Month: August 2025

Introduction: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

“Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal first appeared in 1960 in her debut poetry collection We Are Going, a groundbreaking work that marked the first book of verse published by an Aboriginal Australian woman. The poem uses the image of a gum tree, trapped in a city street and surrounded by hard bitumen, as a powerful metaphor for the dislocation, oppression, and cultural alienation experienced by Indigenous Australians under colonization. Through vivid similes, such as likening the tree to a “poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” with its “hopelessness” etched in its posture, Noonuccal conveys a deep sense of loss and injustice. The closing lines—“O fellow citizen, / What have they done to us?”—shift the focus from the tree to a shared Aboriginal identity, implicating colonial urbanization in the severing of people from their land and traditions. Its popularity stems from this poignant intertwining of environmental and Indigenous struggles, making it both a political statement and a lyrical lament that continues to resonate in discussions of cultural survival and resistance.

Text: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Gumtree in the city street,
Hard bitumen around your feet,
Rather you should be
In the cool world of leafy forest halls
And wild bird calls
Here you seems to me
Like that poor cart-horse
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,
Whose hung head and listless mien express
Its hopelessness.
Municipal gum, it is dolorous
To see you thus
Set in your black grass of bitumen—
O fellow citizen,
What have they done to us?

Annotations: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Line	Text	Annotation	Literary Devices
1	Gumtree in the city street,	The poem opens by addressing a gumtree, a native Australian tree, standing in an urban street, highlighting its displacement from its natural environment. The direct address establishes a personal tone, as if the tree is a character.	Personification (addressing the tree as if it can understand), Imagery (vivid picture of a tree in a city street)
2	Hard bitumen around your feet,	Describes the tree’s roots surrounded by unforgiving bitumen (asphalt), emphasizing the unnatural, restrictive urban setting. “Your feet” suggests the tree is human-like, trapped by the city.	Personification (tree with “feet”), Imagery (hard bitumen creates a tactile and visual contrast to natural soil)
3	Rather you should be	Expresses a longing for the tree to be in its rightful place, setting up a contrast between the ideal natural environment and the current urban one. The incomplete sentence creates anticipation.	Contrast (urban vs. natural setting), Enjambment (line breaks mid-thought, leading to the next line)
4	In the cool world of leafy forest halls	Describes the ideal environment for the tree: a cool, shaded forest with abundant foliage, evoking a sense of freedom and natural beauty. “Leafy forest halls” paints a grand, almost sacred image.	Imagery (vivid description of the forest), Metaphor (forest as “halls,” suggesting a grand, natural cathedral)
5	And wild bird calls	Adds the sound of birds to the forest scene, enhancing the sensory appeal of nature and contrasting with the silent, oppressive city.	Imagery (auditory image of bird calls), Contrast (natural sounds vs. urban silence)
6	Here you seems to me	The speaker reflects on the tree’s current state, using a personal perspective (“to me”). The word “seems” suggests an empathetic observation, preparing for a comparison.	Subjective Tone (personal perspective), Enjambment (leads into the next line’s comparison)
7	Like that poor cart-horse	Compares the tree to a cart-horse, an animal overworked and mistreated, introducing a powerful analogy for suffering and exploitation.	Simile (comparing tree to cart-horse with “like”), Symbolism (cart-horse as a symbol of oppression)
8	Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,	Describes the cart-horse (and by extension, the tree) as mutilated, defeated, and unjustly treated, emphasizing suffering and loss of vitality. The list of adjectives intensifies the tone.	Imagery (vivid description of suffering), Alliteration (“broken,” “thing wronged” for emphasis), Symbolism (castration as loss of natural vitality)
9	Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,	Depicts the horse (and tree) as bound and suffering endlessly, with “hell” suggesting extreme torment. The mechanical imagery of straps and buckles contrasts with natural life.	Imagery (straps and buckles evoke restriction), Metaphor (“hell” for ongoing suffering)
10	Whose hung head and listless mien express	Describes the horse’s drooping head and lifeless demeanor, reflecting despair. This mirrors the tree’s drooping branches, reinforcing the comparison.	Imagery (visual of hung head), Personification (horse’s demeanor “expresses” emotion), Symbolism (hung head as despair)
11	Its hopelessness.	A single, stark word summarizing the horse’s (and tree’s) emotional state, emphasizing despair and finality. The short line creates a dramatic pause.	Diction (strong word choice for emotional impact), Caesura (pause for emphasis)
12	Municipal gum, it is dolorous	Directly addresses the tree again, calling it “municipal” (city-owned) and “dolorous” (sorrowful), reinforcing its plight. The formal tone elevates the tree’s suffering.	Personification (tree as sorrowful), Diction (“dolorous” for poignant effect)
13	To see you thus	Expresses the speaker’s sadness at witnessing the tree’s condition, maintaining a personal and empathetic tone.	Subjective Tone (speaker’s emotional response), Enjambment (flows into the next line)

