hsc english advanced module c representation & texts study

HSC English – Advanced – MODULE C – Representation & Texts – Study Notes – Judith Wright

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Thesis:

People and landscapes influence one another through renewed perceptions and ideas of the

world around

Through various representations of the relationship between people and landscapes we are

shown that landscapes have the ability to alter ones perception

These pieces of poetry show a representation of the relationship between how forms

influence and shape meaning. They shift ones view of themselves and alter perception of

the world around them and have the ability to alter ones view

Thesis:

Representation is influential

Has potential to alter perception

The interaction with the landscape is profound, life changing, far-reaching, inspiring,

confronting

Quintessential (defines them and shapes their lives)

Crucial, Pivotal

Elemental

Significant


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POINT EVIDENCE TECHNIQUE EFFECT

Hawthorn Hedge:

Point Evidence Technique Effect

The landscape can

consume and

dominate an individual

She will hide away

if you wave your

hand or call,

She will not see

Imperative tone

High Modality

Anaphora

This determines the strong

character of the woman

Highlighting her as a central

character

There has been

pastoral expansion by

people into the natural

landscape

The Hawthorn

Hedge

Alliteration There is a sense of invasive

species as the hawthorn hedge is

not natural

The land is seen as a

character not just a

location

Hungry ridge Personification The use of the word hungry

implies an ongoing feeling of

domination

The use of the word hungry

makes the land seem alive

The landscape may be

both harsh and

nourishing

That thorn, that

green, that snow

Juxtaposition

Epistrophe

Thorn is the protective weapon of

the hedge, and snow is the white

flowers

- Passing of the seasons

These ambiguous or dichotomous


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divided qualities of landscape

demonstrate both the author and

the personas conflicting views

The landscape can be

perceived as both

harsh and nourishing

No one is here Truncated

Sentence

This represents the personas

voice


perceived as both

harsh and nourishing

Shouting in winter

“death” and when

the white bud sets,

more loudly “life”

Irony

Juxtaposition

Dialogue

The landscape can be harsh as it is

deathly in winter, and nourishing,

as it is like life in summer

An individual can use

the landscape to create

a barrier between

themselves and the

wider world

It is twice as tall as

the rider on the tall

mare

Hyperbole Represents how impassable and

dominant the barrier is

Woman is feeling secure in the

knowledge that her barrier is tall

so that other people cannot come

in or peer in

The landscape reflects

the cycle of life

Bee-hung blossom Alliteration

Imagery

The bee is heavy with life and

possibility

- Individuals choose to

let themselves go wild,

like landscapes

- Individuals are

inextricably linked to

landscapes

Unkempt as an old

tree

Simile She chooses to live there, there is

an assumption she is mad

She is being made through the

use of images into the landscape


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An individual’s

perception of a

landscape can change

at any time

Hawthorn hedge

took root, grew

wild and high to

hide behind

Positive

connotations

White colonial pastoralists hiding

behind and denying their

consequences of invasion

however

nature wins overall and is

dominating

The landscape is sharp,

hard and cold

reflecting the

perception of the

woman by the

outsiders

Wind turns her

grindstone heart

Symbolism

Personification

The wind sharpens itself as it is

becoming winter

Landscape has the

capacity to take their

identity

She will not see Anonymity

Third Person

She is unnamed

She is hiding to avoid being seen

as well as not seeing outside

People may choose to

isolate themselves

inside a landscape

Let him stare, no

one is here

Rhyme The hedge is so tall no one can

see in

She has become

introverted over time

and had an attitude

change due to the

landscape

Took root, grew

wild and high to

hide behind

Assonance Wildness of the trees and the size

of the hedge


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A hawthorn hedge is a common green hedge with leaves of about three centimetres

and small white flowers. It grows tall and thick and is usually opaque

It’s a poem about isolation and building walls as barriers from the world. The wall is

a hedge, ‘planted’ by the person being described in the poem

This poem uses the device of symbolism to represent this person’s attitude to the

outside world by making a protective barrier for herself. The effect of this symbolism is to

have the reader understand how uncomfortable the person is with human contact. The

symbolism is such that we can read the poem as conveying two meaning at once: one

physical and one psychological. Both reveal the person relationship with the landscape

She forgets how long ago it was that she planted the hawthorn hedge. The

significant thing here is that she admits that it was she who planted it so strong and thick

and protective.

