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Clancy Of The Overflow

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The Author Banjo Paterson creates a persona that has a passion to live a free, effortless life as a drover. The poem is illustrated to be set in the late 1800s and is set in a pallid, dirty city. Patterson’s purpose in authoring this poem is using the persona story to indicate his passion towards the outback and it’s carefree lifestyle. Patterson intends for the reader to understand his passion towards the outback. Clancy of the Overflow is a poem about Patterson's wish to life a free life. The poem portrays the comparison between country life and city life. Paterson wishes for the peaceful and simple life that he imagines Clancy, the drover, must be experiencing. The poem ends with a sense of regret as the narrator realizes that he is …show more content…

The persona, situated in his office, receives the news that his former acquaintance Clancy has gone droving in Queensland. The poem depicts Clancy's life on the road as a drover, amongst the natural beauty of the outback, surrounded by the "murmur of the breezes" and "the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars". The use of metaphor’s in describing Clancy's experience highlights his easy going life. "The foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city", "the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street." Paterson uses brief descriptions of both rural and urban landscapes to anchor the poem's central concern- the desire for a life that allows us to grow and flourish, amidst natural beauty and good company. In conclusion, Paterson's "Clancy of the Overflow" is an ode to the timeless values of simplicity, freedom, and nature. The poem contrasts urban and rural life, using poetic devices to emphasize the superiority of natural living as metaphors and similes. Through the narrator's regretful reflections, the poem presents a yearning for a simpler, more meaningful existence, one that can be found in the outback, amidst the "vision splendid of the sunlit plains," and the warm company of friends and loved ones. The enduring popularity of this poem speaks to the fundamental human desire for a life suffused with natural

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The postcard is the stimulus for the persona’s continuous pursuit of his identity. He has a dynamic identity which constantly changes throughout the poem, as he can neither identify himself as Australian, nor Polish like his parents. The ever-changing nature and absence of a fixed identity is conveyed through the personification, “I never knew you/Except in the third person”. The poet does not have any recollection of life in Poland, but is constantly reminded of it through the postcard which symbolises the connection between the past and how it has an impact in shaping his identity. The psychological barrier hindering his attempt to form a concrete identity is the interactions with his past, forming uncertainty in whether he should reject or accept his Polish identity.

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‘Clancy of the overflow’ by Banjo Patterson is a poem which connotes the views and values of the urban areas of Australia and the Australian Bush. The poem is set in the past, it was published in 1889. The poem is about a person imagining in his office about Clancy having a great life in Northern Sydney. Obliquely, Banjo Patterson talks about the different types of personalities people have, beauty of nature and mankind. In the poem ‘Clancy of the overflow’ the poet attempts to make the reader visualise how ideal the Australian bush is and the urban lifestyle and areas of Australia are too compact.

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