About the poem Form Homecoming?
Answers
Explanation:
Homecoming" is a 1968 poem by Bruce Dawe. Written as an elegy for anonymous soldiers, "Homecoming" is an anti-war poem protesting Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War during the 1960s. Dennis Haskell, Winthrop Professor of English and Cultural Studies at University of Western Australia,[1] has called it "the most highly regarded poem about Vietnam written by any Australian",[2] and Peter Pierce, the editor of The Cambridge History of Australian Literature has described it as "one of the finest threnodies in the war literature of Vietnam".[3]
The anti-war sentiment in "Homecoming" is more direct than in Dawe's other well-known war poem, "Weapons Training", written two years later. The ironic use of the word homecoming, with its usual connotations of celebration, as the title becomes apparent on reading the poem, in which the acts of collecting and processing the bodies of the war dead and shipping them home are described in a highly repetitive fashion, with a rhythm that evokes the beat of a funeral drum.[4] Although the poem was written in 1968, the year Dawe left the Royal Australian Air Force, it had its origins, according to Dawe's biographer Peter Kuch, in Dawe's earlier "political awakening in Melbourne in the mid-1950s" and in particular his personal reaction to the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.[5] Before joining the RAAF, Dawe had worked as a postman. John Kinsella has proposed that Dawe's experiences during that time are echoed in the final lines of "Homecoming":
Answer:
There appears to be no redemption from this predicament. The present poets do not look for the richness of the past literature for inspiration. Rather, they look up to foreign writers as idols. Genuine models thrive in their own roots, and native speakers must therefore refrain from imitating alien culture.
The poet travels down the memory lane of his childhood when his grandfather used to narrate to him the celebrated poem “Nalayira Divya Prabandham” before going to bed. The poet’s grandfather used to pinch him when he wavered in his attention. The grandfather was sincerely determined to instill in him the literary and cultural values through his rendition of the classic.
After grandfather’s death, they held a ceremony where all the relatives were reunited. Cousins arrived in overcrowded buses. They recognized each other eventually. They witnessed the rituals as they sat on the steps of a choultry. He reflects how they did not dwell in the ‘inside’ of the culture; they were half-way out. The surroundings had not much to offer other than uneventful and undistinguished scenes. Rites and rituals seemed to lose their luster. They were served food sparingly: rice and pickle in the evening.