JUDITH WRIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Issue 1

Judith Wright

Environmental issues

2012

FROM THE MOST FAMOUS AUSTRLIAN POETS KNOWN IN THIS ISSUE

udith Wright, passion for what she believed made her the title of a well-known Australian poet, short story

writer and conversationalist. She was the founding member in 1964 to 1976, President, of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. She was also the second Australian to receive the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, in 1992.

Born in the early 20th in Armidale, New South Wales the eldest child of Phillip Wright and his wife Ethel spends most their time in Brisbane and Sydney and has a background of Cornish ancestry.

In her early years Wright was brought up in her families’ sheep station. Wright went through the tragedy of her ill–health mother and she died in 1927. This is when she started writing her poetry, mainly to please her mother before she deceased. The early death of her mother, Wright spends her schooling life with her aunt where she schooled at New England Girls’ after her father’s remarriage in 1929.

In 1934, the later years of Judith Wright life she was admission in University of Sydney,

where she studied philosophy, English, Psychology and history, without taking a degree. In the World War II, she went back to her farther station where she developed immense awareness of the land and its people.

When Judith Wright marries J.P McKinney in 1962 she was 30 years old and the unorthodox philosopher, was 23 years her senior, she was very much attracted to him. In 1966, McKinney deceased and Wright moved to the NSW town of Braidwood.

Judith began a new life with her husband in Queensland, which leaded to her career. She wrote most of her pieces in the mountains of southern Queensland only. Her next move, to Braidwood, was with respect to her protest against the political policies of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Premier of Queensland. It was here that Wright composed her nature based poetry. She was also a part time actress to maintain her basic livelihood.

Judith being an environmentalist, together with David Fleay, Kathleen McArthur and Brian Clouston, was a founding member of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland. She also fought to conserve the Great Barrier Reef, when its ecology was

Biography of Judith Wright The Biography of Judith Wright written by Leon tan

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Judith Wright Poem Analysis Analysis of the poems by Judith Wright, Analyzed by

Leon Tan

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The Power of Working Blood Poem written by Leon Tan using style by Judith Wright.

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J

Biography of Judith Wright by Leon Tan

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endangered by the oil drilling, and campaign against sand mining on Fraser Island. Wright and a group of friends was one of the earliest nature conservation movements. She also was a campaign for the Aboriginal land rights movement. Before her death she marched in Canberra for the reconciliation between white Australians and the Aboriginal people.

Judith Wright deceased on 26th June 2000, she died of a heart attack, in Canberra. She was 85 years old when she deceased. Wright requested to be in ashes and was scattered around the Cemetery of Tamborine Mountain. The state government donated her possession of a rainforest, so it can be preserved as a national park.

The poem “Australia 1970” written by Judith Wright uses many techniques to get her messages through such as the many uses of metaphor and similes this showed her passionate and attitude towards the topic. The poet Judith Wright portray “Australia 1970” as an environmentalist point of view, she speaks of the environment being endangered and the cause “Humans” or “Us”. Wright speaks highly on this subject matter, with attitude on the passion for this topic. She has the point of view, as were being the monster of destruction and the mere unprotected, innocent animals are defenseless against us.

Wright has passion for this topic as she is an environmentalist and from past experiences. Her past experience of the dreadful passing of her mother at an early age, Wright wrote poems to her mother before her passing to please her, gave a background on the style and attitude on the way she writes.

Wright also has a broad vocabulary which gives the poem and extra detail and precise poem. She used the word “soil ebb” which impacts as an image to the reader of a plant without the need of soil to growth.

Wright also has a variety use figurative language and the use of personification in her style of writing.

She also uses lots of alliteration, assonance and consonance to play with the readers tong and making it more interesting to read. Examples in the poem “Australia 1970” such as alliteration “clawing and striking” (which has the same syllables 2), assonance “Die, wild country, like the eagle…” and consonance “clawing and striking” these are used to create more emphasis in the sentences, which creates a better sound and image for the reader. Wright speaks of many words which doesn’t make sounds but gives you a feeling of the word which creeps in

Poem Analysis (Australia 1970) by Leon Tan

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your mind, the use of the emotion that passes though the reader.