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Device	Example from Poem	Explanation
📖 Allusion	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	This line alludes to the historical and cultural context of Indigenous displacement and suffering under colonial systems, linking the tree’s plight to the speaker’s, likely an Indigenous person.
🗣️ Apostrophe	“O fellow citizen” (Line 15)	By directly addressing the gumtree as a “fellow citizen,” the speaker treats it as a human entity, fostering empathy and highlighting their shared oppression in the urban environment.
🎶 Assonance	“Cool world of leafy forest halls” (Line 4)	The repeated “o” sound in “cool” and “world” creates a soothing, flowing rhythm, evoking the calm and beauty of the forest, in contrast to the harsh city setting.
⏸️ Caesura	“Its hopelessness.” (Line 11)	The short, standalone line creates an abrupt pause, forcing the reader to dwell on “hopelessness,” amplifying the emotional weight of the tree’s and horse’s despair.
🔉 Consonance	“Strapped and buckled” (Line 9)	The repeated “d” sound in “strapped” and “buckled” reinforces the mechanical imagery of confinement, enhancing the sense of the tree’s and horse’s entrapment.
↔️ Contrast	“Rather you should be / In the cool world of leafy forest halls” (Lines 3-4)	The poem contrasts the tree’s urban setting with its ideal natural environment, highlighting its displacement and the unnatural constraints of the city.
📜 Diction	“Dolorous” (Line 12)	The word “dolorous” (meaning sorrowful) conveys deep sadness with a formal, mournful tone, elevating the tree’s suffering to a tragic, almost poetic level.
➡️ Enjambment	“Here you seems to me / Like that poor cart-horse” (Lines 6-7)	The thought spills over without punctuation, creating urgency and continuity, pulling the reader into the comparison between the tree and the cart-horse.
🖼️ Imagery	“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2)	Vivid sensory details depict the tree’s roots trapped in unyielding asphalt, creating a tactile and visual image that emphasizes its unnatural, restrictive environment.
🤝 Inclusive Pronoun	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	The pronoun “us” unites the speaker and the tree, suggesting a shared experience of oppression, possibly reflecting the broader Indigenous struggle.
😏 Irony	“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Calling bitumen “black grass” is ironic, sarcastically equating lifeless asphalt with natural grass, underscoring the unnatural urban setting imposed on the tree.
⚖️ Juxtaposition	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	Placing the natural gumtree next to the urban “city street” highlights the stark incompatibility between nature and the man-made environment.
🌌 Metaphor	“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Bitumen is compared to grass, presenting it as a false, lifeless substitute for the tree’s natural environment, reinforcing themes of displacement and loss.
😔 Mood	“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12)	The poem establishes a mournful, melancholic mood through words like “dolorous” and imagery of suffering, evoking sympathy for the tree’s plight.
🌳 Personification	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	The tree is addressed as if human, with “feet” and the capacity to suffer, fostering empathy and emphasizing its victimization by urban forces.
❓ Rhetorical Question	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	This question prompts reflection on the shared oppression of the tree and speaker, implicating colonial or urban forces without expecting an answer.
⭐ Symbolism	“Like that poor cart-horse” (Line 7)	The cart-horse symbolizes oppression and exploitation, mirroring the tree’s displacement and the broader suffering of Indigenous people under colonial systems.
🧠 Subjective Tone	“Here you seems to me” (Line 6)	The phrase “seems to me” reflects the speaker’s personal, empathetic perspective, inviting readers to share their emotional response to the tree’s plight.
🔄 Syntax	“Rather you should be” (Line 3)	The inverted syntax prioritizes “rather,” emphasizing the speaker’s longing for the tree’s natural environment, creating a poignant, reflective tone.

Themes: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

🌿 Theme 1: Displacement and Loss of Natural Habitat: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal vividly captures the theme of displacement through the image of a gum tree, unnaturally confined to a city street. The poet laments, “Hard bitumen around your feet, / Rather you should be / In the cool world of leafy forest halls”, evoking the tree’s rightful place in the wild, surrounded by bird calls and natural beauty. This juxtaposition between the tree’s current entrapment and its ideal environment mirrors the forced removal of Aboriginal people from their ancestral lands. The title itself, Municipal Gum, underscores the irony of an Indigenous tree subjected to urban authority, reflecting the broader alienation of nature—and by extension, Indigenous culture—under colonial urban expansion.

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🐎 Theme 2: Oppression and Dehumanization: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal draws a stark parallel between the tree’s plight and that of a “poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged”. This metaphor not only humanizes the tree but also underscores the cruelty of stripping a being—human or animal—of its freedom and dignity. By describing the horse’s “hung head and listless mien”, Noonuccal evokes an image of total subjugation, suggesting that urbanization does not merely displace but also inflicts ongoing suffering. This analogy deepens the political resonance of the poem, presenting the gum tree as a symbol for Aboriginal people subjected to systemic control and cultural castration under colonial governance.

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🖤 Theme 3: Shared Suffering and Indigenous Solidarity: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal bridges the gap between the natural and human worlds by addressing the tree directly as a “fellow citizen”. This kinship signifies a deep Indigenous worldview in which land, plants, and people are interconnected. The closing question—“What have they done to us?”—shifts the poem’s focus from the singular plight of the tree to a collective Aboriginal experience of oppression. The pronoun “us” establishes solidarity, uniting the speaker, the tree, and the broader Indigenous community as mutual victims of dispossession. In doing so, Noonuccal transforms the gum tree from a passive urban fixture into a silent witness to, and participant in, the enduring struggle for Aboriginal rights and cultural survival.

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🌏 Theme 4: Environmental and Cultural Critique of Urbanization: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal serves as both an environmental lament and a cultural critique of modern urban development. The phrase “black grass of bitumen” starkly contrasts with the natural soil and vegetation of the gum tree’s original habitat, symbolizing how industrial progress replaces organic life with lifeless infrastructure. This imagery reflects how colonial urban planning not only damages the environment but also erodes Indigenous traditions tied to the land. By embedding the gum tree in a cityscape, Noonuccal critiques the prioritization of economic and municipal growth over ecological balance and cultural continuity, aligning environmental degradation with the erasure of Indigenous heritage.

Literary Theories and “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Theory	Explanation	References from Poem
🌍 Postcolonial Theory	Postcolonial theory examines the effects of colonization on cultures and societies, focusing on issues of identity, displacement, and resistance. In “Municipal Gum,” the gumtree’s displacement from its natural forest to the urban street mirrors the dispossession and marginalization of Indigenous Australians under colonial rule. The speaker’s identification with the tree as a “fellow citizen” and the question “What have they done to us?” suggest a shared experience of oppression, reflecting the loss of land and culture for Indigenous peoples.	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1), “O fellow citizen, / What have they done to us?” (Lines 15-16)
🌿 Ecocriticism	Ecocriticism explores the relationship between literature and the natural environment, often highlighting human exploitation of nature. The poem portrays the gumtree as a victim of urbanization, trapped in “hard bitumen” and separated from its natural “leafy forest halls.” This reflects the environmental cost of urban development and critiques humanity’s domination of nature, aligning the tree’s suffering with broader ecological harm.	“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2), “In the cool world of leafy forest halls / And wild bird calls” (Lines 4-5)
👩 Feminist Theory	Feminist theory analyzes gender dynamics and power structures, often focusing on marginalized voices. While the poem does not explicitly address gender, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, an Indigenous woman, uses the tree’s suffering to voice resistance against oppression. The personification of the tree as a “fellow citizen” and the emotive language (“dolorous,” “hopelessness”) can be read as a feminine-coded expression of empathy and nurturing, challenging the patriarchal, colonial forces that harm both nature and Indigenous communities.	“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12), “O fellow citizen” (Line 15)
⚙️ Marxist Theory	Marxist theory examines class struggle and the exploitation of labor and resources by capitalist systems. The gumtree, likened to a “poor cart-horse” that is “castrated, broken, a thing wronged,” symbolizes the exploitation of natural resources and Indigenous peoples by urban, capitalist systems. The “municipal” label suggests ownership by a city authority, reflecting how capitalism commodifies and controls both nature and marginalized groups for profit.	“Like that poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” (Lines 7-8), “Municipal gum” (Line 12)

