The two poems, “Song of the Darling River,” by Henry Lawson and “Australia,” by A.D Hope widely addresses issues of Australia as a land and country. The poets employ various stylistic devices that vividly describe how the country alongside its landscape looks like. From a reader’s point of view, the poems not only address the physicality of Australia as a nation, but go further to describe some of the most critical details of the country (Harrison 31). A very good example as seen in the poem is that Australia; just like any other country was once under colonial administration.
There are various stylistic devices that both the poets use while trying to relay some information about Australia, however, they greatly talks about the manner and nuance of the way things are carried out. That is to try to bring something into someone’s opinion, but fail to directly point out about that particular thing. These styles are referred to as adverbials. They have all the qualifications of a particular thing, but does not mention; this kind of style sends the reader into thinking about what the thing could be. Both the poets use this stylistic device to create some linkage to both the physical, historical and environmental issues pertaining to Australia as a country.
Both poets are not quite succinct in the way they address the issues relating to the country of Australia, however, they strive to implicitly address the themes connected to physical locations. Henry Lawson in his work, implicitly points out on issues of climates, the atmospheres and what people could have been assuming about Australia as a country. Once more, the issue of adverbials once crop in, the way he uses the term modality implies the manner in which things are done in Australia (Harrison 33). Nonetheless, modal figures are also evident in the two poems, whether it’s a matter of similarity or coincidence remains an issue of a discussion.
In A.D Hope’s work for example, the poem majorly addresses issues about physical landscape of Australia, specifically it addresses the coastline and coastal cities of Australia. He figuratively describes the coastline of Australia by referring to it as a child playing with his hand moving from point to point. Precisely, he says that the child moves from point to point with his hands flattening any form of difference in the ways. A synthesis of this statement reveals that Hope was not intending to tell as anything about the child but how the physical landscape was, whether it was flat or hilly.
Fortunately, this figurative language vividly tells how Australian coastline and cities looks like. Just like Henry Lawson addressed issues to do with territory, Hope once again revisits this theme, almost using the very words Lawson had used. He addresses the issue of national territory and sovereignty by terming it as a journey of several thousands of kilometers.
Yet again, Martin Harrison’s article, “Land and Theory,” is another article that majorly deals with territorial issues, specifically the land of Australia. Just like the first two poems, Martin Harrison in his poem also employs the use of figurative language in referring to the manner in which things are done. That is an example of an adverbial trace used by Harrison. Nonetheless, he talks of physical location of oneself in reference to the land of Australia; he says he had gained a deeper understanding to sense his physical locality (Harrison 38). This was meant to address the issues of uncertainty in sensing the Australian land forms. In reference, he points out on geomancy, a term he refers to as the magical sense of a place.
Through the term geomancy, Harrison points out several issues about physical feature of a place, predominantly Australia. Further to it, he goes out to point on several attributes a location can have, these were an areas’ dryness, the thickness of the soil, the weather, the passage of birds from one location to the next and if and how animals moves across the land. These to him were some of the qualities that a physical locality could have.
However, things like slopes, stones, trees and house are some of the things he mentioned that can be used to identify Australia. Indeed, we can see various physical features in Australia. Most importantly, the landscape of Australia is clearly revealed. Through the eyes of the three poets, that is, Harrison, Lawson and Hope, we get to know or have a feeling of how Australia as a country looks like in terms of physical features, landscape and human settlement.
Work Cited
Harrison, Martin. Land and Theory; a modern human being is above all else, a mobile human being. Nd.
