?
The dust-storms follow and wrap me round;
The hot winds ride as a guard;
Before me the fret of the swamps is bound
And the way of the wild-fowl barred.
I drop the whips on the loose-flanked steers;
I burn their necks with the bow;
And the green-hide rips and the iron sears
Where the staggering, lean beasts go.
I lure the swagman out of the road
To the gleam of a phantom lake;
I have laid him down, I have taken his load,
And he sleeps till the dead men wake.
My hurrying hoofs in the night go by,
And the great flocks bleat their fear
And follow the curve of the creeks burnt dry
And the plains scorched brown and sere.
The worn men start from their sleepless rest
With faces haggard and drawn;
They cursed the red Sun into the west
And they curse him out of the dawn.
They have carried their outposts far, far out,
But–blade of my sword for a sign!–
I am the Master, the dread King Drought,
And the great West Land is mine!
‘The Australian’ by William Henry Ogilvie
The reason why I chose the poem “The Australian” is because I believe William Henry Ogilvie described Australia with great effect ad as if it was a person. William used great personification, rhyme and it flowed very well. “The bravest thing God ever made” is what William describes Australia as. This helps the reader give a better understanding of what Australia is.
The connections I found in the poem included the first stanza. This stanza stood out compared to the rest of the poem as it is the opening and very strong. I can relate and deeply connect to the words used. After reading the stanza I learnt that Australia is a very strong, fearless and happy country. This poem is a personification poem with rhyme and is broken up into four strong worded stanzas.
The skies that arched his land were blue,
His bush-born winds were warm and sweet,
And yet from earliest hours he knew
The tides of victory and defeat;
From fierce floods thundering at his birth,
From red droughts ravening while he played,
He learned to fear no foes on earth –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
The bugles of the motherland
Rang ceaselessly across the sea,
To call him and his lean brown band
To shape imperial destiny;
He went, by youth’s grave purpose willed,
The goal unknown, the cost unweighed,
The promise of his blood fulfilled –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
We know – it is our deathless pride! –
The splendour of his first fierce blows,
How, reckless, glorious, undenied,
He stormed those steel-lined cliffs we know.
And none who saw him scale the height
Behind his reeking bayonet blade
Would rob him of his title-right –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
Bravest, where half the world of men
Are brave beyond all earth’s rewards,
So stoutly none shall charge again
Till the last breaking of the swords;
Wounded or hale, won home from the war,
Or yonder by the Lone Pine laid,
Give him his due forever more –
“The bravest thing God ever made!”
I picked the poem ‘Waratah and Wattle’ by Henry Lawson because the name of the poem was intriguing and the poem held alot of feeling and expression about Australia. I can relate to this poem because in the third line of the first part of the poem it says “Though friends may desert me, and kindred disown, my country will never do that to me” I can relate to this because being young I did not have many friends and they would tease me and leave me but my family would always stand beside me and this shows to me that although his friends have left him Australia will never do that to him and Australia is his friend. The techniques that are used are repetition, metaphors,rhyme and imagery.
Waratah and Wattle by Henry Lawson
Though poor and in trouble I wander alone,
With a rebel cockade in my hat;
Though friends may desert me, and kindred disown,
My country will never do that!
You may sing of the Shamrock, the Thistle, and Rose,
Or the three in a bunch if you will;
But I know of a country that gathered all those,
And I love the great land where the Waratah grows,
And the Wattle bough blooms on the hill.
Australia! Australia! so fair to behold
While the blue sky is arching above;
The stranger should never have need to be told,
That the Wattle-bloom means that her heart is of gold,
And the Waratah red blood of love.
Australia! Australia! most beautiful name,
Most kindly and bountiful land;
I would die every death that might save her from shame,
If a black cloud should rise on the strand;
But whatever the quarrel, whoever her foes,
Let them come! Let them come when they will!
Though the struggle be grim, ’tis Australia that knows,
That her children shall fight while the Waratah grows,
And the Wattle blooms out on the hill.
I chose the poem ‘Waltzing Matilda’ written By Banjo Paterson because I know this poem well and as it also reminds me of my home in Australia. This poem is also a famous song. Paterson has used imagery and repetition in his poem and I find it very effect as it paints a picture in my head about the outback of Australia and it really gets his message across.
(Carrying a Swag)
Oh! there once was a swagman camped in the Billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,
“Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag —
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag,
“You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!”
Down came the Squatter a-riding his thoroughbred;
Down came Policemen — one, two, and three.
“Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in the tucker-bag?
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”
But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,
“Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”
I chose this poem called ‘Mist’ written by Mark O’Connor because it was about nature. The way it was written is a unique way and that makes it special. This poem talks about nature. It is about the mist and about it was thought to be, it also talks about what else is happening in its surroundings. I did not make many connections with the poem but when I read it, I think of beautiful nature scenery. The poetic techniques that are used in this poem are similes, imagery, metaphors and personification.
MIST
Wading through mists of the mountains’ breath
the wet white air,
once thought to be spirits of the dead,
and adding our quota … This chill
that pulls neat water from the air
—a touched leaf trickles,
rolls tears along the blade.
Then the brief downpour.
Gullies, like washing machines switched on,
churn soil downhill.
The bush path is a tunnel into mist,
where every spider’s web is seen
flagged out with silver buoys.
The lorrikeet shuffles dejected feathers,
sipping weak nectar. A huntsman
crosses the path, half crushed
beneath the rain’s broom;
it walks on grass stalks, a blind tightrope walker
feeling in eight directions.
Hairs on a banksia leaf
repel drops and store the dryness
(tomorrow there may be fire).
Monarch Butterflies
This poem is written by Judith Beveridge and I chose this poem because it had good use of metalanguage. When I read this poem it only reminds me of butterflies as this poem is written about a ‘Monarch’ butterfly and I didn’t have a lot of connections with this poem. The language techniques she used were similes, metaphors, personification
I love the way they open into two broad wings,
trembling like paper and so thin —
you’d think they could only live wrapped up.
But for the brief time they are open
and given to sunlight, they make their way
drifting with the wind — a litter
above traffic, above newsstands.
But where do they go, yellow with pollen
the way our hands are black?
They travel at night over water
by resting on anything floating
and carry their wings into the open boulevards.
You’d think they could be stopped
by any breeze stronger than a child’s breath;
or that a million years might pass
before they lift out of trees
like leaves turning red and weightless.
These bright lapels that are so briefly
matched to the flowers, they hover
for the sweet sharp scent; and tremble
as they place along tip ends
a weightless eyelash. They mate
and close their wings privately a moment
like letters. Passing from one place
to the next they nod and lift into headwinds
to cross over borders. You’d believe
they’re the airborne consorts of only
saintly souls, of the just and merciful sovereigns.
They fly, they alight one on top
of the other, they hang in high chains —
they arrive like streamers.