Critical Questions about “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Works Similar to “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

• 🌿 “The City Tree” by Judith Wright – Like “Municipal Gum,” this poem contrasts a tree’s natural setting with its confinement in an urban environment, symbolizing human disconnection from nature.
• 🐎 “The Horses” by Edwin Muir – Shares with “Municipal Gum,” a sense of loss and post-industrial alienation, using animals as symbols of a more harmonious past disrupted by human progress.
• 🖤 “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – From the same poet, it parallels Municipal Gum in its exploration of Aboriginal displacement and cultural loss through the personification of nature.
• 🌏 “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Echoes Municipal Gum in its critique of industrialization’s damage to nature, contrasting the beauty of creation with the scarring effects of human exploitation.
• 🌊 “The Waste Land” (opening section) by T.S. Eliot – Shares Municipal Gum’s imagery of barrenness and unnatural landscapes to represent cultural decay and alienation from the natural world.

Representative Quotations of “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Quotation and Line Number	Context	Theoretical Interpretations
“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	This opening line introduces the central image of a native Australian gumtree misplaced in an urban environment, setting the stage for themes of displacement and alienation.	Postcolonial: The gumtree symbolizes Indigenous Australians displaced by colonial urbanization, reflecting loss of land and identity. Ecocritical: Highlights the unnatural imposition of urban spaces on nature, critiquing environmental disruption. Feminist: As a work by an Indigenous woman, the tree’s placement may reflect marginalized voices challenging dominant urban narratives. Marxist: Represents the commodification of nature by capitalist urban systems, stripping it of its natural context.
“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2)	Describes the tree’s roots trapped in asphalt, emphasizing its confinement and unnatural surroundings.	Postcolonial: Mirrors the entrapment of Indigenous peoples in colonial systems, unable to thrive in their natural state. Ecocritical: Critiques urbanization’s replacement of natural soil with lifeless bitumen, harming ecosystems. Feminist: The tree’s “feet” personify it as a vulnerable entity, akin to marginalized groups under patriarchal control. Marxist: Suggests capitalist exploitation of natural resources, with bitumen symbolizing industrial dominance.
“Rather you should be” (Line 3)	Expresses the speaker’s longing for the tree to be in its natural forest habitat, contrasting with its current urban setting.	Postcolonial: Reflects Indigenous desire to return to pre-colonial harmony with land, disrupted by colonization. Ecocritical: Advocates for the restoration of natural environments over urban sprawl. Feminist: The nurturing tone aligns with feminine-coded empathy, resisting urban oppression. Marxist: Critiques the capitalist systems that prioritize urban development over natural preservation.
“In the cool world of leafy forest halls” (Line 4)	Depicts an idealized natural environment, evoking a serene, untouched forest, contrasting with the urban setting.	Postcolonial: Evokes pre-colonial Indigenous lands, free from colonial interference. Ecocritical: Celebrates nature’s beauty, critiquing its destruction by urban development. Feminist: The nurturing imagery reflects a feminine connection to nature, opposing patriarchal urban control. Marxist: Contrasts the freedom of nature with the commodified urban landscape, highlighting capitalist exploitation.
“Like that poor cart-horse” (Line 7)	Compares the gumtree to an overworked, mistreated cart-horse, introducing a simile of suffering and exploitation.	Postcolonial: The horse symbolizes Indigenous peoples, oppressed and dehumanized by colonial systems. Ecocritical: Equates the tree’s suffering with nature’s exploitation by human systems. Feminist: The empathetic comparison reflects a feminine-coded resistance to oppressive structures. Marxist: Represents labor exploitation under capitalism, with the horse and tree as victims of systemic abuse.
“Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” (Line 8)	Describes the cart-horse (and tree) as mutilated and defeated, emphasizing profound suffering and injustice.	Postcolonial: Reflects the emasculation and cultural destruction of Indigenous communities under colonialism. Ecocritical: Highlights nature’s degradation by human intervention, reducing it to a “thing wronged.” Feminist: The language of violation suggests a gendered critique of patriarchal harm to both nature and marginalized groups. Marxist: Symbolizes the dehumanization of labor and nature under capitalist systems, stripped of vitality for profit.
“Its hopelessness” (Line 11)	A stark, single-word line capturing the despair of the horse and tree, creating a dramatic pause.	Postcolonial: Encapsulates the despair of Indigenous peoples facing ongoing colonial oppression. Ecocritical: Reflects the bleak fate of nature trapped in urban environments. Feminist: The emotional weight aligns with feminine expressions of empathy and loss, resisting stoic patriarchal norms. Marxist: Represents the hopelessness of exploited classes and resources under capitalist domination.
“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12)	Directly addresses the tree as “municipal,” highlighting its ownership by the city, and describes its sorrowful state.	Postcolonial: The term “municipal” suggests colonial control over Indigenous land and symbols. Ecocritical: Critiques urban systems for imposing ownership on nature, causing its suffering. Feminist: The term “dolorous” reflects a feminine-coded emotional response, emphasizing care for the oppressed. Marxist: “Municipal” indicates capitalist commodification of nature, reducing it to city property.
“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Sarcastically describes the asphalt as “black grass,” highlighting the unnatural replacement of nature with urban materials.	Postcolonial: Symbolizes the erasure of Indigenous landscapes by colonial urban development. Ecocritical: Critiques the replacement of natural ecosystems with lifeless urban materials. Feminist: The ironic tone reflects a subversive, feminine-coded critique of patriarchal urban dominance. Marxist: Represents capitalism’s transformation of natural resources into artificial, profit-driven constructs.
“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	The final rhetorical question unites the speaker and tree, implicating an oppressive “they” in their shared suffering.	Postcolonial: Alludes to colonial oppression, linking the tree’s and Indigenous peoples’ shared plight. Ecocritical: Questions humanity’s role in environmental destruction, uniting human and natural suffering. Feminist: The inclusive “us” reflects a collective, empathetic resistance to patriarchal and colonial forces. Marxist: Critiques capitalist systems for exploiting both nature and marginalized groups, fostering solidarity in their shared harm.

