Good morning/afternoon Ms Kondekakis and fellow students. The song I have chosen is I was only 19 ( A walk in the green light) by Redgum. Released in March 1983, Redgum lead guitarist John Schumann wrote the song based on experiences and hardships he heard from from veterans who were fighting in the Vietnam war in 1955-1975.The song was first sung at a concert which was performed after the Australian Vietnam veterans “welcome home parade” which was held in Sydney on 3rd october 1987. Almost 60,000 australians, including ground troops, air force, and navy personnel, served in Vietnam. 521 died as a result of the war and 3,000 were wounded.
John Schumann is one of the very few songwriters who has changed the way a nation thinks. John first
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came to national attention in 1980 as Red Gums lead singer songwriter. In the following years, John recorded nine albums, and with Redgum toured the UK, Europe, and Ireland where he’s songs are still played. In 27 years in Australian music, as a member of Redgum and as a solo artist, John Schumann has received almost every award the industry has to offer. Some of those include: 2 golden guitar awards, a pater award, a mo award, 2 APRA awards and a number of gold and platinum awards. The song follows the experiences and trauma of a young, 19 year old Australian man from the gruelling military training to the deadly jungles of Vietnam.
The song also powerfully illustrates the after effects of his experience in Vietnam.
“I was only 19” includes a range of effective language features. An important feature is alliteration. For instance, in the first line of the song, alliteration is evident here with ‘ Passing out parade at puckapunyal’ - a reference to the ceremony at the end of military training. Another effective language feature is the use of rhymes. For example, in the fifth verse each of the words on the end of a line rhymed with the next; ‘swore’ and ‘roar’ as well as ‘moon’ and ‘June’.
This song uses a range of different techniques to get the main message of the song across to the audience. Repetition is used in verses 2,4, and 8. “God help me, I was only nineteen”. The effect this gives is to emphasize how the composer is feeling. You feel the pain and the grieving the veterans went through whilst fighting for our country in the war. It makes you realize that some men and women were so young to go out and experience such things that no human being should go
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through. Another technique used in this song is a rhetorical question.
This is present in verse 4, “And you can tell me doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep? This line relates to the difficulty of sleeping experienced by many veterans and soldiers. The images of what they had seen and experienced stuck in their mind and causes sleep to evade them.A lot of imagery is used to make the audience really imagine what the composer has been through.In verse 5 “A four week operation when each step could mean your last one two legs” This was stating that he was on a four week mission through mines and each step was taken precaution, as there were mines everywhere, if you took the wrong step you could have had your legs blown to
pieces. In verse 5, the metaphor “It was a war within yourself” refers to the difficulty the soldiers faced in stepping forward, knowing that they could step on a landmine at any moment. The fear of losing your legs clashed with your sense of duty.Even after leaving the war it’s still a constant battle for veterans with the things that still play over and over in their head. There is also Personification- In verse 4 “Barking M16 that keeps saying ‘rest in peace’ this refers to the common night-time sound of a dog barking that’s interpreted by the ex-soldier as a gunfire. The meaning of this song is to protest the use of conscription and to demonstrate the feelings and trauma of a 19 year old Australian man who served in the Vietnam war. John Schumann didn’t go to Vietnam, but in 1983 he wrote a song that changed the way many Australians viewed the war and the veterans that fought in it. Schuman has reflected a lot on why Vietnam Veterans were treated with such disdain when they returned from the war, and why the song that he wrote, helped to change attitudes. I was only 19, is a very powerful song and shows the reality of war and how it can affect the rest of a soldier's life.
...he imagery of the more intensely-felt passages in the middle of the poem. Perhaps the poet is like someone at their journey's end, `all passion spent', recollecting in tranquillity some intimations of mortality?
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
All of this is brought to the reader by an abundant use of figurative language throughout the song. For Instance, the scaffold the man is standing on symbolizes his position in life (he is scared and wants to escape. In the third stanza, after describing the problems with his world and how he prays, he curses the windstorms. This is actually a metaphor for his mental confusion and despair. In the next stanza, the prestige of the boardroom is made evident by the allusion of it towards a pharoahs tomb. We know in the end that he has pulled it all together when he calls his “crystal clear canvas” (the windows) a “masterpiece” . He has given value to his work and thus, value to his life.
