Beauty of Mateship
Poetry is one of the most ancient media in which people express their emotions and perhaps one of the most beautiful; as Howard Monomer gracefully puts It, "It may be said that poems are In one way Like Icebergs: only about a third of their bulk appears above the surface of the page" (1920 1 991 Australian poetry is no exception to this tradition of versified thoughts and feelings, and many a poet have demonstrated an intense focus on both the artistry and harshness of the environment that harbors this nation.
Through the creativity and emotions of the poets, Australians are arrayed In a contrasting light as both likeable and dissociable. This Is particularly apparent in the poems being analyses in this essay - A. B. 'Banjo' Patterson We're all Australians now and Kimonos Servos' nobody calls me a hog anymore. While both Banjo Patterson and Kimonos Servos infuse their poetry with the spirit of metathesis and acceptance In Australia, Patterson focuses on the circumstances of war which 'instantly mend' the countries' interstate differences while Servos concentrates on the struggle to achieve tolerance as an international migrant.
These two poems share a umber of similarities. The first of these is the focus on equality between all, which creates a sense of unity within the participants In the narrative told by each poem. In We're all Australians now, Patterson makes powerful allusions to the nation as a whole using cities as synecdoche for integration such as "From Brome to Hobnobs Bay". Brome is a city on the North-Western coast of Australia, while Hobnobs Bay is an electorate of Melbourne, In the south east of the country; hence, this metaphor Implies the Inclusion of the inure country.
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The third stanza of the poem Incorporates people of opposing ethnicities, using a true blue' metaphor, "the man who used to hump his drum", to introduce the indigenous people to the picture through their musical customs, referring to their drum playing as an Identifying feature (Aboriginal Arts and Cultures Centre). They are compared as "fighting side-by-side" with Tasmania farmers; one cannot escape the carefully constructed and implicit incorporation of two distinct ethnic groups as Tasmania people are likely the whitest Australians there are, given the cool climate of their state.
This creates a contrast between pollarded races while portraying them all as equal. The title of the poem suggests the idea of unity and togetherness, and everyone being the same - the phrase "We're all Australians now" appears as an anaphora throughout the poem to reinforce the importance of Australian identity. Within this phrase, the persona Includes himself, which he doesn't do at any other point throughout the poem; this could suggest that he uses himself as a replacement for everyone through use of the word 'we're'.
In a similar fashion, the use of the word 'now implies reminiscence of previous times, such that the conflict between states is gone but will never be resorting. Servos also focuses on equality between people. The title of the poem, which Is also Its first line and Its dominant Ideology, states this concept of personal acceptance and equality quite frankly: "nobody calls me a hog anymore". The poet", set the hopeful yet sarcastic tone: despite all the hardship, the persona is accepted as an Australian.
The end of the poem shows the use of schism's in the line Mimi need me, and I need you", which gives the effect that the sharing and the acquisition of Australian citizenship is a mutually beneficent deal, thus creating equal opportunity for both participants. This type of relationship generally results in a unified environment: Australia is enriched and the protagonist is embraced. Both writers have used Australian symbols, icons and stereotypes in order to relate to the concept of acceptance into Australian society and to relate to a typical Australian audience.
We're all Australians now refers to perhaps the biggest icon the nation has, its national flag: "Our six starred flag that used to fly/Half-shyly in the breeze. " This can create a sense of patriotism in the reader, making them feel proud of their entry and thus allowing them to visualize and work towards achieving an atmosphere of acceptance and metathesis. Patterson also refers to the more traditional, enumerating, well-known occupations of the country, especially as they were at the time of the war.
These include the men who worked in the shearing shed, or the shearers, those who worked on the cattle runs, the fishermen, the farmers and the miners, scattered throughout the verses. All of these are attempts to relate with the audience, particularly that of the sass, allowing them to feel as though they too re involved in the metathesis, camaraderie and acceptance that the nation is so well known for. The final important reference to Australian identity in this poem is found in the last stanza: "And with Australia's flag shall fly/A spray of wattle bough".
The poem states the purpose of this explicitly - it is "to symbolism our unity. " Perhaps the main drive behind the choice of "wattle" is something as simple as the fact that all men in Australia can grow the wattle, the national flower, no matter where they come from or what they look like; thus, it creates a bond between the people. The wattle therefore becomes a metaphor for togetherness. Kimonos Servos is a little less 'romantic' and idealistic in describing Australia's struggle to achieve this same goal.
His heavy use of colloquial language and intentional lack of spelling, grammar and punctuation conventions imply that he is not trying to please and appease a demanding, skeptical Australian society but rather use his resume as a good reason for benefiting from the tolerance and equality that is so loved about Australia. He tries to replicate the way Australians speak in particular as Servos tends to more often than not perform his poetry, making it more a spoken then a written piece (De Wright).
