Sydney and the Bush - Annotations

Sydney and the Bush by Les. A Murray

The poem ‘Sydney and the Bush’ by Les A. Murray, addresses the impacts of colonisation on the Australian landscape.  It compares the relationship between the industrialised Australia and the bushland and also the Europeans with the Aboriginal people.

The inhabitants can hold power and influence over the land allowing them to destroy and dominate over the landscape. This is clearly evident in the poem ‘Sydney and the Bush’ by Les.  A Murray as evident in the use of anaphora of the phrase ‘When Sydney and the Bush first met’.  This phrase can be seen as a metaphor for the time when the Europeans and the Aboriginals met when Australia was first colonised. It also emphasises the power of inhabitants over the landscape as they were able to control the native inhabitants and also were able to destroy the landscape and industrialise Australia. The use of the phrase throughout the poem shows how the relationship between the two landscapes alters dramatically over time. This is furthered by the juxtaposition of ‘fire and earth’ and ‘white men and black’. The word ‘fire’ has negative connotations of hell and destruction emphasising the negative impact the Europeans have had on the natural landscape. This directly contrasts with the ‘earth’ which presents the native inhabitants of the landscape and the natural landscape. This emphasises the power of the ‘fire’ to further dominate over the ‘earth’ in a negative way.

The colonisation of Australia can be seen to have a significant impact upon the traditional landscape. The colonisation of Australia is perceived by Murray to have had a significant impact upon the landscape and its inhabitants as portrayed through the use of repetition of the ‘warders’. The ‘warders’ are prison guards which can be seen as a metaphor for the industrialised Australia which imprisons the bush. The bush is constantly being further damaged and becoming infertile as portrayed in the use of repetition in stanza two, ‘The Bush went back and back’. This highlights the negative impacts of colonisation on the traditional landscape as the bush is being forced further into the distance and is no longer recognisable.

The native landscape can be seen to have great importance. This is portrayed in stanza six, ‘When Sydney rules without the bush she is a warders shop ‘.  The ‘warders’ shop’ can be seen as a metaphor for the Australian Landscape, that becomes unorganised and chaotic when it is altered. This emphasises the importance of the native landscape in allowing the effective functioning of Australia. It also highlights how the Europeans had little consideration for the landscape and did not consider how their actions would impact upon it.  The persona can be seen to criticise the inhabitants of the landscape as their destructive actions continue as they do not recognise the impacts of their actions as portrayed through the use of imagery of, ‘With heavy dancing overhead the music will not stop’.

The poem ‘Sydney and the Bush’ by Les. A Murray can be compared to the poem ‘Australia’ by A D Hope as both poems address the impacts of colonisation on the Australian landscape. Both Murray and Hope criticise the faults of the inhabitants and the industrialised landscape due to the fact inhabitants alter the landscape and yet have little recognition for the impacts of their actions. Both poems also compare how the relationship between the traditional and colonised landscape and inhabitants has changed over time. However these poems are also different as ‘Sydney and the Bush’ can be said to present a more objective view of the relationship between the Europeans and the native Australians – the Aboriginals, whereas ‘Australia’ clearly portrays the persona’s strong connection with the landscape.

The poem ‘Sydney and the Bush’ can also be compared to the poem ‘Flames and Dangling Wire’ by Robert Gray. Both poems highlight the power of inhabitants over the landscape and also how they have the ability to dominate over the landscape. It emphasises the consequences of change upon the landscape and how this can alter the relationship between the landscape and the inhabitants.

Les A. Murray

Leslie Allan Murray was born in Nabiac, New South Wales in 1938. He grew up on his father’s dairy farm. The area he lived in had a small population, and was covered in hills and forests. Murray had a strong connection with the Aboriginies and the ‘common folk’ as his parents were very poor and therefore he often only associated with the underprivileged, especially those in rural areas.

Murray studied modern languages at the University of Sydney, in 1957. Whilst in Sydney, he converted from Free Kirk Presbyterianism to Roman Catholicism. He left the University of Sydney in 1960, and went to the Australian National University in Canberra where he became a translator of foreign scholarly material.
In 1965, Murray attended the British Commonwealth Arts Festival Poetry Conference in Cardiff. He then spent over a year travelling Britain and Europe. When he returned, to Australia he returned to his studies and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1969. He later earned his living as a poet and writer.

Sources:
A Brief Biography, 2010. Retrieved: March 8, 2011, from
http://www.lesmurray.org/bio.htm

Off the Map - Annotations

Off the Map by David Malouf

The poem ‘Off the Map’ by David Malouf presents the journey of truck drivers. They are travelling along country roads, during the night time and attempting to escape the barren landscape of the city. The imaginative landscape is clearly represented within this poem as the drivers are attempting to escape from their physical landscape. The persona perceives that the only form of escape from this is by consuming ‘pills’.

