Oodgeroo Noonuccal Now

Good morning/afternoon everyone. Today we are looking at the poem ‘Then and Now’ written by Indigenous Australian, Oodgeroo Noonuccal. This is a free verse poem based on Noonuccal’s experiences growing up in a European civilised town.
Then and now has 3 stanzas and is a free verse poem because there is no rhyme pattern of consistent rhythm. Can anybody give me an example of a line length in this poem? As you can see there are many variations of line lengths in this poem giving it an uneven line length and rhythm. While Noonuccal doesn’t use rhyme, she does use a lot of repetition to create rhythm and emphasis.
In this poem, Noonuccal compares her tribe to the town that she lives in now. She grew up in a town full of European settlers that forced all Indigenous people to work the ‘white way’ and follow their values and beliefs. The poet expresses her dislike for the ‘white way’ by comparing the happy and carefree nature of her tribe to the busy and complicated way of the Europeans. Throughout the poem, Noonuccal

This is shown through the repetition of the word ‘now’ and ‘no more’ where she refers to what she and her tribe have lost and what the town is like ‘now’. She also repeats the line of ‘better when I had’ to help connect the idea of ‘[having] a dillybag’ and a simpler way of life to ‘[having] happiness’. This idea is extended through metaphors such as ‘children of nature we were…’ and ‘but dreams are shattered by rushing car’. Can anybody find these lines in the poem? These phrases emphasise the point that her tribe were very connected to the land and that these ‘dreams’/tribe and culture have been destroyed by the