Examples of this sort of language include "I'm an cozies too", a tirade of interesting, accusatory Australian slang such as "Fair dinked ridge dodge a dinky die true blue" and "Me hog mate Kevin", where the word "me", replaces the grammatically correct term "my', as this is how it is often pronounced. He deals with parts of life that are vital to common Australian people, detailing that they apply to him also: "A poet with a mortgage/And a wife, and kids/And gas bills, and a tax file number/Just like you.
These depictions of real life Susie living create a common ground for both poet and reader, allowing for the ultimate message to be shared: we all deserve - for various, complex reasons - to be called Australians! The poems also have a number of differences, segregating their ideologies and themes accordingly. The first of these differences is Patterson softened poetic mood as compared to the experiences which engendered them. The most obvious part of the poems that is different and which connects to this idea is the prosody. We're all Australians now has consistent end rhyme and rhythm and flows really well.
This is in complete juxtaposition to Server's choice of prosodic elements, which has no consistency and appears as rebellious, unconventional and abrupt as the message itself. They are representative of what the poets are trying to portray - while Patterson is depicting a perfect, naturally occurring team environment, where everyone gets along instantly and operations and relationships flow smoothly, Servos is displaying a struggle to obtain this acceptance, a struggle which is filled with bumps, lumps and plenty of twists, similar to the mood created by the irregular number of syllables and incidental rhyme.
This may be owing to the experiences of each respective poet. Patterson writes about the Battle of Galileo, in a highly dampened manner, as indicated by the reference to Gab Tepee hill, which is a hill Just south of Anza Cove. While he served in the First World War, it was not at Galileo, but rather on the Western Front, meaning essentially that he never actually witnessed exactly what it was he was writing about (University of Sydney).
On the other hand, Server's poems often, among other things, contain confronting, realistic autobiographical content. An example of another of these poems is childhood in Richmond, where in fact he is describing his own childhood as a fight for recognition "and a bag/ full of dreams"; nobody calls me a hog anymore appears to be based on a similar concept (De Wright). The term Hog' is used in Australian English to describe foreigners, particularly Mediterranean Europeans. The poet is a Greek Australian, born in Melbourne to Greek parents.
It is likely then that this poem describes his own experience, an idea strongly reinforced by his referral to himself and the use first- person point of view, both of which are lacking in the other poem: "And I said, Australia, hey! '/You can call me Kimonos! ". All these factors allow him to not only better describe the situation, but to relate to the audience better. The oscillation between first and second person connotes the author's deep desire for dialogue, conversation achieved through the use of pharmacopoeia.
Also emphasizing this idea are the forms of figures of speech present in each poem. We're all Australians now has a lot of tropes such as metaphors, personification and metonymy to embellish and moderate intentions; for example, the lines "the mettle that a race can show/is roved with shot and steel" display metonymy, replacing guns or weapons with the phrase "shot and steel", which essentially means the bullets and the blades; it is a way of euphemistic the otherwise painful message and making the scene a little bit milder than it actually is.
On the contrary, nobody calls me a hog anymore is blunter and to the point, instead using figures of sound such as schism's, napoleon and gausses in order to persuade the reader of the point. Patterson and Servos are describing two different scenarios in their poems - while Patterson is discussing the resistances provided by war which instantly heal any interstate dissentions, Servos is essentially portraying the personal fight and victory that he had against racism.
Throughout We're all Australians now, the quelling of competition between states when faced with war is a common theme, shown particularly well in the line "We're not state children anymore". This line personifies "the state" as motherly and then quickly brushes over the simplicity of detachment from one's state to instead form a nation. Another part of the poem recites "For English, Scotch and Irish-bred/ They're all Australians now! At the time in which this poem was set, Australia was a young nation of Just 14 years, so the English, Scotch and Irish are not necessarily literally those nationalities (though for many people of the time, it would have been), but more likely their heritage, including the quintessentially Aboriginal one. On the other hand, Servos, as stated earlier, is depicting a constant struggle, a fight for his own personal acceptance. He attempts to connect with the audience and Australians in order to achieve this.
He also describes parts of his struggles in the first half of the memo. For example, gausses is used in the lines "Point the finger accusingly/Thump my fist demandingly', in order to describe the escalation of moods. He Jumps from peaceful accusations to semi-violent measures within the space of two lines as the anger boils up. Overall, the poets have each drawn upon their own personal experiences in order to spin the webs of aesthetic features that readers still enjoy today.
Be it Patterson third-hand experience, comparing the Western Front of the Great War to the Battle of Galileo, or the personal story told by Kimonos Servos of he struggle against racist attitudes, the poems leave a lasting message that shall be forever remembered; Australian metathesis is real, a sense of acceptance seen nowhere else in the world does exist, forming indestructible bonds of helpfulness and tolerance.
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Beauty of Mateship. (2017, Nov 19). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/beauty-of-mateship/
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