In my second tutorial on Australian Literature, we were introduced to the concept of ‘transparent’ poetry as opposed to poetry that is ‘opaque’. Transparent poetry is much easier to comprehend as it is straightforward. We are able to gather the meaning behind transparent poetry relatively quickly as it is usually explicitly stated. This was evident when we read Lisa Bellear’s ‘Woman of the Dreaming’ which explores the notion of being unable to find the soul and our necessity to reclaim our spirit. The poem instantly addresses this idea as Bellear begins with “my sweet woman of the Dreaming, where is your soul, I need to surround your body with my spirit, the spirit of the embodiment of love, anger, pain…” elucidating how being open to emotions allow us to rediscover our spirit and soul. This message is further established throughout the rest of the poem, however, due to the transparency of Bellear’s writing, we were able to gather the meaning behind the poem within the first stanza. To contrast, Judith Wright’s poem, ‘Niggers Leap, New England’ was deliberately elusive and what we would call opaque poetry. Subsequently, I had to think a lot harder to gather what the poem was trying to convey. Wright brings attention to the exploitation and suffering that the Aboriginal people have faced through profound metaphoric and symbolic language. For example, “did we not know their blood channelled our rivers, and the black dust our crops ate was their dust?” refers to how the Aboriginal people were killed on the environment we eat and drink from, hence why she says that we eat their dust. Therefore, Wright’s poem is an explicit example of opaque poetry as we have to deconstruct the poem before we can be enlightened by it’s message.