Homecoming by Bruce Dawe

779 Words2 Pages

Homecoming by Bruce Dawe

The poem 'Homecoming' originates from Bruce Dawe. Its journey depicts the aspects of war and its devastations upon human individuals. Using mainly the Vietnam War as a demonstration for its destructions.

Within this poem Bruce Dawe dramatizes the homecoming of Australian veterans' bodies from Vietnam. This is clearly an anti-war poem, reproducing the sentiments of those who opposed the time when this war occurred.

The poem starts of in what seems to be a monotone. With many simple verbs such as 'picking... bringing.... rolling ... whining...' are used to depicts how days after days, it is all the same. The bodies of the soldiers, days after days are all monotonously follow the same routine and being treated in a somewhat a seemingly cold and offhanded way. These simple words are repetitive; they aim to enhance the effect of imprinting a strong image within the readers? visual imagination of the relentless pace. Forcing the readers into feeling this great injustice for these soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for their country, within the war. Yet their bodies are treated no less than animals, following a strict routine of piling up in trucks, convoys, tagging them, giving them names, and boarding them onto the jets so they can finally return to their beloved home. This is their homecoming. The tone of this particular poem is apparent here. Within the title itself ?Homecoming? is irony. When homecoming is spoken of, an image of happi...

Show More
Related

  • Up the Wall, by Bruce Dawe

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bruce Dawe the common people’s poet has been influenced by a diverse range of experiences contributing to his wide range of subject matter. Dawe’s interests are quite eclectic yet his poetic “home base” is his interest in the lives of ordinary Australians, the experiences they go through and topics affecting them. Thus most of his poems are easily read by everyday Australians due to the simple yet effective vocabulary. Some of these topics include poems about suburbia, loneliness, old age and sport. Bruce Dawe is also strongly pacifist with his feelings on war most strongly pronounced in the poem “Homecoming”. Dawe’s interest in society is most likely due to his experience of being born into a lower class family his father having the menial job of a labourer. He also left school early having to do many menial jobs. Dawe’s poetry strongly focuses on the experiences of everyday working class Australians and thus his target audience is vast.

    Read More

  • Beyond the Battlefield by David Blight

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.

    Read More

  • Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the story of an African boy, Kek, who loses his father and a brother and flees, leaving his mother to secure his safety. Kek, now in Minnesota, is faced with difficulties of adapting to a new life and of finding his lost mother. He believes that his mother still lives and would soon join him in the new found family. Kek is taken from the airport by a caregiver who takes him to live with his aunt. It is here that Kek meets all that amazed him compared to his home in Sudan, Africa. Home of the brave shows conflicts that Kek faces. He is caught between two worlds, Africa and America. He feels guilty leaving behind his people to live in a distant land especially his mother, who he left in the midst of an attack.

    Read More

  • Pride by Dahlia Ravikovitch

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Frank And April Wheeler In Revolutionary Road

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for a healthy couple identity; however, the more the Wheelers hide behind their desired roles, the more they lose sense of their true selves as individuals and as a pair.

    Read More

  • Tim O'Brien

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim O’Brien is an accredited writer who writes mostly about war. Although, I can conclude that Tim O’ Brien is different from other war writers because he brings war stories to life. O’ Brien does not explain the strategies of the war, he describes the guys that he fought amongst in the war. His novel, “The Things They Carried” is an emotional retelling of the Vietnam War. He allows readers to experience the thoughts, feelings, and conflicts of the characters throughout the book. By allowing readers to experience the character’s moods, readers are able to relate to the characters through their own memories, thoughts, and feelings. I related to many of his stories, especially, “On A Rainy River”, “Stockings”, and “The Things They Carried.” Throughout this paper, I will express my reflection of the short stories, “On A Rainy River”, “Stockings”, and “The Things They Carried.”

    Read More

  • Lion King vs Hamlet

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    The leading roles in each of the stories had a corresponding role in the other. The corresponding characters shared a number of similarities, but it was the ways in which they were different that determined their fate and that of the kingdom. In Hamlet, the prince is Hamlet. He is in deep grieving of his father’s death. He is angry because he believes that everyone has already forgotten how great of a king his father was. Hamlet does not know for sure who is responsible for his father’s death, but he suspects Claudius who is his uncle and the new king. Hamlet decides that if he can convince everyone that he is insane, then maybe he will be able to get someone to tell him more about his father’s murder. In The Lion King, Simba is the prince. Simba’s father, Mufasa, is killed after he falls from a cliff into a herd of hyenas. Simba falls into a deep depression after his uncle Scar twists things around and convinces Simba that he is the one responsible for the Mufasa’s death. Simba can not deal with what has happened and he runs away from the kingdom.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Claudius And Mr Harvey

