Australia poem by A D Hope

Australia poem by A.D.Hope - an Outline

1. S. Mohan Raj M.A., M.Phil, B.Ed.,
Assistant Professor,
Indo -American College, Cheyyar.
Available @ : 9751660760
E-mail: [email protected]
AUSTRALIA
-A.D.HOPE

2. He waseducated at home also at Tasmania
and New South Wales Matriculating to Sydney
University, he graduated Bachelor of Arts with
two majors (English and Philosophy).
In 1937 Hope married
Penelope Robinson with
whom he had three
children.
He was appointed lecturerin
education at the Sydney
Teachers' College in 1937, later
becoming lecturer in English
there from 1938-44.
Biography
Alec Derwent Hope was born on 21 July 1907 at
Cooma, in theNew South Wales, where his father
was a Presbyterian minister.
In 1928 won a
scholarship to
University College,
Oxford.
In 1945 he moved to the University of Melbourne.
In 1951 was appointed as Professor of English at
Canberra University College (later the Australian
National University) where he taught until his
retirement in 1968.

3. Hope did not publish any of his poems until the 1930s.
His first collection,TheWandering Islands, did not appear
until 1955. It was praised for Hope's skilful use of traditional
verse formsand received the Grace Leven Poetry Prize.
Biography…
His second collection,Poems(1960), was published in London.
For many years Hope was the best-known Australian poet
internationally, appearing in many anthologies.
Got many honors and awards
In 1965 the Arts Council of Great Britain Poetry Award, in
1968 the Levinson Prize for Poetry (Chicago) and in 1969
the Ingram Merrill Award for Literature (New York).
In 1981 he had been made a Companion of
the Order of Australia for services to
literature.
After some years in a Canberra nursing
home, he died on 13 July 2000.
Hope was a widely
published critic,
reviewer and editor.

4. Background
The poet says, Australia is a
country filled with migrating
people who came from many
parts of the world.
The author wanted to convey
their manners and really what
they were.
The first five stanzas dealt with
how the Australia was.
There was sarcasm in final line
which implied ‘cultural apes’.
He said that Australia was a
mechanical and monotonous
land.
In this poem his country
was intentionally
traumatized by author.
The poem gave negative perception and affected
the life of survival in Australian country.
The poem reflected the lack of
individualism and spiritual poverty. It
was the continent with ambiguous state.

5. Critical analysis
“Anationoftrees,drabgreenanddesolategrey”
ThefirststanzaconveyedthatthetreesinAustraliawere
seemeddullwhichstoodinadesolateplace.Generally
NATUREwasacharmthingbuthereitlookeddesolated,
Nobodycaredaboutit,asManypeoplegaveimportance
tofaceonly.Theydidn’tcareaboutinnerheart.The
authorcomparedthischaracteras‘Sphinx’.
“And her five cities, like five teeming sores,
Each drains her…”
FiveteemingsoresindicateMelbourne,
Sidney,Perth,CanberraandAdelaide.The
peopleinthesewerenothadtheirown
identity.Theywerelikeparasiteswhich
dependentonothers.
ThepeopleinAustraliawerehomogenous.
TheauthorcalledthemasYoungbutit
ironicallyconveyedimmature.Theywerenot
creativeandindependent.Thepeopleinthis
continentwerenotliving,theyweresurviving.

6. 1.The poem criticizes the attitudes, ethics and lifestyle in
description of the empty land which lacks of cultural
identity.
2.Conveys a sort of patriotic message in the last two stanzas.
Australian merely considers detractors to be cultured apes.
3.They lost values and innocence, believes false conviction
that being materialistic, numb, and unconscionable person
is being real and mature human.
4.The materialistic world is harsh there is no mercy for weak
people. They lost their individuality and uniqueness.
5.Seemingly it is a poem with colors as Grey and green.
Australian poets write about
aborigins(native Australians) and
about their identity in their poems.
But the poemAustraliatalks about
the present condition of Australia. His
poetry explores the spiritual poverty
of the land. It is apt to call Australia
as a Cultural Bowl.
Critical analysis…

7. @Each stanza consists of four lines with the
rhyme scheme being ABBA.
@Little enjambment exists in the poem; most
of the stanzas stand alone as paragraphed.
@A.D Hope uses imageryas a means to convey
meaning to the poem.
@The dark colors portray the insipidness of the
landscape.
@Monotonous tribes refer to the fact that
there is no individualism throughout Australia
everyone looks and thinks the same.
@The alliterationhelps to once again convey
an image ' drab green and desolate grey'.
@A. D Hope uses the metaphorto give the
concrete reality that Australia does have human
qualities an abstract idea.
@The tone is mocking Australian culture, our
history, our land and they way we live our life.
Poetical Devices

8. The poet is hopeful. He ends the
poem with a positive note. He
says that some prophet would
emerge or come from the
Australian ground, who would
claim freedom and rights to
liberate the aboriginsand
Australian culture from the
colonisers.

9. Thank You