English Poem Analysis: The Outback

English Poem Analysis: The Outback

Australia is the place of renowned English writers like Adam Lindsay Gordon, who preferred to be known as a daring horseman than as a poet (and he is indeed remembered for both) and A.B. “Banjo” Paterson, who celebrated life in the bush. Another of the important early writers in Australia was Henry Lawson. Unlike Paterson and Gordon, Lawson was as famous for his short stories as for his poems. Australia has always been a place where writers were valued, and where writers were often also quite adventurous. After many years of taking a spell from the minds of many Australians, Bush Poetry is once again making resurgence and becoming popular again.

The Outback is one of the famous poems written by an Australian writer Henry Lawson. One of Australia's most famous poets, Henry Lawson is framed by images of the town of Gulgong on the first Australian ten dollar note. Gulgong is also referenced in much of Lawson's poetry; in particular 'Joe Wilson and his mates' so it is fitting that Gulgong hold a festival in celebration of Henry Lawson's life and literary works. Approximately 300kms north-west of Sydney, New South Wales, Gulgong is one of the towns in which Lawson resided as a child. Now, more than a century on, lovers of writing and poetry can celebrate the town and Henry Lawson (Lawson,Brissenden,1979).

Australian Bush Poetry has been around since the European settlement of farmers, squatters, drovers' roads, "roads, pruning shears, riders, and many others. If we look back in history, Bush, poetry, which has been preserved, and there was a lot of it, close to where these people are wonderful and covers the whole of life in Australia up. It is the most unusual stories about hiking, stunts, riding big business, the pain of separation, in fact, a poem can be found in almost anything one wants about naming (Lawson, Brissenden, 1979). Lawson was the Victorian era, a writer known for realism through his poems and short stories of Australia in the literature. Lawson chose to write of the grim realities of that harsh terrain. As menti0nd in the first four lines:

The old year went, and the new Returned, in the withering weeks of drought,

The check was spent that earned the shearer,

Were all the sheds and cut out;

The publican's words were short and few,

In the opening paragraph Henry Lawson establishes the harshness of their isolated environment. We are presented with negative visual and auditory but Henry Lawson's emphasis on the environment and its inhabitants shapes our meaning of the Australian values of surviving in the bush. Outback reflects the bitter life experiences. The author's inability to communicate because of the deafness led him to develop a keen habit of observing people. Lawson's works are about watching people and observing their actions. He used his powers of observation and his past experiences to enhance his writing (Lawson,Collerson,1977). The major themes of Lawson's poems revolve around the Australian ...