My Country Poem Annotation: Dorothea

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My Country

Poem Annotation

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

11:20 AM

Initial

Thoughts:

Mackellar is describing the country that she loves

"running in your veins". This represents

blood and heritage.

"Strong love of grey-blue distance" speaks

for the size and space of the country

Tone and

Connotations:

The poem begins with Mackellar describing another

country. This is because she has portrayed it as "ordered woods" and

soft dim skies". But then she continues and the tone becomes more of a

love affair with Australia with Mackellar saying "my love is

otherwise". This brings to mind Australia's natural assets. The beauty in

the abundant and varied landscapes.

Devices:

Onomatopoeia - "drumming of an army" creates a feel that soldiers are

marching to the beat of nature

Alliteration - "Lithe lianas", "flood, fire and famine". The

use of alliteration helps to emphasize the characteristics of Australian rural

life. "Lithe lianas coil" is also a use of consonance. The use of

"flood, fire and famine" makes it seem as if the flood and fire are

causing the famine. It helps emphasize the struggle between man and Australia.

The sound F is a desperate sound, a struggling sound

Imagery - an example of this is "of droughts and

flooding rains". This describes Australia as cruel in time of droughts and

unpredictable in the rainy season. There's lots of natural, colourful visual

imagery used. Synaesthesia (mixing senses) 'hot gold hush of noon' is used to engage the audience in the awesomeness of Australia.

The effect assists in heightening the sensation of being there.

Personification - By using words like, "she" and "her" the poet

personifies Australia. The audience gets a feel that Australia is not just

lifeless piece of land. The country is feminized, making the country seem as a

'dangerous mistress'. The word 'her pitiless blue sky' makes her seem powerful,

and pitiless. She then goes on to describe Australia as generous 'she pays us

back threefold' giving a contrast. 'an opal hearted country' it isn't a black

heart, or a golden heart, making her (the country) so many things, sometimes

pitiless, sometimes generous and generally unpredictable.

Form:

My Country is a rhyming poem, fourteen stanzas in

length. The opening two stanzas describe the British landscape, but this is not

the country the young Dorothea Mackellar yearns for. The genre is part of bush

poetry and does not tell a story

Context:

Dorothea Mackellar was born on 1 July 1885. she was an

Australian poet and fiction writer. Mackellar was educated at home and began

writing at a very young age. Her best-known poem is My Country, written at age

19 in 1904, while homesick in England