Category: Critical Blogs

Find similarities between two poems from the topic ‘Indigenous Australia’ and discuss why you think their teachings are still relevant today.

On By Anna CastagnellaIn Australian Literature, Best Blog, Critical Blogs1 Comment

For my last blog I decided to go back to our first topic ‘Indigenous Australia’ and create a question that allowed me to analyse the writing from this time with great depth. Both Eliza Dunlop and Judith Wright wrote poetry that sympathises with the Aboriginal people and advocated their rights, despite being of European descent. I think this is a pivotal detail to note as it amplifies the need to overcome racial differences and support all people which is still a concept that needs further development in our modern society.

Eliza Dunlop’s poem ‘The Aboriginal Mother’ (1838) was written as a protest against the Myall Creek Massacre, thus making Dunlop one of the first Europeans to defend Aboriginal rights and appreciate their culture. This poem is a dramatic monologue of an Aboriginal mother trying to protect her child from the violence that Aboriginal people suffered due to the massacre, evoking an emotive response from readers as maternal instincts transcend cultural differences. This is made evident through, “now, hush thee – or the pale-faced men will hear thy piercing wail, and what would then thy mother’s tears or feeble strength avail!”. The exclamation highlights the persona’s desperation to hide from ‘pale-faced’ English men. Her maternal impulse to protect her child emphasises her humanity in order to condemn the mistreatment of Aboriginal people who are as equally human as white men. Another example of this that really resonated with me is the line “to bring thy people’s murder cry before the Christian’s God”. The religious allusion questions the morality of white people’s actions which do not align with their apparent religious beliefs. This critique of one’s morality is still crucial today as we continue to strive for justice and equality in a damaged society.

Dunlop’s empathy with the experiences of Aboriginal people is mirrored in Wright’s poem ‘Rockace’ through her acclaimed quote; “the mountain has its own meaning”. To me this line means that the mountain, symbolic of Aboriginal culture, obtains a quality that is valuable and should be preserved. This teaching is relevant today as discrimination, although to a lesser extent, still exists. Therefore, we need to allow for all cultures to co-exist, and to respect our differences rather than destroy another’s culture, metaphorically conveyed by Wright saying she does not want to “chisel things into new shapes”.

Overall, these two poets motivated me to seek change in our society that remains flawed. They both use the same context to establish a similar teaching about empathising with others and supporting cultural differences which is a concept that I believe needs to be reinvigorated.

Discuss what you think are the key differences and benefits of poetry that is “transparent” versus poetry that is “opaque”

On By Anna CastagnellaIn Australian Literature, Critical Blogs1 Comment

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.