Wright, uses many similes in this piece such as “Die, wild country, like the eagle hawk…”, “Die like the tiger snake…” and “Die like the soldier ant…” this allows her to describe her object using another object to relate this gives the reader a better idea.

Wright loves the use of rhyme and rhythm she use this technique throughout her poem to maintain its flow and sound in a sequence order this gives the elements of a connection between the verses which reflects the feeling within the poem. She used “8,7,6,10,6,10,6,9,10,6,10,6,11,11,6,11,7,11,7,10,10,6,10” this is the syllable structure of the whole poem “Australia 1970”.

This poem “Australia 1970” changed the Australia dramatically, as we all know the end result our nation is cleaner, healthier and just better compared to other. Because poets like Judith Wright cares and passionately wrote poems which made a difference. These protest poems gave the public a voice and the voice was obviously heard as there are many organizations fighting for the same cause.

The Poem “The World and the Child” written by Judith Wright uses many techniques to get her messages across, this has showed her passionate and attitude towards the topic. Wright speaks of a child without education, a lost mind in the world. She speaks of a child who feels the world but no knowledge of shapes, names and the fundamental meaning.

Wright has power with the way she uses he voice in the poem, which is mainly influenced by her attitude towards the poem. She use the stanza formation to help the reader understand how it

should be read as the way she would, the way she would express the poem.

Wright has large significant vocab knowledge and is used well in her poems to produce an image to the reader. She uses words like “farther” (means further), “harebell” (a low plant… having narrow leaves and blue) and “leviathan” (in the Bible, aquatic monster, presumably the crocodile, the whale, or a dragon. It was a symbol of evil to be ultimately defeated by the power of

The World and the Child by Leon Tan

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good) in the poem “The World and the Child”. Wright uses many similes and metaphor to use an object and saying it has similar or the same qualities in other words using like. Such examples “Out of himself like a thread the child spins pain” and “He is a wave…”

Wright uses many personifications, for a particular object and gives it human qualities to give a better explanation on the emotions through the object. Such examples are “…Out of himself like a thread the child spins pain…” and “His bare skin tastes the air” (skin cant taste the air, Wright is giving human qualities to the skin), in the poem “The World and the Child” this gave the reader a better picture on what Wright wanted the reader to see.

Wright also likes to use words to create a sound effect in the poem, this is used to create a flow and more interest in the poem. Examples such as farther instead of the word further this gave a “far” feeling in the readers mind and “the child clings to his grass blade”, clings is used to create a sound effect to the reader. These are used to give the reader a more enthusiastic image.

Wright uses a rhyming scheme, this gives a better flow in the poem and stanzas which make it easier to read. She used these syllables in her sentences “11,10,8,11,11,10,10,12,12,9,11,11,13,11,12,14,13,12,11,10,9,10,11,12,10,13,10,10,10,12,12,10,10,11,11” as you can clearly see the syllables have an specific order which is not all over the place, this makes it flow and a better read for the reader.

In Australia 21st century the government spends lots of funding towards education, for a brighter future. How did this come about, how did this became more aware to the public? Poets like Judith Wright writes protest poetry to make a change and changes are being made. Judith Wright shows the world that society has a voice when in doubt of the government decisions protest poetry

gives the public a voice and there idea on the subject in matter.

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Youth is never long, but

strength Where the mind is tough,

work is rough Everyday six to nine, seven

days Here blood shed but no tears

Everyone gets the scarce But no luxury is deserved

As they work day on and on

We live in luxurious Fabulous spaces

they seek for

Hard Working Blood is shed in the places of China

The Power of Working Blood by Leon Tan

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Judith Wright

Environmental issues

Hale School Wembley Downs

Hale School Hale Road Wembley Downs