Psychologically, it is vital that she planted the hedge as this shows a deliberate desire

to be blocked off from human contact. – She does not even remember when it was no there

At the psychological level, this tells us that she has been isolated for a long time

The hedge is her barrier from the world and it has grown out of control. She cannot

go back. She is lost to the world. The woman in the poem has a close protective relationship

with the landscape


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Train Journey - 1953:


Landscapes can be

unknown and scary

Confused

hammering dark of

the train

Onomatopoeia Ignorance, confusion, lack of

empathy and understanding of

her surroundings

Sound of the train – ‘hammering’

because it is loud and repeated

‘confused’ because the moon,

the glass, the dark and the

hammering are mixed to her

senses

Land being maternal.

This contains labour like

imagery

Your delicate dry

breasts, country

that built my heart

Clench, break,

draw, be

Personification

Alliterative

Verbs

Intimate, romantic notion

Landscape is the creator of the

poets heart – product of

landscape, such is a baby the

product of her mother

Power of the landscape Clench down your

strength

Break with your

violent root the

virgin rock

Imperative tone

Personification

Assonance

The landscape has been

untouched by humans – Nature

effecting nature

Someone is observing

the landscape rather

than being a part of it

Be over… skin of

sense… slender

dance

Personification

Allusion

Suggesting strength of

imagination over the rational –

alluding to metaphysical power


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of the landscape to enrich and

nourish bring the land back to

where it should be – emotional

to the foreground

Out of maternal labour

like image comes

beauty

I woke up and saw

the dark small

trees that burn

suddenly into

flowers more

lovely than the

white moon

Evocative Imagery What seemed barren, the

landscape, was not

Landscapes can be

unknown and scary

The Moons cold

sheet

Metaphor Sheet suggesting a covering,

protective

The landscape which is

represented by natural

objects, can be

represented by words

as well and that words

which seem small and

dry and delicate can be

capable of producing

power and passion in

the same way as the

natural objects in the

landscape

Like poetry moved,

articulate and

sharp

Simile Suggests that the trees evoke for

her, in her half sleep, some of the

qualities of poetry ‘articulate and

sharp’


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Brothers and Sisters:


