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Bruce Dawe Poem

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Greetings children and welcome to the English conference. Today I would like to introduce Bruce Dawe and analyse three of his poems, Katrina, Homecoming and Drifters. Bruce Dawe was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne, 1930. He was educated at the Northcote High School in Melbourne. After leaving school at 16, Dawe worked in various occupations including a labourer, farmhand, clerk, sawmill-hand, gardener and postman before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1959. He left the RAAF in 1968 and began a teaching career at Downlands College, Toowoomba in 1969. Bruce Dawe has four university degrees, BA, MLitt, MA and PhD. Dawe has been awarded fourteen different awards for poetry throughout his life.
‘Katrina’ is a very personal poem of Bruce Dawe …show more content…

The poem is about his father moving place to place looking for work. In the poem his father’s wife has no control over where they will be going. The first line starts with “One day soon” this line means that they know they will be moving some day but it is unknown when. The family in the poem are unable to establish themselves and settle down or “establish their roots” as they keep moving on a regular basis. Some of the family members don’t understand the meaning of the move, the younger ones are excited about the move and the older ones are in tears, as they want to stay. Towards the end of the poem, it states “past the blackberry-canes with their last shrivelled fruit” is more evidence that the family is not in one spot long enough to have a healthy life or “grow a healthy crop.” Many lines in the poem show examples of imagery including “Green tomatoes” which are pre-mature or preparing for uncertain future, “Ute bumps down the drive” life is not smooth, “Shrivelled fruit” unfulfilled dreams and “Hands bright with berries” hope of new situations.
The poem by Bruce Dawe, ‘Homecoming’ refers to the Battle of Saigon and the large amount of people that died in the war. The title of the poem, ‘Homecoming’ is ironic as people usually think of homecoming as a happy time but in this case, it is not. The last line of the poem says, ‘they’re bringing them home, now, too late, too early.’ This means that those that died in

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