Suggested Readings: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. Javidshad, Mahdi, and Amirhossein Nemati. “Hybridity in Australia: a postcolonial reading of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s selected poems.” Critical Literary Studies 2.1 (2020): 39-56.
2. Pustarfi, Laura. “Interstice: Eucalyptus.” The Wisdom of Trees: Thinking Through Arboreality, edited by Laura Pustarfi and David Macauley, State University of New York Press, 2025, pp. 369–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.29248382.27. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
3. Davies, Margaret. “The Consciousness of Trees.” Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 217–35. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26770750. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.

Introduction: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

“Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal first appeared in 1960 in her debut poetry collection We Are Going, a groundbreaking work that marked the first book of verse published by an Aboriginal Australian woman. The poem uses the image of a gum tree, trapped in a city street and surrounded by hard bitumen, as a powerful metaphor for the dislocation, oppression, and cultural alienation experienced by Indigenous Australians under colonization. Through vivid similes, such as likening the tree to a “poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” with its “hopelessness” etched in its posture, Noonuccal conveys a deep sense of loss and injustice. The closing lines—“O fellow citizen, / What have they done to us?”—shift the focus from the tree to a shared Aboriginal identity, implicating colonial urbanization in the severing of people from their land and traditions. Its popularity stems from this poignant intertwining of environmental and Indigenous struggles, making it both a political statement and a lyrical lament that continues to resonate in discussions of cultural survival and resistance.

Text: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Gumtree in the city street,
Hard bitumen around your feet,
Rather you should be
In the cool world of leafy forest halls
And wild bird calls
Here you seems to me
Like that poor cart-horse
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,
Whose hung head and listless mien express
Its hopelessness.
Municipal gum, it is dolorous
To see you thus
Set in your black grass of bitumen—
O fellow citizen,
What have they done to us?

Annotations: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Line	Text	Annotation	Literary Devices
1	Gumtree in the city street,	The poem opens by addressing a gumtree, a native Australian tree, standing in an urban street, highlighting its displacement from its natural environment. The direct address establishes a personal tone, as if the tree is a character.	Personification (addressing the tree as if it can understand), Imagery (vivid picture of a tree in a city street)
2	Hard bitumen around your feet,	Describes the tree’s roots surrounded by unforgiving bitumen (asphalt), emphasizing the unnatural, restrictive urban setting. “Your feet” suggests the tree is human-like, trapped by the city.	Personification (tree with “feet”), Imagery (hard bitumen creates a tactile and visual contrast to natural soil)
3	Rather you should be	Expresses a longing for the tree to be in its rightful place, setting up a contrast between the ideal natural environment and the current urban one. The incomplete sentence creates anticipation.	Contrast (urban vs. natural setting), Enjambment (line breaks mid-thought, leading to the next line)
4	In the cool world of leafy forest halls	Describes the ideal environment for the tree: a cool, shaded forest with abundant foliage, evoking a sense of freedom and natural beauty. “Leafy forest halls” paints a grand, almost sacred image.	Imagery (vivid description of the forest), Metaphor (forest as “halls,” suggesting a grand, natural cathedral)
5	And wild bird calls	Adds the sound of birds to the forest scene, enhancing the sensory appeal of nature and contrasting with the silent, oppressive city.	Imagery (auditory image of bird calls), Contrast (natural sounds vs. urban silence)
6	Here you seems to me	The speaker reflects on the tree’s current state, using a personal perspective (“to me”). The word “seems” suggests an empathetic observation, preparing for a comparison.	Subjective Tone (personal perspective), Enjambment (leads into the next line’s comparison)
7	Like that poor cart-horse	Compares the tree to a cart-horse, an animal overworked and mistreated, introducing a powerful analogy for suffering and exploitation.	Simile (comparing tree to cart-horse with “like”), Symbolism (cart-horse as a symbol of oppression)
8	Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,	Describes the cart-horse (and by extension, the tree) as mutilated, defeated, and unjustly treated, emphasizing suffering and loss of vitality. The list of adjectives intensifies the tone.	Imagery (vivid description of suffering), Alliteration (“broken,” “thing wronged” for emphasis), Symbolism (castration as loss of natural vitality)
9	Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,	Depicts the horse (and tree) as bound and suffering endlessly, with “hell” suggesting extreme torment. The mechanical imagery of straps and buckles contrasts with natural life.	Imagery (straps and buckles evoke restriction), Metaphor (“hell” for ongoing suffering)
10	Whose hung head and listless mien express	Describes the horse’s drooping head and lifeless demeanor, reflecting despair. This mirrors the tree’s drooping branches, reinforcing the comparison.	Imagery (visual of hung head), Personification (horse’s demeanor “expresses” emotion), Symbolism (hung head as despair)
11	Its hopelessness.	A single, stark word summarizing the horse’s (and tree’s) emotional state, emphasizing despair and finality. The short line creates a dramatic pause.	Diction (strong word choice for emotional impact), Caesura (pause for emphasis)
12	Municipal gum, it is dolorous	Directly addresses the tree again, calling it “municipal” (city-owned) and “dolorous” (sorrowful), reinforcing its plight. The formal tone elevates the tree’s suffering.	Personification (tree as sorrowful), Diction (“dolorous” for poignant effect)
13	To see you thus	Expresses the speaker’s sadness at witnessing the tree’s condition, maintaining a personal and empathetic tone.	Subjective Tone (speaker’s emotional response), Enjambment (flows into the next line)

