Hi.

I have an essay next friday, in which I have to write a critical commentary explaining how there can be different readings of the same text, with references to the poems, 'No More Boomerang' by Kath Walker, 'Woman to Child' by Judith Wright, and the short story 'Victim' by Oliver Smithfield.

Any help would be much appreciated, especially for 'No More Boomerang'.

cheers,

Lawz xox



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2006 01:43PM by lg.

There is some info. here: [72.14.207.104]

and here:
[72.14.207.104]


Les

Here's a copy of Walker's poem, if anyone is interested:

NO MORE BOOMERANG
Kath Walker (OODGEROO NOONUCCAL)

No more boomerang
No more spear;
Now all civilised --
Colour bar and beer.

No more corroboree,
Gay dance and din.
Now we got movies,
And pay to go in.

No more sharing
What the hunter brings.
Now we work for money,
Then pay it back for things.

Now we track bosses
To catch a few bob,
Now we go walkabout
On bus to the job.

One time naked,
Who never knew shame;
Now we put clothes on
To hide whatsaname.

No more gunya,
Now bungalow,
Paid by hire purchase
In twenty year or so.

Lay down the stone axe,
Take up the steel,
And work like a nigger
For a white man meal.

No more firesticks
That made the whites scoff.
Now all electric,
And no better off.

Bunyip he finish,
Now got instead
White fella Bunyip,
Call him Red.

Abstract picture now --
What they coming at?
Cripes, in our caves we
Did better than that.

Black hunted wallaby,
White hunt dollar;
White fella witchdoctor
Wear dog-collar.

No more message-stick;
Lubras and lads.
Got television now,
Mostly ads.

Lay down the woomera,
Lay down the waddy.
Now we got atom-bomb,
End everybody.

Les

Irrelevent to the question, but reading "No more boomerang" instantly put me in mind of Louise Macneice "Bagpipe music"

how there can be different readings of the same text

I am not sure I follow - do you mean why there can be more than one interpretation of a given work?

There can be different readings of almost any sentence, for example:

When did you go to the store?

WHEN did you go ...

when did YOU go ...

when did you GO ...

For the Woman to Child, one might interpret the author has been left with a deep sense of wonder about the miracle she created. Someone else might see it as agony over having brought Rosemary's Baby into the world.

A poem is intended to strike responses from its readers. You hear tomahto, I hear tomayto.


You who were darkness warmed my flesh
where out of darkness rose the seed.
Then all a world I made in me;
all the world you hear and see
hung upon my dreaming blood.

There moved the multitudinous stars,
and coloured birds and fishes moved.
There swam the sliding continents.
All time lay rolled in me, and sense,
and love that knew not its beloved.

O node and focus of the world;
I hold you deep within that well
you shall escape and not escape-
that mirrors still your sleeping shape;
that nurtures still your crescent cell.

I wither and you break from me;
yet though you dance in living light
I am the earth, I am the root,
I am the stem that fed the fruit,
the link that joins you to the night.


Here is the Macneice:

<[vriad-lee.livejournal.com]>

if someone could please help,i am having trouble with finding any poetic techniques used in this poem and also use of poetic terms eg simile, metaphor.

Mikey, if you understand the terms, you can't help but see there presence in the poem. Take these lines for instance:

I am the earth, I am the root,
I am the stem that fed the fruit,
the link that joins you to the night.

If you're still not sure, go here: [www.poeticbyway.com]

Les

thanks les, but i am also having trouble with the rhyming pattern, it is unusual because it only rhymes in the last two stanzas, any ideas mate?

Mikey, it is intended to rhyme in all stanzas. The near rhymes you hear when reading aloud are intended to make the poem sound like it rhymes. Compare this poem by Judith Wright: [www.cs.rice.edu]

Rhyme scheme:

abccb, deffe, ghiih, jkllk


Les

when did kath walker(oodgeroo noonuccal) write the poem "no more boomerang" ?? and where ??

Go here: [www.google.com]


Les

Being an Australian aborigine, she wrote it in Australia. She came from Moreton Island in the state of Queensland, but I'm not sure whether she was still living there when she wrote it.

That source cited by Les is wrong in saying that she wrote it in 1981. Her first two books of poetry were 'We Are Going' (1964) and 'The Dream Is At Hand' (1966). 'No More Boomerang' was in her third book of poetry 'My People' (1970). The collection in that book included her earlier published work along with new work, so without going to a library I can't say whether 'No More Boomerang' had already been published in 1964 or 1966.

She changed her name to Oodgeroo Noonuccal in 1987.

Ian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2006 03:54AM by IanB.

>That source cited by Les is wrong in saying that she wrote it in 1981

Ian I apologize I thought I had erased my first post. This later post shows that it was indeed published before 1970. It was probably written on the island of Stradbroke off of Queensland, since that is where she was raised and did much of her writing about Aboriginal topics.. According to info. gained on the internet and especially here: [findaid.library.uwa.edu.au]

Les



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2006 04:56PM by lg.

No need to apologize to me, Les. Blame the Internet! I see I erred too, in posting that KW came from Moreton Island. Don't now recall which Internet site gave me that piece of misinformation. Reliable sources say she was born and raised on North Stradbroke Island. That's just south of Moreton Island. There may have been a confusion with Moreton Bay, which is almost enclosed on its seaward side by the two islands. According to my atlas there's no island called Stradbroke. There's North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island, but as the former is much the bigger of the two, perhaps it's the one the locals usually mean when they say Stradbroke Island.

The discrepancy in the name (of the island(s) appears to have begun with Captain Cook's son. [www.smh.com.au]


Les



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2006 06:59PM by lg.

Thanks, Les. I didn't know that North and South Stradbroke Islands were separated by a storm. Even for Queensland, that must have been some cyclone!

> Although the islands (at the time it was just one island) were sighted by both Captain James Cook and Matthew Flinders it wasn't until 1827 that the name Stradbroke, after the then Earl of Stradbroke, was given to the island by his son, Captain H. J. Rous, the commander of the HMS Rainbow.

That Captain Rous was actually a younger son of the Earl of Stradbroke.

[tinyurl.com]

He named the island after his father, but as Don JohnneSansCulo might have said, “No island is a man”.

> and where ??

Despite this interesting discussion, nothing I've read on the internet definitively says where Ms. Walker's poem was written.

Les

I am doing a speech on the different readings of 'No More Boomerang' and I need help too. It's hard. If you need help with stuff like the themes, poetic techniques or what the poem says about Australia, email me because I know all that. I also may be able to help with other stuff to do with the poem as I have been studying it in depth.
Hope I can help.

Jen :)

My email is jenjens4u@hotmail.com