“A Human Pattern – Selected Poems”

ENGLISH TEXT SUMMARY NOTES “A Human Pattern – Selected Poems”

Text guide by: Tara Lloyd

A Human Pattern – Selected Poems 2

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A Human Pattern – Selected Poems 3 Contents AUTHOR NOTES ...... 4 HISTORICAL CONTEXT ...... 6 World War II ...... 6 Aboriginal Rights Movement ...... 6 GENRE ...... 8 Postmodernism ...... 8 Poetic Genres ...... 8 Lyrical Poetry ...... 8 Verse Fable ...... 9 Narrative Poetry ...... 9 Satirical Poetry ...... 9 STRUCTURE ...... 10 STYLE ...... 11 Imagery ...... 11 Rhythm and Rhyme ...... 11 Definitions of Poetic Techniques ...... 12 Elements of Analysis ...... 14 Word bank for Judith Wright’s poetry ...... 15 SETTING ...... 16 The Australian Outback ...... 16 The Modern Day World ...... 17 POEM SUMMARIES ...... 18 Overview of the ten collections of poetry ...... 18 Individual Poem Summaries ...... 20 CHARACTER PROFILES ...... 27 Protagonists and Antagonists ...... 27 Author’s attitude ...... 27 Characters as symbol or representation ...... 27 Men and Women ...... 27 The Indigenous people of Australia ...... 28 THEMES AND ISSUES ...... 30 The ruin of our world / the survival of the earth ...... 30 The loss of culture and traditions ...... 30 Life and Death ...... 31 IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS ...... 32 Quotes from Judith Wright herself ...... 32 Quotes from selected poems ...... 33 SAMPLE ESSAY TOPICS ...... 36 FINAL EXAMINATION ADVICE ...... 38 REFERENCES ...... 39 References Used ...... 39 References for Students ...... 39 Judith Wright’s Poetry Collections ...... 40

A Human Pattern – Selected Poems 4 AUTHOR NOTES

Judith Wright lived from 1915-2000, publishing more than 50 books; she was a poet, short-story writer, and critic. She was as equally renowned for her written work and her work as an environmentalist and social activist. Born in Armidale, New South Wales, Judith Wright was the eldest child of Phillip and Ethel Wright. While growing up, much of Judith’s time was spent in Brisbane and Sydney. When her mother died at an early age and her father remarried in 1929, Judith was raised by her aunt and then attended boarding school at New England Girls’ School. Wright went on to study philosophy, English, History and Psychology at the University of Sydney. Her feeling of love and connection to nature was enhanced when, at the beginning of World War II, she moved to help at her father’s station. Due to conscription there was great labour shortage. In 1946, while working at the University of Queensland as a research officer, Wright’s first book of poetry The Moving Image was published. A turning point in her life was in 1950, with the move to Mount Tamborine, Queensland with her partner Jack McKinney and the birth of their daughter Meredith. Jack was an abstract philosopher and novelist, and in 1962 they married. Four years after their marriage, Jack McKinney passed away, and after his death, and for the last three decades, Wright lived in Braidwood, New South Wales. Believing a poet should consider and reflect on social and national problems; in 1964 Wright became one of three founding members of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, and was president for twelve years. Wright was also a foundation member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Judith Wright was the poetic author of The Moving Image, Women to Man, The Gateway, The Two Fires, Birds, The Other Half, Magpies, Shadow and many other collections of poetry.

Wright’s poetry was eminent for its focus on the Australian environment and Indigenous Australians. Her love of mankind and nature was revealed through her common portrayals of the bush, settlers, Australian flora and fauna and the environment. Through her language she painted images showing the relationship between mans existence in a changing world, one’s sense of reality and lost identities. Although much of her poetry reflects joy, her daughter states that her poetry also describes “the experiences of cruelty, pain and death.” A great deal of Wright’s poetry deals with the concept that humanity has caused terrible damage and destruction to the world in which we live.

Wright was renowned for her environmentalist campaigning, one of which was for the conservation of Fraser Island and the Great Barrier Reef. Her other fervent passion was to support the Aboriginal lands rights movement. At 85, not long before her death in June 2000, Wright marched for the reconciliation between white Australians and the Aboriginal people in Canberra. In 1992 Wright received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, the second Australian in history to receive such a prestigious honor. Wright died of a heart attack and her ashes were scattered around the mountain Cemetery of Tamborine Mountain. The strip of rainforest Wright owned was donated to the state so it could become part of the national park.

Wright was awarded much recognition not only for her poetic work, but also her conservationist work and passion towards indigenous affairs. In 1994, from the Human Rights and Equal

A Human Pattern – Selected Poems 5 Opportunity Commission, she received a Poetry Award for Collected Poems. In Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley lies the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts and it was announced in 2008, a suburb named “Wright” will be named after her in Canberra.