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Device	Example from Poem	Explanation
📖 Allusion	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	This line alludes to the historical and cultural context of Indigenous displacement and suffering under colonial systems, linking the tree’s plight to the speaker’s, likely an Indigenous person.
🗣️ Apostrophe	“O fellow citizen” (Line 15)	By directly addressing the gumtree as a “fellow citizen,” the speaker treats it as a human entity, fostering empathy and highlighting their shared oppression in the urban environment.
🎶 Assonance	“Cool world of leafy forest halls” (Line 4)	The repeated “o” sound in “cool” and “world” creates a soothing, flowing rhythm, evoking the calm and beauty of the forest, in contrast to the harsh city setting.
⏸️ Caesura	“Its hopelessness.” (Line 11)	The short, standalone line creates an abrupt pause, forcing the reader to dwell on “hopelessness,” amplifying the emotional weight of the tree’s and horse’s despair.
🔉 Consonance	“Strapped and buckled” (Line 9)	The repeated “d” sound in “strapped” and “buckled” reinforces the mechanical imagery of confinement, enhancing the sense of the tree’s and horse’s entrapment.
↔️ Contrast	“Rather you should be / In the cool world of leafy forest halls” (Lines 3-4)	The poem contrasts the tree’s urban setting with its ideal natural environment, highlighting its displacement and the unnatural constraints of the city.
📜 Diction	“Dolorous” (Line 12)	The word “dolorous” (meaning sorrowful) conveys deep sadness with a formal, mournful tone, elevating the tree’s suffering to a tragic, almost poetic level.
➡️ Enjambment	“Here you seems to me / Like that poor cart-horse” (Lines 6-7)	The thought spills over without punctuation, creating urgency and continuity, pulling the reader into the comparison between the tree and the cart-horse.
🖼️ Imagery	“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2)	Vivid sensory details depict the tree’s roots trapped in unyielding asphalt, creating a tactile and visual image that emphasizes its unnatural, restrictive environment.
🤝 Inclusive Pronoun	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	The pronoun “us” unites the speaker and the tree, suggesting a shared experience of oppression, possibly reflecting the broader Indigenous struggle.
😏 Irony	“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Calling bitumen “black grass” is ironic, sarcastically equating lifeless asphalt with natural grass, underscoring the unnatural urban setting imposed on the tree.
⚖️ Juxtaposition	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	Placing the natural gumtree next to the urban “city street” highlights the stark incompatibility between nature and the man-made environment.
🌌 Metaphor	“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Bitumen is compared to grass, presenting it as a false, lifeless substitute for the tree’s natural environment, reinforcing themes of displacement and loss.
😔 Mood	“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12)	The poem establishes a mournful, melancholic mood through words like “dolorous” and imagery of suffering, evoking sympathy for the tree’s plight.
🌳 Personification	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	The tree is addressed as if human, with “feet” and the capacity to suffer, fostering empathy and emphasizing its victimization by urban forces.
❓ Rhetorical Question	“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	This question prompts reflection on the shared oppression of the tree and speaker, implicating colonial or urban forces without expecting an answer.
⭐ Symbolism	“Like that poor cart-horse” (Line 7)	The cart-horse symbolizes oppression and exploitation, mirroring the tree’s displacement and the broader suffering of Indigenous people under colonial systems.
🧠 Subjective Tone	“Here you seems to me” (Line 6)	The phrase “seems to me” reflects the speaker’s personal, empathetic perspective, inviting readers to share their emotional response to the tree’s plight.
🔄 Syntax	“Rather you should be” (Line 3)	The inverted syntax prioritizes “rather,” emphasizing the speaker’s longing for the tree’s natural environment, creating a poignant, reflective tone.

Themes: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

🌿 Theme 1: Displacement and Loss of Natural Habitat: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal vividly captures the theme of displacement through the image of a gum tree, unnaturally confined to a city street. The poet laments, “Hard bitumen around your feet, / Rather you should be / In the cool world of leafy forest halls”, evoking the tree’s rightful place in the wild, surrounded by bird calls and natural beauty. This juxtaposition between the tree’s current entrapment and its ideal environment mirrors the forced removal of Aboriginal people from their ancestral lands. The title itself, Municipal Gum, underscores the irony of an Indigenous tree subjected to urban authority, reflecting the broader alienation of nature—and by extension, Indigenous culture—under colonial urban expansion.

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🐎 Theme 2: Oppression and Dehumanization: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal draws a stark parallel between the tree’s plight and that of a “poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged”. This metaphor not only humanizes the tree but also underscores the cruelty of stripping a being—human or animal—of its freedom and dignity. By describing the horse’s “hung head and listless mien”, Noonuccal evokes an image of total subjugation, suggesting that urbanization does not merely displace but also inflicts ongoing suffering. This analogy deepens the political resonance of the poem, presenting the gum tree as a symbol for Aboriginal people subjected to systemic control and cultural castration under colonial governance.

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🖤 Theme 3: Shared Suffering and Indigenous Solidarity: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal bridges the gap between the natural and human worlds by addressing the tree directly as a “fellow citizen”. This kinship signifies a deep Indigenous worldview in which land, plants, and people are interconnected. The closing question—“What have they done to us?”—shifts the poem’s focus from the singular plight of the tree to a collective Aboriginal experience of oppression. The pronoun “us” establishes solidarity, uniting the speaker, the tree, and the broader Indigenous community as mutual victims of dispossession. In doing so, Noonuccal transforms the gum tree from a passive urban fixture into a silent witness to, and participant in, the enduring struggle for Aboriginal rights and cultural survival.

