For The Fire Poem Analysis

The immense power of a text is gained through the distinctive ideas portrayed within. John Foulcher, Australian poet and teacher, outlines his observations of the environment surrounding him and the conflict within it through his poetry. These poems include ideas such as the brutality in nature trumping its beauty, as represented in the poems For the Fire and Loch Ard Gorge. As well as how observing nature's savagery can give insight into human mortality, as is prominently expressed in Loch Ard Gorge, and lastly the mundanity and complexity of society compared to the simplistic divinity of the natural world as displayed in Summer Rain. The distinctive ideas portrayed in these texts create powerful meaning and affect those reading them, allowing

others to learn more about themselves and get a deeper insight into their own lives.

The essential immoral savagery of nature can underlie its pristine beauty. This idea is expressed prominently in John Foulcher’s For the Fire and Loch Ard Gorge. In For the Fire, Foulcher represents this idea through his use of metaphor, “a kookaburra hacks with its axe-blade beak.” This metaphor represents the beak in weaponised form, as it is compared with a violent axe. This evokes a sense of threat and intimidation towards the kookaburra, which contrasts to societies general interpretation of the ‘laughing kookaburra,’ thereby challenging the reader's perceptions of beauty in the natural world as mixed views of the kookaburra are expressed. Similarly, in Loch Ard Gorge, Foulcher uses strong visual imagery, “savage dark fish are tearing their prey apart, blood phrasing the water decked with light,” to communicate the violence of the ‘savage’ fish to the audience in a visual, gruesome manner. Thereby evoking a feeling of disgust towards the situation, as a visual description of blood is shown and Foulcher uses provoking, gruesome adjectives to communicate the fish's brutality. Foulcher expresses these ideas to communicate the abilities of nature, and provide a necessary ‘reality check’ for the readers, to review the beauty they see nature and understand the barbarity at the heart of everything, ultimately. Although ruthlessness and brutality that nature can show is unintentional and immoral, this harm is a large part of the cycle nature needs to survive and thrive, and these factors can counteract is assumed beauty and innocence.

Observing the brutality of nature can reveal significant insights into human mortality.

Loch Ard Gorge presents a persona walking along a precipice and observing what is around him. Foulcher forces responders to examine their own mortality and insignificance within the natural world with the line “hammocks of bone and meat, lugged from the sea and dumped in the soil,” this brutal visual imagery portrays how weak and defenceless humans are when compared to the force of nature and the actuality of how mortal we are in this life. This creates a sense of angst for readers, as they are made to examine the temporality of life, and how quickly it can be lost. Likewise, Foulcher uses metaphor with “sheep and cattle surround the place, kicking tufts of unconcern,” to show the indifference of nature towards human suffering and our irrelevance towards the natural world, such as the human lives lost through the shipwreck demonstrated in Loch Ard Gorge “a century ago, there was a shipwreck here. Its gravestones hump the grass.” These lives are dehumanised and therefore desensitised, to show further effects of the insignificance of the human life as seen through the eyes of the natural environment. The savagery of nature can outweigh human mortality and this can be seen through examining the natural

environment.

The mundanity and lack of individuality in society is unnecessarily complex compared to the simplistic divinity of the natural world.

Foulcher’s Summer Rain represents a juxtaposed view of suburbia towards the natural environment throughout his poem, as he explains societies daily repetitive tasks. This idea is expressed through Foulcher’s use of simile, in the stanza “steam rising from ovens and showers like mist across a swampland.” This simile makes the comparison between average tasks completed in the urban world, such as cooking or showering to a natural situation such as a swampland, creating a feeling of bother and discomfort for the readers, as swamplands are generally humid, insect ridden and muddy. This effectively makes the readers feel this way, not of the swamplands that are compared, but of the tasks in the home that are conveyed. Similarly, Foulcher uses simile in “clutter on the highway like abacus beads. No one dares overtake,” to illustrate the lack of free will in society as abacus beads are on a set path, there is no freedom or individuality. This demonstrates how where everything is busy and cramped, there is no room in society to notice the small simplistic divinities in the natural world around them. The complexity and mundanity of society causes the simplistic beauties of nature to be

overlooked.

John Foulcher’s poems show powerful ideas throughout his texts such as the immoral savagery of nature underlying its initial beauty, and observing the brutality of nature revealing significant insights into life and death and the complexity of society outweighing the simplistic beauty of nature. John Foulcher’s poems inspire readers and cause them to examine their own lives and limitations with them, whilst opening them up to ideas wider than they may grasp currently. “When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” John F. Kennedy.