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
"He just got his music out of the air," said one neighbor. One cannot hear the word "ragtime" without thinking of the "King of Ragtime," Scott Joplin. He is clearly one forerunner in the field of American music, particularly at the turn of the twentieth century.
The narrator is presented as this strong figure at first, but the piece tears away this wall brick by brick. In stanza six when they are coming back from Mexico, the narrator says the drugs “might help him live longer.” The biggest turn of hopelessness is in stanza 8 for the narrator. His brother falls into a coma and his brother’s lover cries in his arms and he “Wonder(s) how much longer you will be able to be strong.”(Lassell 481) It only progresses only further when the narrator says: “Offer God anything to bring your brother back. Know you have nothing God could possibly want.”(Lassell 481) The narrator becomes almost emotionless during the funeral of his brother, and it shows that this sense of hopelessness has grown even larger, to the fact where he stands in silence and stares at the casket. During the funeral, he thinks to himself “Know that your brother 's life was not what you imagined.”(Lassell
Looking at verse six, and two, it is easy to see when they are singing “So do we, so do we” that fear takes over as all the injured dying men think that their families will never know what happened to them. They will be lost and forgotten forever. (A Tisket A
The second verse tells us about the many attempts the mentor has made to rejuvenate the teens life, ?Lay down a list of what is wrong/The things you've told him all along.? The last two lines in the second verse are repeated ?and pray to God he hears you/and pray to God he hears you? which is emphasizes the angst of the mentor because of the numerous times he has tried to save the teen.
Along with the imagery we get from the title, there is a lot of imagery within this poem. Let us start with the first three lines:
In my quest to gain as much knowledge of the business world as I can, I have come across another personal goal of mine: to overcome my immense fear of failure. Every regular human being has an innate fear of failing, whether it be because of societal pressure, or instinctually ingrained behaviors, it is present in everyone. The goal of taking this entrepreneurship class was originally to learn about creating your own business, but after reading Tina Seelig’s What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World, I have become driven to be able to step out of my comfort zone. This book covers a multitude of topics, nearly all boiling down to one lesson; Always take the risk.
Throughout the song the tone changes from a disappointed and unsatisfied feeling until it progresses into a hopeful and maturing tone. This transformation of tone follows the story almost perfectly and allows the reader to feel a connection to the transformation of the protagonist. This transformation from “expecting the world” (line 1) to realising that some things must happen for others to come into motion “the sun must set to rise” (line 24) is especially impactful and emotional when paired with the lines “ This could be para-para-paradise, para-para-paradise” that are repeated to show her newly established happiness and maturity. Ultimately, this progression from disappointed
The author’s use of imagery help put together the overall tone of the poem. The speaker describes hanging onto his father in stanza one. In stanza two, their stomping around knocked the pans off the shelf. The third stanza seems dark compared to the first two stanza. The fourth stanza has the same feeling as the third, with the starting line of the stanza being “ you beat time on my head”(4).
The rhyming scheme throughout, while present, and impactful on its own, is irregular and patchy; the structure is a "corruption" of a sonnet, a form often used in poems romanticising the war. This creates a very strong sense of chaos, and the idea of him "rebelling" against these poems that had come before. Aside from the rhyming scheme, the poem is also actually one line short; this is likely to add effect to the "O Jesus, make it stop!" of the line before, implying that it was "cut short" here. Whether this refers to a soldier narrating the poem falling, or Sassoon, possibly convalescing in hospital, shaking himself out of his trance, is up to interpretation. This last line especially is very memorable, creating a strong, lasting impression on the reader.
The first stanza begins to set the mood. The first line uses the adjective idle to describe his tears. The
The song accomplishes such a thing by taking the approach of a man who knows he is dying, and who takes a nice approach to it. Before the man dies and gets to experience the beauty of heaven, he explains to his loved ones that he doesn't want them to cry for him when he is gone but rather be happy for him. Images of different seasons of the year to explain the process of growing older. Images that depict the fading of light in a persons soul transforming into darkness. Images that the reader can perceive as vivid actions.