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🌏 Theme 4: Environmental and Cultural Critique of Urbanization: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal serves as both an environmental lament and a cultural critique of modern urban development. The phrase “black grass of bitumen” starkly contrasts with the natural soil and vegetation of the gum tree’s original habitat, symbolizing how industrial progress replaces organic life with lifeless infrastructure. This imagery reflects how colonial urban planning not only damages the environment but also erodes Indigenous traditions tied to the land. By embedding the gum tree in a cityscape, Noonuccal critiques the prioritization of economic and municipal growth over ecological balance and cultural continuity, aligning environmental degradation with the erasure of Indigenous heritage.

Literary Theories and “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Theory	Explanation	References from Poem
🌍 Postcolonial Theory	Postcolonial theory examines the effects of colonization on cultures and societies, focusing on issues of identity, displacement, and resistance. In “Municipal Gum,” the gumtree’s displacement from its natural forest to the urban street mirrors the dispossession and marginalization of Indigenous Australians under colonial rule. The speaker’s identification with the tree as a “fellow citizen” and the question “What have they done to us?” suggest a shared experience of oppression, reflecting the loss of land and culture for Indigenous peoples.	“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1), “O fellow citizen, / What have they done to us?” (Lines 15-16)
🌿 Ecocriticism	Ecocriticism explores the relationship between literature and the natural environment, often highlighting human exploitation of nature. The poem portrays the gumtree as a victim of urbanization, trapped in “hard bitumen” and separated from its natural “leafy forest halls.” This reflects the environmental cost of urban development and critiques humanity’s domination of nature, aligning the tree’s suffering with broader ecological harm.	“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2), “In the cool world of leafy forest halls / And wild bird calls” (Lines 4-5)
👩 Feminist Theory	Feminist theory analyzes gender dynamics and power structures, often focusing on marginalized voices. While the poem does not explicitly address gender, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, an Indigenous woman, uses the tree’s suffering to voice resistance against oppression. The personification of the tree as a “fellow citizen” and the emotive language (“dolorous,” “hopelessness”) can be read as a feminine-coded expression of empathy and nurturing, challenging the patriarchal, colonial forces that harm both nature and Indigenous communities.	“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12), “O fellow citizen” (Line 15)
⚙️ Marxist Theory	Marxist theory examines class struggle and the exploitation of labor and resources by capitalist systems. The gumtree, likened to a “poor cart-horse” that is “castrated, broken, a thing wronged,” symbolizes the exploitation of natural resources and Indigenous peoples by urban, capitalist systems. The “municipal” label suggests ownership by a city authority, reflecting how capitalism commodifies and controls both nature and marginalized groups for profit.	“Like that poor cart-horse / Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” (Lines 7-8), “Municipal gum” (Line 12)

Critical Questions about “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Works Similar to “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

• 🌿🐎 “The Horses” by Edwin Muir – Shares with “Municipal Gum” a sense of loss and post-industrial alienation, using animals as symbols of a more harmonious past disrupted by human progress.
• 🖤 “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – From the same poet, it parallels Municipal Gum in its exploration of Aboriginal displacement and cultural loss through the personification of nature.
• 🌏 “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Echoes “Municipal Gum” in its critique of industrialization’s damage to nature, contrasting the beauty of creation with the scarring effects of human exploitation.
• 🌊 “The Waste Land” (opening section) by T.S. Eliot – Shares “Municipal Gum’”s imagery of barrenness and unnatural landscapes to represent cultural decay and alienation from the natural world.

Representative Quotations of “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Quotation and Line Number	Context	Theoretical Interpretations
“Gumtree in the city street” (Line 1)	This opening line introduces the central image of a native Australian gumtree misplaced in an urban environment, setting the stage for themes of displacement and alienation.	Postcolonial: The gumtree symbolizes Indigenous Australians displaced by colonial urbanization, reflecting loss of land and identity. Ecocritical: Highlights the unnatural imposition of urban spaces on nature, critiquing environmental disruption. Feminist: As a work by an Indigenous woman, the tree’s placement may reflect marginalized voices challenging dominant urban narratives. Marxist: Represents the commodification of nature by capitalist urban systems, stripping it of its natural context.
“Hard bitumen around your feet” (Line 2)	Describes the tree’s roots trapped in asphalt, emphasizing its confinement and unnatural surroundings.	Postcolonial: Mirrors the entrapment of Indigenous peoples in colonial systems, unable to thrive in their natural state. Ecocritical: Critiques urbanization’s replacement of natural soil with lifeless bitumen, harming ecosystems. Feminist: The tree’s “feet” personify it as a vulnerable entity, akin to marginalized groups under patriarchal control. Marxist: Suggests capitalist exploitation of natural resources, with bitumen symbolizing industrial dominance.
“Rather you should be” (Line 3)	Expresses the speaker’s longing for the tree to be in its natural forest habitat, contrasting with its current urban setting.	Postcolonial: Reflects Indigenous desire to return to pre-colonial harmony with land, disrupted by colonization. Ecocritical: Advocates for the restoration of natural environments over urban sprawl. Feminist: The nurturing tone aligns with feminine-coded empathy, resisting urban oppression. Marxist: Critiques the capitalist systems that prioritize urban development over natural preservation.
“In the cool world of leafy forest halls” (Line 4)	Depicts an idealized natural environment, evoking a serene, untouched forest, contrasting with the urban setting.	Postcolonial: Evokes pre-colonial Indigenous lands, free from colonial interference. Ecocritical: Celebrates nature’s beauty, critiquing its destruction by urban development. Feminist: The nurturing imagery reflects a feminine connection to nature, opposing patriarchal urban control. Marxist: Contrasts the freedom of nature with the commodified urban landscape, highlighting capitalist exploitation.
“Like that poor cart-horse” (Line 7)	Compares the gumtree to an overworked, mistreated cart-horse, introducing a simile of suffering and exploitation.	Postcolonial: The horse symbolizes Indigenous peoples, oppressed and dehumanized by colonial systems. Ecocritical: Equates the tree’s suffering with nature’s exploitation by human systems. Feminist: The empathetic comparison reflects a feminine-coded resistance to oppressive structures. Marxist: Represents labor exploitation under capitalism, with the horse and tree as victims of systemic abuse.
“Castrated, broken, a thing wronged” (Line 8)	Describes the cart-horse (and tree) as mutilated and defeated, emphasizing profound suffering and injustice.	Postcolonial: Reflects the emasculation and cultural destruction of Indigenous communities under colonialism. Ecocritical: Highlights nature’s degradation by human intervention, reducing it to a “thing wronged.” Feminist: The language of violation suggests a gendered critique of patriarchal harm to both nature and marginalized groups. Marxist: Symbolizes the dehumanization of labor and nature under capitalist systems, stripped of vitality for profit.
“Its hopelessness” (Line 11)	A stark, single-word line capturing the despair of the horse and tree, creating a dramatic pause.	Postcolonial: Encapsulates the despair of Indigenous peoples facing ongoing colonial oppression. Ecocritical: Reflects the bleak fate of nature trapped in urban environments. Feminist: The emotional weight aligns with feminine expressions of empathy and loss, resisting stoic patriarchal norms. Marxist: Represents the hopelessness of exploited classes and resources under capitalist domination.
“Municipal gum, it is dolorous” (Line 12)	Directly addresses the tree as “municipal,” highlighting its ownership by the city, and describes its sorrowful state.	Postcolonial: The term “municipal” suggests colonial control over Indigenous land and symbols. Ecocritical: Critiques urban systems for imposing ownership on nature, causing its suffering. Feminist: The term “dolorous” reflects a feminine-coded emotional response, emphasizing care for the oppressed. Marxist: “Municipal” indicates capitalist commodification of nature, reducing it to city property.
“Black grass of bitumen” (Line 14)	Sarcastically describes the asphalt as “black grass,” highlighting the unnatural replacement of nature with urban materials.	Postcolonial: Symbolizes the erasure of Indigenous landscapes by colonial urban development. Ecocritical: Critiques the replacement of natural ecosystems with lifeless urban materials. Feminist: The ironic tone reflects a subversive, feminine-coded critique of patriarchal urban dominance. Marxist: Represents capitalism’s transformation of natural resources into artificial, profit-driven constructs.
“What have they done to us?” (Line 16)	The final rhetorical question unites the speaker and tree, implicating an oppressive “they” in their shared suffering.	Postcolonial: Alludes to colonial oppression, linking the tree’s and Indigenous peoples’ shared plight. Ecocritical: Questions humanity’s role in environmental destruction, uniting human and natural suffering. Feminist: The inclusive “us” reflects a collective, empathetic resistance to patriarchal and colonial forces. Marxist: Critiques capitalist systems for exploiting both nature and marginalized groups, fostering solidarity in their shared harm.