The land is too wild

to be able to

control

Cul-de-sac Metaphor For the aspirations of white Australians

in the hope to conquer the wilderness

but this opportunity is cut short by

their inability to inhabit the land

Wright uses contrast to introduce the

disappointment they are feeling

The word road is contrasted with cul-

de-sac – does not go anywhere

They reached a

dead end

Stopped like a lost

intention at the

game

Simile Hopes and dreams lost

Natural landscapes

is winning

Saplings sprouted

slyly

Alliteration Distrust of the landscape by the

settlers

The settlers

conquered the

land and made it

their own

Gate… fence Symbolism They have created a self-imposed

barrier of a fence. The white

pastoralists bought with them the

ideas of gates and fences

Land continued to

grow, even if the

settlers didn’t want

it too

Years grew like

grass and leaves

Metaphor Inevitable passing of time

Deliberate mixing of images

Grew implies the development and

change of the landscape


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Nature is

developing but the

people are not

Sometimes

individuals fail in

their attempt to

control the

landscape and

instead become a

part of the

landscape

Bush moved one

step nearer,

wondering when

Lucy shrivels,

waiting for a word

Personification

Nature imagery

applied to a

person

Represents the dominance and

impassable nature of the environment

Nature will overrun them in the end –

it will drive them out

Time is inevitable

Settlers have no

more control of

time than they do

over the bush

Wound the gilt

clock that leaked

the year away

Metaphor For the impassable and consuming

nature of time and aging

Water is escaping – It is running away

from them – Time is no useful

Environment will

overall consume

the people and

belongings

The bush comes

near, the ranges

grow immense

They knew the

plans were lost,

the blue-print for

the bridge was out

of date, and now

their orchards

Descriptive

language

There is recognition of the failure of

the peoples plans

They had plans and dreams which

were all swallowed up by the

relentless nature of the landscape –

they haven’t been able to subdue


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never would be

planted

Individuals can feel

a very pervasive

sense of

dissolution when

they’re unable to

control landscape

“Millie, are you

awake?”

“Oh John, I have

been dreaming”

“Lucy, do you cry?”

Dialogue Involves the audience and increases

veracity

Individuals fail to

control their

surroundings

The polished

parlour grew

distant and

haunted

Alliteration They live in a house

Environment is

dominating

There is nothing to

be afraid of.

Nothing at all

Lucy shrivels

Truncated

sentences

Irony

Nothing is the source of fear

Environment will swallow up their

house

Afraid of death

A tenuous grasp as they are afraid

their colonial existence will escape and

Australia will return to its original

landscape

The ‘nothing’ is what they fear

In the poem brothers and sisters, it is the land or landscape which is active and the

people who are passive, the land grows, changes and develops, while the people wait and

grow old


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Personification is used the make the bush into a character in the poem, in fact a

threatening, invasive character. The land belongs to nature, and nature will take it back in

the end. Wright shows no particular sympathy for the settlers, in fact she depicts them as

foolish and weak. Nature will have what is its own

The three inhabitants of this property, the brother John and the sister Mily and Lucy

are living in an environment which is not naturally theirs and to which they do not really

belong

Through this poem, Judith Wright shows what it’s like to live in an alien landscape,

which is so different from a landscape which is part of one’s blood. The opening image the

road turned out to be a “cul-de-sac; stopped like a lost intention at the gate” sets the tone

of the poem. The inhabitants have reached the dead end and have forgotten what they

intended to do

This image is built on with other words suggesting an unfinished structure “the plans

were lost, the blueprint for the bridge is out of date”, the road is “half erased” and its

appearance “is dubious”. The orchard was never planted, and instead the native trees are

getting ready to overtake the land. These native trees are personified, their actions being

seen as sly and “day by day the bush moved one step nearer”

There is an accumulation of detail to create an image of the foreign European or

English way of life that the inhabitants of the house wanted to impose on the Australian

bush. The “polished parlour” lost its sheen and the guilt clock only serves to “leek the year

away”, a metaphor for their wasted lived. The “pianola”, mocked by native birds, “wavers

on Sundays and has lost a note”

Introduced flowers are eaten by the sheep, and Lucy and Milly “shrivel”, seen by the

way “Milly’s camios loosen around her throat”

Not only are the people affected by remaining strangers in the landscape in which

they live, the house itself is personified as “droning in the night”, and with each groan it

“settles more arid”. They cannot sleep, Wright compares their thoughts to moths, and they

question each other but can provide no real comfort. There is something ambiguous in the

conclusion of the poem, “there’s nothing to be afraid of, nothing at all”, because it is

precisely the nothing, the obliteration of their life, which is the thing that they fear most of

them all


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Moving South:


Confidence in

the change of

landscape

Acceptance of

the wildness of

new England

“It will be cold where

you are going” Yes.

