Similarities Between My Country And The New True Anthem

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My Country vs. The New True Anthem "The Bush" is an iconic term in Australia. What is it about 'the bush' that is so special to Australians? The bush and its unique landscape was something that distinguished Australia from the European sceneries familiar to many new immigrants. Australians romanticized the bush in their attempt to establish self – identity. The Australian landscape is romanticized through poems like Dorothea Mackellar's "My Country". However, rather than appreciating the uniqueness of the Australian Bush, colonial Australians have instead exploited and used the landscape for financial gain. This is most clearly expressed through the voice of Aboriginal poet Kevin Gilbert, who through his poem "The New True Anthem" displays white Australia's disregard for his homeland. …show more content…

This poem expresses Mackellar’s deep passion and love for “her” country without touching on racial issues, rights or custodianship of the land. Australian born and resisting the identification of her British heritage, Mackellar patriotically declares Australia her own by rejecting the beauty of the British landscape through contrasting it with the romantic ideal of her "sunburnt" country. Mackellar presents to the readers the values and attitudes of a newly federated white Australia with her romanticisation of the Australian landscape. Mackellar claims Australia as her own by marking out her territory and declaring her love for it. This is achieved with the use of numerous poetic devices such as; juxtaposition, alliteration and personification. In the opening stanza Mackellar distances herself from England as she refers to the people as “yours”. This is compared to the title of the poem ‘My Country’, a first person pronoun used by Mackellar to indicate the close connection she feels towards

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