Suggested Readings: “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. Javidshad, Mahdi, and Amirhossein Nemati. “Hybridity in Australia: a postcolonial reading of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s selected poems.” Critical Literary Studies 2.1 (2020): 39-56.
2. Pustarfi, Laura. “Interstice: Eucalyptus.” The Wisdom of Trees: Thinking Through Arboreality, edited by Laura Pustarfi and David Macauley, State University of New York Press, 2025, pp. 369–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.29248382.27. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
3. Davies, Margaret. “The Consciousness of Trees.” Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 217–35. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26770750. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.

Introduction: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

“Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg first appeared in Poetry magazine in December 1916, later gaining recognition as part of the canon of First World War poetry for its stark realism and ironic tone. Set against the dawn in the trenches, the poem captures the grim normality of war through the image of a sardonic rat, whose “cosmopolitan sympathies” allow it to move freely between English and German lines, indifferent to national boundaries or human slaughter. The speaker’s act of placing a “parapet’s poppy” behind his ear contrasts the symbolic beauty of the flower with the carnage of “torn fields of France,” where poppies draw nourishment “from man’s veins.” Rosenberg’s blend of vivid imagery, bitter irony, and the juxtaposition of natural resilience with human fragility gave the poem enduring popularity. Its appeal lies in how it subverts traditional war poetry by focusing not on patriotic heroism but on the absurdity and futility of conflict, embodied in the rat’s survival amid “bonds to the whims of murder” and the soldiers’ certain mortality.

Text: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

Annotations: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

Line	Original Text	Simple English Explanation	Literary Devices
1	The darkness crumbles away.	The night is fading as dawn begins.	Metaphor, Imagery
2	It is the same old druid Time as ever,	Time feels ancient and unchanging, like a mystical figure.	Personification, Allusion
3	Only a live thing leaps my hand,	A living creature, a rat, jumps onto my hand.	Imagery
4	A queer sardonic rat,	The rat seems strange and mocking.	Personification, Adjective
5	As I pull the parapet’s poppy	While I pick a poppy flower from the trench’s edge.	Alliteration, Imagery
6	To stick behind my ear.	To place the poppy behind my ear.	Imagery
7	Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew	Funny rat, soldiers would kill you if they knew your nature.	Apostrophe, Irony
8	Your cosmopolitan sympathies.	Your tendency to interact with all sides, regardless of nationality.	Irony, Personification
9	Now you have touched this English hand	You’ve touched my English hand.	Synecdoche
10	You will do the same to a German	You’ll likely touch a German soldier’s hand too.	Parallelism
11	Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure	Probably soon, if you choose to.	Apostrophe, Irony
12	To cross the sleeping green between.	To cross the quiet no-man’s-land between trenches.	Metaphor, Imagery
13	It seems you inwardly grin as you pass	You seem to smirk as you move past.	Personification, Imagery
14	Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,	Healthy, proud soldiers with strong bodies.	Imagery, Adjective
15	Less chanced than you for life,	Less likely to survive than you, the rat.	Irony, Comparison
16	Bonds to the whims of murder,	Bound to the random violence of war.	Metaphor, Personification
17	Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,	Lying dead in the trenches or battlefields.	Metaphor, Imagery
18	The torn fields of France.	The war-damaged fields of France.	Imagery
19	What do you see in our eyes	What do you notice in our eyes, rat?	Apostrophe, Rhetorical Question
20	At the shrieking iron and flame	When we face the loud shells and fire of war.	Imagery, Onomatopoeia
21	Hurled through still heavens?	Thrown through the quiet sky?	Imagery, Oxymoron
22	What quaver—what heart aghast?	What fear or trembling do you see in us?	Rhetorical Question, Alliteration
23	Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins	Poppies that seem to grow from human blood.	Metaphor, Symbolism
24	Drop, and are ever dropping;	They wilt and keep wilting.	Repetition, Imagery
25	But mine in my ear is safe—	But the poppy behind my ear is secure.	Contrast, Imagery
26	Just a little white with the dust.	Slightly pale from the trench dust.	Imagery, Adjective

