Municipal Australia

Municipal Australia

Man has, for the duration of history, been imposing himself upon the land: living off it and consequently changing it. The poems ‘Municipal Gum’ and ‘Australia 1970’ delineate the negative impact that mankind has on the land. Both communicate the dire negativity of industrialisation that has altered the land through human’s actions. In the poem Municipal Gum, the poet has portrayed how nature has been overpowered by human activity and thus become negatively restricted. Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal gives a description of a gumtree, with the emphasis of a capital delivering its importance, whose roots have been imprisoned by and drowned in the surrounding bitumen. She/He effectively described how mankind has adversely changed the land. Similarly Judith Wright’s “Australia 1970” aggressively discusses the suffering of the land that is caused directly by humans. The purpose of both poets was to exploit the regrettable suffering of the land and immense changes it has been subjected to. Therefore both poets intend for the reader to become aware of the superfluous, harsh actions that have evidently affected all of the land.

The notion of harsh, redundant actions is supported by and established within the mood of the poem. Judith Wright incorporated specific vocabulary to evoke feelings of frustration, offense and pure hatred. The mood supports the message that the land has been devoured by mankind. This is shown through aggressive language such as “clawing, striking… a raging eye”. Such language choices attest the enormity of the impact on the land and its living inhabitants, (supported by the latter) and the intense violence of such an act. The emotions of the poem Municipal Gum were intentionally manipulated to support the reality that human beings have arrogantly attacked the land. This poem, less aggressively, communicates emotions such as contempt, frustration, bitterness, and restriction. “Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged…Its...