Bruce Dawe Poetry
In what ways would you characterise Dawe as an Australian poet? Illustrate your answer in some way detail with reference to three poems.
Bruce Dawe, a well renowned Australian poet was born in 1930 in Geelong, Victoria. He was an altogether indifferent pupil and left school at the age of sixteen working mostly as a labourer for the next ten years. However, he finished an adult matriculation course at night school and, in 1954, entered the University of Melbourne. He remained at Melbourne for only a year, but it was there that he met Philip Martin, whom Dawe acknowledges as the greatest influence in his literacy concerns, and who remained a friend, and an advisor in his developing poetic skills after he left his studies. After leaving University he was employed in Sydney as a factory hand, and in Melbourne as a postman. He then served in the RAAF from 1959-1968. He was a teacher at Downlands College from 1969 to 1971, then at the University of Southern Queensland, retiring in 1993. He is married with four children. All of the above expericances have brought Dawe to write the poetry he has in "Sometimes Gladness." Bruce Dawe, who was once portrayed as "an ordinary man with a difference" writes about ordinary Australian people in the suburbs confronting their everyday problems. He observes and records the sorrow and hardships of average people struggling back in the 1940's, right through until the 1990's. We characterise Bruce Dawe as an Australian Poet as he distinctively writes with Australian imagery, that suggests he is speaking of life and family experiences he has observed and felt over his career as an Australian poet. This is demonstrated in three Of his poems, "A footnote to Kendall", "Head for the hills" and "The Exiles." In "Head for the Hills" Bruce Dawe uses a sense of insecurity to describe those who are living their lives as Australian outbackers. Although this poem also illustrates that fact that the easygoing people of these towns aren't really
Bruce Dawe, a well renowned Australian poet was born in 1930 in Geelong, Victoria. He was an altogether indifferent pupil and left school at the age of sixteen working mostly as a labourer for the next ten years. However, he finished an adult matriculation course at night school and, in 1954, entered the University of Melbourne. He remained at Melbourne for only a year, but it was there that he met Philip Martin, whom Dawe acknowledges as the greatest influence in his literacy concerns, and who remained a friend, and an advisor in his developing poetic skills after he left his studies. After leaving University he was employed in Sydney as a factory hand, and in Melbourne as a postman. He then served in the RAAF from 1959-1968. He was a teacher at Downlands College from 1969 to 1971, then at the University of Southern Queensland, retiring in 1993. He is married with four children. All of the above expericances have brought Dawe to write the poetry he has in "Sometimes Gladness." Bruce Dawe, who was once portrayed as "an ordinary man with a difference" writes about ordinary Australian people in the suburbs confronting their everyday problems. He observes and records the sorrow and hardships of average people struggling back in the 1940's, right through until the 1990's. We characterise Bruce Dawe as an Australian Poet as he distinctively writes with Australian imagery, that suggests he is speaking of life and family experiences he has observed and felt over his career as an Australian poet. This is demonstrated in three Of his poems, "A footnote to Kendall", "Head for the hills" and "The Exiles." In "Head for the Hills" Bruce Dawe uses a sense of insecurity to describe those who are living their lives as Australian outbackers. Although this poem also illustrates that fact that the easygoing people of these towns aren't really