Redgum's Song 'I Was Only 19'

'I was only 19' is a song written/composed by Redgum, it is about a first-person account of a typical Australian soldiers' experience in the Vietnam War. The poem focuses on the after effects of what happens to the soldiers after war, how they experience PTSD (post- traumatic stress disorder) and that leads us to believe that an internal war is ongoing. In this text, the technique used is imagery. Redgum uses this technique to describe what their experience was like. This prompts the audience to feel sympathy for the soldiers. A perfect example of imagery would have to be ‘and we made our tents a home, V.B and pin ups on the lockers and an Asian orange sunset through scrub’. Redgum uses this to convey how they had to turn these tents into something
they suddenly call home. In summary, Redgum uses imagery to show that conflict is not only physical but also mentally/internal. It shows the audience that even if you come out of war alive, you still lose a piece of yourself.