Direct Speech

Truncated Sentences

Dialogue

Mundane

conversation

Prophetic tone – unknown

persona – sense of

foreboding

She refers to QLDs summer

as ‘extravagance’

Landscape is

beautiful –

current

Queensland

Smelling steam-scented Alliteration Prolonged part of youth and

life

She contrasts the

house, built by

people (human),

with the stony

ridge, the

mountains and

the trees in New

England that she

loves

The old house rustles

like constantly turning

pages

Simile Represents the passing of

time and change. A sense of

vulnerability

The landscape

can cause a

change in people

and their ideas

A stony ridge lay waiting

for me to know it

Personification Landscape providing comfort


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People have

connections to

the landscape

and she may

have felt tired

due to this

I hall light fires Metaphor She struggles with aging –

fighting against age

Against the length of

winter

Metaphor Denying of aging –

determination to live and

strength of character

She is going to

embrace the

landscape

Small white-etched

trees leaning in leeward

gestures

Personification

Plethora

Vison of a colder

environment

Plethora of sound devices

Shows the

difference

between Mt

Tamborine (QLD)

and Baywood

Acid Vapour Imagery – of

breathing out smoke

Contrasting

young QLD

landscape with

primitive

landscape of

Braidwood

Beaute de diable Oxymoron (the devils

beauty)

Transcendent beauty of being

young, beauty of youth

Ambivalent nature of

summer – good and bad

Landscape will

win over the

season

The snow-winds snip

you (Summer) to a

root’s endurance

Metaphor… Summer in Braidwood will be

shorter

Won’t be lush but will be


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more delicate and less

intrusive than the fertile

jungle summers in Qld

Beauty in a

landscape is

dependent on

the eye of the

beholder – every

person sees

beauty

differently.

Cutting back fleshy

stems, smelling steam-

scented gardenias, I

think of winter

Dichotomy

Contrast

Despite summer imagery she

uses, it causes her to long for

winter

In this poem JW imagines what it would be like to move from a very warm climate in QLD to

a much harsher and colder climate in Bradwood. Even though she loves her tropical climate

(summer – extravagance) she is willing to embrace an unfamiliar and intimidating

environment. “A stony ridge lay waiting for me to know it”. Though her thought processes

she then thinks about summer in a negative way “I tired now”. In the very last stanza, she

acknowledges that a new landscape will do her good.

This poem is about Wrights moving from Tamborine Mountain in QLD to Braidwood

in NSW, near Canberra – big move in terms of climate


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For New England:


Different

landscapes cause

disillusion in

people

Fighting the foreign

wind

Alliteration Not only are the trees awkward but so

are the people – out of place

F sounds are defensive

The wind is foreign because it comes

and goes – it is not of her landscape,

but rather attacking it

The persona feels

connected to both

landscapes

Therefore I find in me

the double tree

Metaphor She is part of the North and the South –

Part of Nature

She both watches the landscape and is

a part of the landscape

Connection to the

growing of the

land

Then will my land

turn sweetly from

the plough

Metaphor The land is being allowed to grow up

from the ground naturally

This is important to Judith as she was an

Environmentalist

There is a harsh

reality of the

landscape

Be done with the

black north, Harsh

horizon rimmed with

drought

Alliteration She does not like the hot humidity of

QLD and wishes to be back in the cold

landscape that she loves


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Landscapes are

intricately linked

Web of streamers Metaphor Even though people are spreading and

moving to new places, there is still a

connection through past, heritage and

culture

There is a link

between the

persona and

Ulysses, who

travelled around

Where’s home,

Ulysses?