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    Claudius and Mr. Harvey are alike in many ways, although they differ in some aspects as well. They are both the villain of a novel or play, even though they differ in their reasoning for committing their crimes. Mr. Harvey, from The Lovely Bones and Claudius from Hamlet both commit a murder, although Mr. Harvey reflects a more impulsive drive for him to do it while Claudius does it for specific items, like power and a woman. But they both show that the villain archetype is not always the evil-laughing, cape-wearing mastermind who knows exactly what he wants. Both characters don't quite rest in the villain stereotype, due to the misplaced remorse of Claudius and the blurry personality changes of Mr. Harvey. But they are also broadening the spectrums

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    “War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead,” (80). In the fiction novel The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien reminisces fighting in the Vietnam War and the aftermath of the war with his platoon mates through short stories and memories. He goes in depth about the emotional trauma and physical battles they face, what they carry, and how Vietnam and war has changed them forever. O’Brien’s stories describe the harsh nature of the Vietnam War, and how it causes soldiers to lose their innocence, to become guilt-ridden and regretful, and to transform into a paranoid shell of who they were before the war.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Poem 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...are a repeat of the title, and also and added line to clarify the actual meaning of the poem. Owen mocks the idea of war being an honorable and nationalistic way to support ones country as he describes a situation in which death is detailed in gruesome detail. This poem is harsh, yet effective in displaying the acts of war and the affect the it has on all of the people involved, especially the foot soldiers who served in the front line, the trenches.

    Read More

  • Effects & Aftermath of the Vietnam War

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    Harvard, Sitikoff. "The Postwar Impact of Vietnam." Modern American Poetry n. pag. Web. 21 Mar 2010. .

    Read More

  • Lion King And Hamlet Comparison Essay

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet and Lion King are the same and different in many differents ways. Some ways that they are the same is that. In hamlet the brother kills the king (Old Hamlet), and in Lion King scar kills his brother Mufasa. Some differences are that in the lion king it ended happy and in hamlet it didn't end good because hamlet died and his mother did to but he did get his revenge on his uncle. These are just some of the ways that they are.

    Read More

  • Hamlet and The Lion King

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    The characters in The Lion King closely parallel Hamlet.  Simba, the main character in The Lion King, embodies Hamlet, He is the son of the King and rightful heir to the throne.  The King of the Pridelands, Mufasa, parallels Hamlet Senior, who is killed by the uncle figure.  In The Lion King, the uncle is Scar, and in Hamlet, the uncle figure is Claudius.  Laertes, the henchman and right-hand man of Claudius, becomes, in the movie, the Hyenas, Bansai, Shenzi, and Ed.  The Hyenas collectively act as hero-worshippers to Scar, loyal subjects, and fellow doers-in-evil.  They support Scar completely, just as Laertes supports Claudius.  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the comic reliefs of Hamlet, and in The Lion King, this role is fulfilled by Timon and Pumbaa, who are a meercat and warthog, respectively.  Both sets compliment each other, complete each other's sentences, act as caretakers to Hamlet/Simba, and are comical to the point of being farcical.  The role of Horatio, Hamlet's right-hand man, is fulfilled in The Lion King by Nala.  Nala concentrates on the aspect that Simba is the rightful King and that it is his responsibility to ascend to the throne.  She is his best friend and someone whom he trusts.  Just as Horatio loyally follows Hamlet, Nala is completely loyal to Simba.  Not only are there ties of friendship, but there is also an element of respect and reverence in both friendships.  Horatio and Nala both know that they are friends and loyal followers of the rightful king.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Agamemnon And John F Kennedy

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first common element that was observed in the text was seen in Aristotle's components of tragedy it is that all three men were leaders, or men of high status and value. They were men that others looked up to for inspiration and motivation. John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Agamemnon were both rulers of a state and Hamlet was a Prince,but still a man of high status and power, making the similarity that they all played a curial role in society. The difference is that JFK was an elected official of a Modern state. Agamemnon was a king; and Hamlet was a Prince of

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Hamlet Essays: Claudius - Guilty or Innocent?

    432 Words  | 1 Pages

    William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play that tells of a young man, Hamlet, who wanted revenge for the death of his father. After speaking with his father's spirit, Hamlet was led to believe that the person who murdered his father was his uncle, Claudius. Claudius kills his brother mainly because of jealousy, the crown, the queen and a hatred of his brother. Therefore Claudius is guilty of the murder of his brother.

    Read More

More about Homecoming by Bruce Dawe

Open Document