Bruce Dawe’s texts Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am, convey different journeys that offer challenges and insights. Journeys can be defined as an act of travelling from one place to another. The physical journey evident in Drifters places emphasis on the fact that journeys can be forced. The text Last Seen 12:10am depicts that journeys can be inner struggle and offer challenges that bring uncertainty and fear. Hence it is evident that these two texts by Dawe demonstrate challenges and insights that travellers can have on a journey.
Bruce Dawe’s poem, Drifters, demonstrates that physical journeys are often difficult for a traveller to embark on. Leaving their home is seen as the journey in the poem, and offers many challenges to the travellers. In the line, “and the kids will yell “Truly? ” and get wildly excited for no reason, and the brown kelpie pup will start dashing about”, Dawe is able to engage the reader and create an intimate atmosphere, through the use of vivid imagery and colloquial language. This paints a picture of the scene at hand and initiating a relationship between the family and the reader.
These lines of Drifters express that although physical journeys offer challenges, they can also contain happiness and excitement of change. Furthermore, Dawe’s poem, Drifters, shows there can be diverse opinions on the task of physical journey. The personas in the text continue to address the fact that physical journeys explore the concept of providing challenges and insights. This is stressed in the lines “and notice how the oldest girl is close to tears because she was happy here, and how the youngest girl is beaming because she wasn’t.”
Dawe demonstrates how there can be varying attitudes towards physical journey by contrasting the two daughters opinions on the move. It shows how the oldest daughter is reluctant for change, while the youngest daughter embraces it. It gives us two perspectives and emotional responses to the forced journey. These lines in Drifters emphasizes that journeys often challenge people to face change, whether they are ready to accept it or not. In addition to this, Dawe’s poem, Drifters, suggests that physical journeys can often be predicted, though they can occur so often.
The mother in the text is seen to have a lack of security due to the challenge of moving so frequently. This is demonstrated in the lines “the first thing she’ll put on the trailer will be the bottling-set she never unpacked from Grovedale. ” Through the use of third person narrative, it causes the reader to feel detached and removed from the scene, which can be contrasted to feeling part of the family in the lines “and the kids will yell ‘Truly? ’ and get wildly excited for no reason, and the brown kelpie pup will start dashing about.”
The lines give you distance, and make you feel like you are merely a viewer of the family. Moreover, the symbolic nature of the bottling-sets indicates that she was never settled long enough for it to be used, as the use of bottling sets are a timely process. Therefore, it is evident that Drifters further portrays the idea of physical journey by demonstrating the challenges and hardships people are sometimes faced with. Bruce Dawe’s poem, Drifters, suggests that physical journeys provide various challenges and obstacles.
The travellers of the text are forced to face the challenge of leaving their home once again. This is seen in the line “Loaded ute bumps down the drive. ” Through the use of symbolism and onomatopoeia, Dawe is able to engage the audience and create a tone of sadness. The line signifies that they are physically leaving their place, and the use of the word ‘bumps’ signifies that things aren’t always smooth and demonstrates the challenges they were faced with. Therefore it is seen that Dawe’s poem, Drifters emphasizes the hardships and obstacles people are faced with by going on a journey.
The poem, Last Seen 12:10am by Bruce Dawe, also suggests that journeys offer challenges and insights. The persona evident in this poem supports this through the frustrating journey she takes to locate her abducted daughter. This is highlighted in the opening lines, “What price the doggedness of one loving family against the ravening dark? ” Through the use of the rhetorical question, Dawe is able to create a dull and grim atmosphere for the poem, and informs us of the mother’s frustration to find her daughter.
The contrast between the loving family, and the ravening dark, places emphasis on the horrifying back-story of the missing daughter. The initial lines of Last Seen immediately portray the challenges and hardships faced whilst embarking on a journey. Furthermore, Dawe’s poem, Last Seen 12:10am demonstrates that physical journeys can be times of urgency and discovery. The mother in this poem portrays these mindsets whilst on the search for her daughter. This is seen in the line “from the early morning road where, at that time, the traffic passes at a rate of ten or twelve per minute.”
The use of adjectives and vivid imagery paints a picture of the scene at hand, and the mother who is feeling alert and attentive to her surroundings. The poem is very slow paced and reflects the mothers inner turmoil about her missing daughter. Therefore, it is evident that Last Seen 12:10am is a strong text that supports the fact that journeys offer numerous challenges and obstacles. Moreover, Last Seen 12:10am by Bruce Dawe conveys that the physical journeys can be extremely difficult, through the challenges and hurdles along the way.
The traveller in this text explores this concept as she is portrayed as stressed yet determined to find her daughter. This is presented in the lines, “dragged into a car as into Grendel’s cave – shoes, purse found elsewhere later. ” The use of the allusion to an old English ethic, Beowulf, alludes to the monster that has taken her daughter. The deliberate broken sentences used, reflect the mothers mindset of broken, frustrated and exhausted. Therefore, Last Seen 12:10am presents that journeys can display harsh mindsets due to the challenges and obstacles they provide.
Finally, Dawe’s poem, Last Seen, suggests that physical journeys often show that throughout all the hardships in life, the love in a family is paramount. This is highlighted in the last four lines of the poem, which read: “A police spokesman says, ‘At night the city streets are full of predators. ’ We know… But we know love – and that’s implacable too. ” The unique structure of leaving the last two lines isolated emphasizes the contrast between the evil said by the policeman, and the love of the family. It demonstrates that the family love is stronger than anything, and gives the mother the resilience to carry on the search for her daughter.
The dialogue and use of high modality by the policeman saying the night is ‘full of predators’ portrays the negative side of humanity, and the lack of concern they have. As a result, Last Seen by Dawe, depicts a forceful physical journey through the challenges that the travellers are faced with, which are unfortunately unavoidable. All in all, Dawe’s poems, Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am, both depict journeys that offer various challenges and insights. Drifters create a picture that journeys can sometimes be forced, and it can be out of a persons control to stay or go.
Often, it is seen that physical journeys can take their toll on people, as sometimes people simply crave stability and security, which there is a lack of seen in this poem. Although this can be the case, they can also bring new experiences, and great anticipation for change. In the poem Last Seen 12:10am, the journey seen is the inner struggle of the mother on her quest to find her daughter. The journey riddled the mother with doubts and fears along her personal and mental voyage of looking for her daughter. Therefore, it is seen that Dawe’s texts, Drifters and Last Seen 12:10am portray that journeys offer various challenges and insights.