Allusion

Apostrophe

He was a great traveller

She is suggesting that what happened

to him could happen to her

Her description of his journey is

negative, disrespectful even

He did return to his beloved Icatha but

all had changed and time had defeated

him

Landscape can be

perceived as

harsh and

nourishing

The house closed in

with sycamore and

chestnut – fighting

the foreign wind

Dichotomy

Alliteration

of the

harshness

Despite the delusion and difference, the

wind is blowing in one direction

Not used to the wind as it is an

introduced species

Landscape makes

her who she is

All the hills gathered

waters feed my seas

who am the

swimmer and the

mountain river

Both swimmer and river – landscape is

in her identity

She is both the subject and the object


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People can have a

connection with

landscapes and

people

Many roads meet

here

Metaphor Conflict between 2 different things –

she belongs to two different things

Peoples identity

can be portrayed

by landscapes

Swarthy native and

homesick

Juxtaposition Both kinds of trees are personified to

give an emotional, human quality to

their representation in the poem

Wright addresses

the land she loves

as though it is a

character or

persona

Then will my land

turn sweetly from

the plough and all my

pastures rise as

green as spring

Metaphor The many different landscapes she has

experienced

Use of first person

language conveys

her sense of

intimacy with the

landscape

Wind blow through

me

Metaphor She feels apart of the landscape

The poem verges

into a stream-of-

consciousness

But look, oh look, the

gothic tree’s on fire

with Blown galahs

and fuming with wild

wings

Alliteration The w sound softening the overall

image of the birds fuming on fire.

Wright is writing from QLD about the place of her childhood, New England in NSW

Metaphysical experience – “roads meet here/here in me”

The new England landscape has had a profound influence on her life, she also

acknowledges all the other landscapes she has experienced – “Many roads met here in me”,

shows the significance of all landscapes


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“All my pastures” refer to the pleasure she has derived from the many different

environment she has experienced in her life

South of My Days:


The landscape

can be

Dominating and

can consume an

individual

Hungry country

Clean Lean

Personification

Accumulation

Wild and Chaotic landscape

Men trying to

survive in the

inhospitable

landscape

The walls draw into the

warmth

Personification Relief from the landscape is only

temporary

Landscapes can

affect people

differently

Seventy years are hived

in him like old honey

simile Conveys the image of the summer

being like a hive, integral to him,

and warming like the sight and smell

of old honey

Difficulty of

conquering

/settling in the

landscape

The old roof cracks its

joints

Personification Effects of the weather on the

environment on their attempts to

find shelter

Attitude or style

House is a living being


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Men trying to

survive

Slung kettle hisses Onomatopoeia

Aural imagery

Conveys the cold and bitterness and

the attempts to find warmth

Landscape is

alive and

another

character –

History and

narrative of

landscape

Tell another yarn Colloquialism Conveying a sense of the voice of

the old Dan

He represents the pastoralists

How the land

offers

sustenance

Hived in him like old

honey

Simile

Reoccurring

motive of bees

Warm, affectionate, admirable tone

Environment

has a great

strength

The mud hardened like

iron

Metaphor They are trapped by the physical

world – the land tells them when

they can or cannot go – trapped by

metaphorical mud

And the rivers were dust Metaphor

Paradox

Drought

Beautiful and

terrifying

Cracks like a whip Simile

Onomatopoeia

Colonial stories are not accurate

(fading memories) – wants our

attention to move us back into the

present sharply

Struggle of the

native

landscape to

assert its

Full of old stories that

still go walking in my

sleep

Allusion Haunting, guilt, stories – dominance

– Aboriginal dreamtime allusion

Sleep may be suggestive of death, or


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presence

against intrusive

English imports

at least absence – country and

stories go on even when the human

poet does not

Time outside

the present

South of my days Figurative

language

Nostalgic for the past – past was

cruel

Even though she doesn’t see this

place a lot, it is still very important

to her

European and

Australian

images come

together,

capturing the

struggle

between two

cultures

Part of my bloods

country

metaphor Aboriginal phrasing about the

connection to the land – indigenous

presence which is absent from the

rest of the poem

Here blood is used metaphorically

to indicate the life force or the

human spirit – unity with the

landscape

Fragility of the

landscape

Delicate outline Personification

This was written when she lived in Queensland and she was recalling her beloved

New England home

He tells of droughts and blizzards, of bushrangers and his connection with them. In a

particularly effective image Wright compares old Dan’s stories to a pack of conjurors cards,

selected at random and not necessarily accurate

The end of the poem is somewhat ambiguous, as the poet addresses old Dan

directly, advising him to wait as “the yarns are over” and “no one is listening”. This suggests