An inhabitant may rely on their imaginative landscape in a desire to escape from the barren physical landscape. This is clearly evident in the title of the poem ‘Off the Map’ as it connotes the desire of the inhabitants to escape the landscape that they currently know and to explore a landscape that is outside of the norm as it contains elements of mystery. However, it is this exploration for a new landscape that can lead to the destruction of inhabitants. This clearly links to the poem ‘Flames and Dangling Wire’ as both poems highlight how the journey towards a new landscape can cause inhabitants to become trapped within the landscape and loose their sense of identity.

The inhabitants struggle between the physical and imaginative landscape is clearly evident within society. The repeated motif of war is used throughout the poem to symbolise the struggle between the city and the country landscape. This is clearly portrayed in stanza eight, ‘ranges of our skull in low gear shifting skyward they climb towards dawn’. The use of the word ‘skull’ has connotations for destruction, danger and death, emphasising the war like relationships that exist between the landscapes. The ‘skull’ can be perceived as a metaphor for the country landscape which has become neglected by the inhabitants. The inhabitants own destruction of the landscape has encouraged them to confide in their own imaginative landscape as they seek an escape from the barren landscape surrounding them. Ultimately, the ‘climb’ embarked upon by the inhabitants can be a symbol of the struggles and journeys they have undertaken in order to reach a place of serenity and peace. This imaginative landscape provides hope and freedom for the inhabitants as emphasised through the connotations of ‘dawn’. It is through this that the imaginative landscape is explored by inhabitants and causes a struggle between this landscape and the physical landscape that surrounds them.

The ordinary lives of inhabitants can restrict the way in which they perceive the world. The composer’s utilisation of connotations and metaphors presents societies lack of time to be able to fully interact with the landscape. This is highlighted in the last stanza, ‘Nameless, not to be found by day on any map’. The use of the connotations of ‘nameless’ can be perceived as the inhabitants loss of connection with the landscape during the ‘day’ as the landscape they seek can not be found on any map, but rather is established within their own imagination. Therefore the escapement they seek is only revealed at night with the ‘dazzle’ of ‘headlamps’ and the voyage ‘into a dream’.

Freedom of an inhabitant from the physical landscape can be achieved through the inhabitant’s dependency on the imaginative landscape. The use of enjambment in stanza five, ‘They thunder across country like the daredevil boys of the ‘Fifties who flourished a pistol in banks’, creates a fast flowing rhythm and shows how it is easy to be able to drift away with your thoughts as there are a variety of ‘roads’ that can be taken by inhabitants. The inhabitants are able to feel free as they are able to escape to areas that are ‘Off the Map’ emphasising the endless possibilities of the imaginative landscape. This is furthered by stanza seven, ‘Now kids, barefooted, wade in the warm, hatched tyre-marks of country dust’. The use of imagery emphasises how the inhabitants desire to be like ‘kids’, who are ‘barefooted’. They desire to return to the innocence of their childhood, where their lives seem much simpler. By depending on their imaginative landscape the inhabitants are able to achieve the freedom which they desire.

The poem ‘Off the Map’ by David Malouf can be compared to the poem ‘Late Ferry’ by Robert Gray as both poems address the desire of the inhabitants to escape from the physical landscape by exploring their own imaginative landscape. The competition of environments is also addressed in both poems. In the poem ‘Off the Map’ the physical landscape of the country competes both with the city landscape and also the imaginative landscape of the inhabitants. This is similar to the poem ‘Late Ferry’ that represents the competition the inhabitants desire to move to the city landscape as they are drawn to it by the bright ‘lights’.

David Malouf

David Malouf was born in Queensland in 1934. In the 1880s, his father’s family came to Australia from Lebanon and just before WWI his mother’s came from London. He received an eduaction at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland. After graduating, he taught there for two years. He moved to Britain from 1959-68, aged twenty-four, where he taught in London and Birkenhead. He then returned where he tauught English at the Univeristy of Sydney.

Malouf had won a series of prizes, such as the NSW Premier’s Literary Award in 1979, The Age Book of the Year Award in 1982, the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Prize for fiction, both in 1991. In 1993, he won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994. He was also awarded with the first International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, in June 1996.

The Conversations at Curlow Creek, his most recent novel, was nominated for the 1996 Age Bookof the Year Award and the Miles Franklin Award in 1997.

He now is a full-time write and spends part of the year in Australia and the other part in Tuscany, Italy.

Sources:

David Malouf, 2003. Retrieved: March 9, 2011, from

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/maloufd/maloufd.html

In the Forest - Annotations