Les Murray Flashcards
Context
Les Murray was born in 1938 and grew up in rural New South Wales. As such, his poetry reflects traditional Australian cultural ideals such as mate ship, egalitarianism and pastoral values. These ideals however are sometimes valorized by Australian society as ideals which exclude or marginalize specific social groups. “Inside Ayers rock”, is a free verse two-stanza poem which conveys the rise of commercialism in Australian culture. “The Aboriginal Cricketer” consists of four unrhymed quatrains which reflects upon the policy of assimilation towards indigenous Australians in colonial Australia. “Tin Wash Dish” is a free verse poem which reflects on the idea of poverty as part of Australian identity. “Noonday Axeman” is a pastoral poem, consisting of 20 unrhymed quatrains which explore the connection between nature and history.
Meaning One
Meaning One (‘Inside Ayers Rock’): Consumerism, how this idea had spread to Australia and become part of Australian identity and extended to how it diminishes Indigenous Australian identity.
Elaboration: Inside Ayers Rock satirizes how consumerism, coming from America, has become such a predominant part of Australian culture, shown by the extended metaphor of Ayers rock being a hollowed-out shopping center. The significance of Ayers rock and the land in general which is mentioned throughout the poem also extends the meaning to show the degradation of Aboriginal identity and culture as a result of western influences and Australian culture.
Quote 1: “Milky Way of plastic chairs”
• The metaphor of a “milky way of plastic chairs” creates visual imagery which emphasizes the sheer amount of industrially made chairs, the chairs themselves being metonymic of commercialism and mass tourism
• Additionally, bathos is used which creates antithesis between plastic chairs and the milky way, signifying the diminishment of indigenous culture, which incorporated stars, when compared to rapid commercialism
Quote 2: “Beehive Bookshop” “Casual Clobber” and “Country Kitchen”
• Alliteration in the names of these shops in conjunction with the use of Australian diction such as ‘clobber’ illustrate the diminishment and trivialization of Australian history and culture
• The historical value of these practices are sacrificed to fuel the commercialism and tourism
Quote 3: “Beyond the children’s playground there are fossils, like crumpled old drawings of creatures in rock”
• Fossils in this case are metonymic of real historical education, and the fact that it remains disregarded by the children shows disregard for knowledge, the children rather playing on the commercially built ‘playground’
• The simile “like crumpled old drawings of creatures in rock” further shows this degradation of knowledge, and can also be taken to mean the degradation of indigenous culture, since the land is such an ideal part of indigenous culture
Meaning Two
Meaning Two (‘The Aboriginal Cricketer’): How assimilation into white Australian culture for Indigenous people was needed for them to fit in society, but how this process is damaging to Indigenous culture and identity.
Elaboration: “The Aboriginal Cricketer” shows the danger presented to Indigenous Australians in colonial times, being forced to either assimilate into white culture thereby disregarding their traditional and cultural identity or risk being persecuted within society for being different. The fact that the poem was based off an 1850s-painting showing an Indigenous man playing cricket draws stark contrast with the frontier wars between Indigenous Australians and white settlers. The context of cricket is an ironic vehicle of control, reducing real conflict to ritual, an English game.
Quote 1: “with your willow shield up, as if to face spears”
• The use of the cricket bat as a ‘willow shield’ symbolizes the metaphorical defense of Indigenous people against persecution from white Australians through assimilation.
• Additionally, the simile ‘as if to face spears’ creates a cultural allusion to the Indigenous warrior and their fights with European settlers, showing the opposition to white Australians continues in the modern day just in a different form
Quote 2: “you’re inside their men’s Law, one church they do obey”
• Law in this sense has two meanings, meaning laws of cricket and laws of colonial Australia, and capitalized to show its importance and dominance over Indigenous Australians
• Opposition is created between Indigenous people ‘your’ and white Australians ‘their’ conveying the idea that it’s a conflict over culture and influence
Quote 3: “where all missiles are just leather”
• Missiles are connotative of danger and attack, and the missiles themselves symbolize attacks on Indigenous culture and identity from white Australia
• The persona is thus showing the dangers of not assimilating into white Australian culture
Meaning Three
Meaning Three (‘Tin wash dish’): the recognition of poverty as a grim reality in Australian identity, and how poverty and its effects can never escape someone and will always come back to disadvantage them. Rural, working class poverty dispels some myths of nation identity, regarding the idea of a fair go and equality.
Elaboration: “Tin wash dish” emphasizes how poverty always remains part of a person and their history and how even though people can accomplish great things, poor people will always return to disgusting conditions. Poverty also isn’t in any way ‘chosen’ or any one’s fault or family’s fault, it’s a creation of a commercialistic western society.
