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Australian Poems

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Australian Poems
“I love a sunburnt country”. This Australian viewpoint can be represented in various ways and can be spotted in a range of Australian poems. These poems are written by Australian poets who try to portray the Australian lifestyle and depiction of Aussie culture and experiences. Good morning/afternoon fellow audience members, I have selected two poems titled “My Country” and “Australia” to deconstruct and explain how they reflect on the Australian representation.

The poem "My Country" was written by Dorothea Mackellar in 1908. She first wrote this literary piece at the age of 23 and it gained so much fame that generations of Australian schoolchildren have learned it. This poesy, still to this day, is being interpreted to allow viewers to receive a greater understanding of the clear definition and illustration of Australia as a country in the present.

This poem deals with nature descriptions about Australia. It was written in order to inform people about the beauty and the wilderness of this country. The genre is part of bush poetry and the full verse doesn't tell a story.

The poem is full of metaphors, for example "an opal-hearted country". Some metaphors include personification. For instance, she uses "her" for nature and regards nature as a mother or woman. This enables the reader to identify with nature, and nature is like a human being with mistakes which is a recognized representation of Australian society.

She also states a few negative points of Australia "of droughts and flooding rains", nature catastrophes like "flood and fire". These examples can be linked to recent disastrous events such as black Saturday which occurred in Victoria only two years ago and the Queensland floods which occurred at the beginning of this year showing that some things from that time continue to take place in the present-day.

The poem is written in a clear diction; she uses simple words which presents the various impressions of a country full of opposites. This is

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