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that things are changing, that the old ways are being changed by the new. Never the less the

poet knows this landscape and its stories that make up the stuff of her dreams

When we consider the relationship between people and landscape, we must

consider the one between the poet and the environment as well as the one between the

characters within the poem and the place that is being described

In this poem Judith Wright evokes a very strong sense of the landscape, and the way

the landscape impacts on the people who live in it. She admits that it is out of the “circle” of

her regular life, but it remains “part of her bloods country”. The connection she feels is

indicated by associating the landscape with her blood, and this is reinforced in the final part

of the poem when she says “the old stories that still go walking in my sleep” – The

landscape dominates her dreams

She evokes strongly a sense of that landscape, particularly its harsh winters and its

bleakness, showing us that landscape does not need to be conventionally attractive to make

an impact on people.

She personifies “that table land”, emphasising the bleakness as it is “wincing under

the winter”

“The old cottage” continuing the personification “lurches in for shelter, his walls

draw into the warmth”

Assonance emphasises the inhospitable nature of this landscape, it is “clean, lean,

hungry country”. Compound words, “leaf silenced”, “willow choked” assists her in conveying

an impression of the landscape. Finally contrast is employed to highlight the severity of “the

bony slopes”, so extreme is it that it is hard to believe “that summer will turn up again

someday in a wave of rambler roses”

Having established for us the nature of the landscape, the poet then focuses on Old

Dan, a person who copes with the in hospitable environment by remembering stories and

reliving them to comfort himself in the cold. Two images emphasise the degree of comfort

her achieves: they are “a blanket against the writer” and “they are hived in him like old

honey”


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Flame Tree in a Quarry:


Man’s

negative

impact on the

environment

Broken…. Stripped…

Wrecked

Negative

Connotations

Accumulation

adjectives

Heightened sense of emotion sense of

destruction man reeks

Flame Tree in a

Quarry

Contrast

Juxtaposition

Flaming tree is alive

Quarry is lifeless

Nature is

quenchless

Bush of blood… old

cry

Alliteration

Visual imagery

Shows resilient life force which is also

quite ancient – being seen as a magical

poem – resurrection and life – death

and ruin

Left for dead Personification Land has been exploited

Nature

endures, dies

and lives –

Cannot be

stopped

Made flesh…. I drink

you

Out of the very

wound

Allusion Biblical – Support renewal and a new

life

Takes on a spiritual dimension with the

biblical allusion to the act of

communion

Wound = Damage that has been done

to landscape

Nature cannot

be destroyed –

power will

always return

Scarlet breath Metaphor

Personifications

Blood and blood is a force


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Pleasure of

nature – life

force

Fountain of hot joy Metaphor

Figurative

language imagery

Tree – physically

Renewal and Rebirth – Metaphysically

(beyond the physical, spiritual

reflection on the landscape)

Two sides of

life and death

– renewal

Living ghost Oxymoron

Paradox

Represents the now paradoxical nature

of the poem in that we are presented

with images of death and destruction

but they are overcome by new life and

rejuvenation

Man’s

negative

impact on the

world around

them

Out of the very

wound

Metaphor Emphasising the way that man destroys

the environment and hurts it

Native will

return and

reclaim and

take over the

quarry

Flesh of the world’s

delight

Personification Her love is the land is an intensely

spiritual one which she not only

conveys in her poetry but in the way

she supported the conservation of the

environment

Admiration

Breath … Death Breath represents flame tree

Death is how to interfere with the

natural landscape


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Meditation on Judith Wrights emotional response – prayer, hymn (spiritual element)

– Metaphysical realm of spiritual reflection

In the poem the vison of this free flowering in an apparently barren landscape

triggers off the poets metaphysical projection She observes the physical object, empathises

with it and the tree becomes the symbol of life fiery spirit defeating an uncongenial

environment

The flame-tree is a deciduous tree that has rich red bell shaped flower all over it in

spring

Wright introduces both the colour of the flowers on the tree and the fact that nature

is in her blood by using the words ‘bush of blood’