Quote 1: “Lank poverty, dank poverty”, “dank poverty, rank poverty”
• The lines are repeated several times which becomes anaphora throughout the entire poem, serving as a constant reminder of the brand the poverty puts on someone and its constant disadvantages
• The rhyme in the different combinations emphasizes the awfulness of poverty, and also dispels any kind of romantic misconceptions that poverty stricken people rise above poverty and excel
Quote 2: “never the fault of those you love: poverty comes down from above”
• The metaphor of ‘coming down from above’ can be seen as an allusion to the hierarchy of the wealthy and socially distinct upper class, thereby assigning the lower class to poverty
• Caesura is used to build up the proposition and satire, and the rhyme emphasizes the mocking of the idea that people are poverty stricken by their own volition
Quote 3: “astound the nation, rule the army…. You’ll wait for the day you get sent back… home calls itself a shack”
• Astounding the nation and ruling the army are synecdoches which represent having a value in society, contributing to the nation and having public importance. It shows how even though people living in poverty can achieve great things, they never lose the mark of poverty.
• Additionally, personification is employed in ‘home calls itself a shack’ which emphasizes how despite the achievements of poor people, they still return to miserable living conditions, their history never changes
Meaning Four
Meaning Four (‘Noonday Axeman’): Noonday Axeman adopts the historically accurate Australian cultural trait of suppressing the culture and identity of Indigenous Australians.
Elaboration: The dominant meaning of ‘Noonday Axeman’ which highlights the importance for Australians to maintain a connection with the Australian bush, becomes completely ironic if viewed in contrast to the history of white settlers invading Australia and suppressing the culture of Indigenous people, a culture that placed heavy significance on connection to the bush.
Quote 1: “Axe-fall, echo and silence. Dreaming silence”
• ‘Dreaming’ can be seen as an allusion to the Aboriginal dreamtime and metonymic of aboriginal culture
• The personification in the terse phrase ‘dreaming silence’ emphasizes the silence and suppression of indigenous culture within the now white dominated natural landscape
Quote 2: “And my great-great-grandfather here with his first sons”
• Alliteration in ‘great-great grandfather’ illustrates the history that white colonials have with the land, but in the context of Indigenous Australians, this history is rather abrupt, and is based on violence and suppression with Indigenous peoples
Quote 3: “Here, I remember all of a hundred years”
• A hundred years, referring to the presence of white Australians, is ironic when compared to the many thousands of years that Indigenous Australians have lived on the land
• Anaphora is used in ‘a hundred years’ in successive quatrains, which emphasizes the irony even further
Meaning Five
Meaning Five (‘Noonday Axeman’): ‘Noonday Axeman’ exemplifies the Australian cultural trait of resilience and honour in the working class, perpetuated through the symbol of the ‘Aussie battler’, romanticizing the Australian image of heroic, individualistic frontiersman.
Elaboration: ‘Noonday Axeman’ represents several historical Australian working class jobs of manual labor and romanticizes them, highlighting their admirable qualities and recognizing their importance to early colonial history. The pastoral sub-genre gives a nostalgic tone to the recalling of these great heroes, subtly suggesting that Australia has lost the qualities of the rugged frontiersman.
Quote 1: “to remember my ancestors, Axeman, dairyman, horse-breakers”,
• The listed professions are synecdochic of regular middle class trades
• The persona declares they will ‘remember my ancestors’ idealizing and romanticizing those people, perpetuating their importance to Australian conceptions of cultural identity
Quote 2: “unwilling or rapt, despairing or very patient, made what amounts to a human breach in the silence”
• The antitheses between the qualities ‘unwilling or rapt’, and ‘despairing or very patient’ represents the differences in these people and some hardships that they faced
• Despite this, the metaphor ‘a human breach in the silence’ illustrates the admiration that the persona has in these cultural archetypes and their significance to Australian cultural identity
Quote 3: “rough foundations of legends- men must have legends”
• The meaning of ‘legend’ in Australian discourse signifies the high regard that these people are held in by the persona
• The connotations in ‘rough’, hard work and hardship, illustrate the importance of resilience in these figures and are linked to the symbol of the Aussie Battler
• The pastoral sub-genre highlights these qualities in a nostalgic tone, subtly suggesting that perhaps the qualities of these archetypes have been lost
Meaning Six
Meaning Six (‘Noonday Axeman’): ‘Noonday Axeman’ highlights the importance for Australians to maintain connection with the bush, as opposed to reliance on cities.
Elaboration: ‘Noonday Axeman’ signifies to Australians the importance of maintain a connection to the Australian bush, exemplifying the benefits and important history that Australians have had with the bush. The serenity and calmness of the bush is presented in binary opposition with the cramped and noisy urban environment, illustrating the negative effects of relying on the city.
Quote 1: “Axe-fall, echo and silence. Noonday silence”
• Silence is used as anaphor throughout the entire poem, becoming a motif which shows the serenity and calmness of the natural landscape
• The terse phrase ‘axe-fall, echo and silence’ uses tricolon to show the simple and comprehensive nature of things in the country
Quote 2: “A cloud of fragrant leaves hangs over me moveless, pierced everywhere by the sky”
• Neologism used in ‘moveless’ in tandem with the metaphor ‘a cloud of leaves’ accentuates the tranquility and aestheticism of the natural landscape
Quote 3: “you have built against silence, dumbly trudging through noise”
• This draws the motif of silence into juxtaposition with noise which illustrates the complexity and amount of things going on in the city, that has made people ‘dumber’
Global Statement
Literature and culture can be said to be co-dependent, culture is necessary for the creation of literature however literature is often viewed as a development or materialization of a certain culture.
