Could i have some help identifying some language techniques in this poem please


I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just on spec, addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow"

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

* * * * * * * * *

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.

* * * * * * * * *

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal --
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.

There is some info. here: [Yxb8AaJc2AJ:www.terrace.qld.edu.au/academic/english/worddocs/australianpoetry.doc+clancy+of+the+overflow,+criticism,&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=372.14.253.104] />
Try Googling, the title, plus one or more of these key words, "criticism", "analysis", or "summary".


Les

They don't define what they mean by 'language techniques', but likely the following link from the Aussie HSC pages will clarify:

<[hsc.csu.edu.au] />
Simile
Metaphor
Colloquial language
Direct speech
Slang
Literary allusion
First person
Comparatives/ superlatives
Ellipsis
Modality
Juxtaposition
Imagery
Repetition
Rhetorical question

One can click the 'Further Links" drop-down arrow for a search box to look up unfamiliar terms. Make sure you click the bullet for Search NSW HSC Online and not the Google search.

I don't see 'internal rhymes' listed there, but they appear in the poem as well.

thanks..can u help find some of these language techniques in the poem, ive tried but cant seem to find many

Pain, check the definitions here: [www.poeticbyway.com] />

Les

Slang/colloquiallanguage should be easy to spot.

Imagery - a thumb-nail dipped in tar, for example. Does it create a specific image in your mind?

Metaphor - round eternal, maybe. What does the author mean by this figure?

Personification - the bush hath friends to meet him. The bush is personified, that is able to possess friends, which the outback cannot really do.

Comparative - better knowledge, for example.

Literary allusion - down the Cooper perhaps. Just guessing as the allusion is unfamiliar to me.

First person - I had written ...

Juxtaposition - eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy seems to fit.


Well, I am not gonna do the whole thing for you, so take Les's suggestion and try to match the definitions with your own examples from the text.

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Posted by: pain (192.168.128.5)
Date: October 07, 2006 07:42PM

thanks alot

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2006 02:06AM by lg.

Les and Hugh have covered this well.

Though not on the given list of techniques, you might note how Paterson uses particular words ('hurry', 'hurrying', rush', 'haste', 'no time to waste') and a faster word rhythm in stanzas 5, 6 and 7, to evoke the unhealthy rush of life in the city, compared to the slow pace of life in the remote outback, where (in his imagination) the cattle under the drover's care are 'slowly stringing', and the drover only has to ride at the same slow speed, and the breezes and the river flow are but gentle murmuring forces, and there is time to contemplate the 'everlasting stars'. His imagination returns to the outback in stanza 8. He implies that time there is measured by the coming and going of seasons, in contrast with the daily round of deadlines a city bookkeeper faces. (Again, this is just Paterson's imagination. He was a practising lawyer, not an accountant.)

'the Cooper' is Cooper Creek, an inland 'river'. Though Paterson imagines it flowing and ruffled by the breezes, it is actually dry for long periods. The 19th Century explorers, Burke and Wills, who were the first to travel across Australia from south to north, famously died of thirst and exhaustion at their Cooper Creek camp on their return journey.

Ian

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2006 09:44AM by IanB.