The last stanza returns to the original contradictory image of the vibrant red tree and

the barren quarry. She uses three different images to try to express what it is that springs up

‘Out of every wound’, ‘this scarlet breath’, ‘this fountain of hot joy’ and ‘this living ghost of

death’. She is unable to reconcile these forces, continuing the ambivalence in which the

poem began

Juxtaposing:

Death and life

Natural and Manmade (Flame tree and Quarry)

Time (Past and Present)

Emotional response (gloomy and passionate)


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Island Home


Nature can be both

ruthless and nurturing

Rock wallabies “lie

curved against one

another” with their

“pooled head to

haunch in a rest that

seems regal, even

holy”

Figurative language

Visual imagery

Conveys the nurturing

aspect of the

landscape, with the

reoccurring references

to royalty and holiness

The land is cherished “Like an ancient,

priestly castle keeping

vigil even in death”

Holy Allusion This is highlighted with

the epithets “ancient”

and “priestly”


ruthless

Rock wallabies having

been “decimated by

foxes”

Negative Connotations Destruction of both

the rock wallabies and

the landscape they

were occupying

Ruthlessness of the

landscape

“Dark mouth of the

cave”

Foreshadowing Appears ominous but

offers a sort of

sanctuary

Landscape does not

always provide

“There is no

suggestion of water

anywhere, but yet

everything he sees

“has been formed by

torrents”

Irony

Significance of

landscape to the

Felt the place speak

into him, with its

Accumulation The land speaks to

him, as it is a part of


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persona – Western

Australia

rhythms, its dangers

and its strange

sustenance

him

The land makes up

who we are

Sees the landscape as

alive

High Modality He sees the landscape

as a being

The landscape creates

a sense of

claustrophobia

“black sky down and

around our ears”

“black slates and

white chimney”

Motif of colour Suggests or creates a

sense of

claustrophobia

Significance of the

landscape to him

Longing for “his

Australian life and the

wild spaces that made

it possible”

Paean The landscape makes

up who he is


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Love Song


The landscape can

make individuals feel

calm

The creek sang them a

song that trickled

through a crack in

time

Personification WE understand the

boys love of the

landscape

Landscapes can make

an individual feel

more at home than

with people

One day go to a place

where the river bends,

and there I shall sing

for you

Motif of river The boy does not like

being human, so he

escapes to the

landscape to feel

more himself

Landscapes can be

beautiful and

nourishing

When spring swells

the river, a whirlpool

sings against the

canyon. A girl stands

at the canyon rim and

listens to the

simplicity of a river

carving itself to the

sea.

She smiles at the

innocent song of the

water and rock, of the

wind and wings, of lips

and breath, of death

Imagery

Juxtaposition – Death

and life

Contrasts the beauty

of the landscape the

boy believes and what

she believes that it

isn’t,


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swirled into life, again

and again."

Landscapes can be

perceived in different

ways

A human has a human

body, and walks the

earth in human ways

High Modality This is the foundation

of the girl's beliefs,

and the opposite of

the boys wants. The

girl is content in a

human body, acting in

human ways, whereas

the boy wants more.

He craves to be

anything but human.

Landscapes can create

someone’s identity

“into a form of a

human, of a coyote, a

bird, a rock, the wind”

Cumulative listing The boy wants to find

his inner peace by

becoming his spiritual

self

People can become at

one with the

landscape

And as night falls, he

travels with planets

freed from orbits.

Finally and at last, he

is everything.

Irony

Extended Metaphor -

Didactic

Situational irony,

because the boy’s

death is unexpected.

The boy was unhappy


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Representations of people and landscapes

The landscape runs through all of Judith Wright’s poetry. Her relationship with the

landscape is deeply personal, psychological, spiritual and metaphysical

Personal and metaphysical:

There is unity between the poet and the landscape in ‘South of my days’ – ‘my

bloods country’ they are all one

hsc english advanced module c representation & texts study

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