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

Literary Device	Definition	Example from Poem	Explanation
🟢 Alliteration	The repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely positioned words to enhance rhythm and emphasize key ideas.	“Parapet’s poppy” (Line 5)	The repetition of the “p” sound in “parapet’s poppy” creates a rhythmic effect, drawing attention to the act of picking the poppy, a symbol of death and remembrance in the war-torn trench setting. This reinforces the contrast between the delicate act and the harsh environment.
🟡 Allusion	A reference to a well-known person, place, event, or concept to add deeper meaning.	“It is the same old druid Time as ever” (Line 2)	The reference to “druid Time” alludes to ancient, mystical Celtic priests, suggesting that time is an unchanging, almost supernatural force overseeing the war’s futility. This adds a layer of timeless tragedy to the soldiers’ plight.
🔵 Anaphora	The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines for emphasis.	“What do you see… What quaver…” (Lines 19, 22)	The repeated “What” in the rhetorical questions addressing the rat emphasizes the speaker’s curiosity about the rat’s perspective on human suffering, intensifying the poem’s introspective and questioning tone.
🔴 Apostrophe	Addressing a non-human entity as if it can respond, often to express emotion or reflection.	“Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew” (Line 7)	The speaker directly addresses the rat, attributing human-like qualities to it, which highlights the absurdity of war where even a rat’s neutrality is a threat. This device creates intimacy and underscores the poem’s ironic tone.
🟠 Assonance	The repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words to create musicality or emphasize mood.	“Queer sardonic rat” (Line 4)	The repeated “a” sounds in “sardonic” and “rat” create a subtle musicality, emphasizing the rat’s mocking demeanor. This enhances the poem’s sardonic tone, reflecting the grim humor in the face of war’s horrors.
🟣 Caesura	A pause or break within a line, often marked by punctuation, to create emphasis or disrupt rhythm.	“What quaver—what heart aghast?” (Line 22)	The dash creates a pause, mimicking the speaker’s hesitation and emotional weight as they question the fear in soldiers’ eyes. This pause heightens the emotional intensity and mirrors the fragmented experience of war.
🟤 Consonance	The repetition of consonant sounds, typically within or at the end of words, for rhythmic effect.	“Strong eyes, fine limbs” (Line 14)	The repeated “s” and “n” sounds in “strong” and “fine” create a smooth, flowing rhythm, contrasting the vitality of the soldiers with their doomed fate, thus amplifying the tragedy of their loss in war.
🔷 Contrast	Juxtaposing opposing ideas to highlight differences or create tension.	“But mine in my ear is safe— / Just a little white with the dust” (Lines 25-26)	The contrast between the poppy’s safety behind the speaker’s ear and the wilting poppies rooted in “man’s veins” highlights the fleeting nature of life in war, emphasizing the speaker’s temporary survival amidst pervasive death.
🟡 Enjambment	The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a pause.	“Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins / Drop, and are ever dropping” (Lines 23-24)	The flow from “veins” to “Drop” without punctuation links the poppies to human bloodshed, emphasizing the ongoing cycle of death in war. This device mirrors the relentless nature of the conflict.
🔶 Hyperbole	Exaggeration for emphasis or dramatic effect.	“Bonds to the whims of murder” (Line 16)	Describing war as “whims of murder” exaggerates its randomness and brutality, portraying soldiers as helpless victims of an arbitrary force, which intensifies the poem’s anti-war sentiment.
🔸 Imagery	Vivid descriptive language that appeals to the senses to create mental pictures.	“The torn fields of France” (Line 18)	This vivid image of war-ravaged fields evokes the destruction and desolation of the battlefield, appealing to the visual sense and reinforcing the poem’s grim depiction of World War I’s toll.
🟥 Irony	A contrast between expectation and reality, often highlighting absurdity or injustice.	“Your cosmopolitan sympathies” (Line 8)	The rat’s impartiality, touching both English and German hands, is ironic in a war defined by national enmity. This underscores the absurdity of human conflict, as even a rat seems more humane than warring soldiers.
🟦 Juxtaposition	Placing two elements side by side to highlight their differences or similarities.	“Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, / Less chanced than you for life” (Lines 14-15)	Juxtaposing the soldiers’ vitality with their lesser chance of survival compared to the rat highlights the tragic waste of human potential in war, emphasizing its senseless destruction.
🟧 Metaphor	A direct comparison between unlike things without using “like” or “as.”	“The darkness crumbles away” (Line 1)	Comparing darkness to a crumbling substance suggests dawn breaking in a fragile, tactile way, setting a tone of transience and vulnerability in the war-torn trench setting.
🔹 Onomatopoeia	Words that mimic the sound they describe to enhance auditory imagery.	“Shrieking iron and flame” (Line 20)	“Shrieking” mimics the sound of artillery shells, immersing the reader in the chaotic, terrifying soundscape of war and intensifying the sensory experience of the battlefield.
🟪 Oxymoron	Combining contradictory terms to create a paradoxical effect.	“Still heavens” (Line 21)	The phrase pairs the calm of “still” with the vastness of “heavens” amidst war’s chaos, highlighting the surreal contrast between the sky’s tranquility and the violence below.
🔺 Parallelism	Using similar grammatical structures to create rhythm and reinforce ideas.	“Now you have touched this English hand / You will do the same to a German” (Lines 9-10)	The parallel structure emphasizes the rat’s impartiality, reinforcing the poem’s theme of war’s futility by showing how it crosses enemy lines without distinction.
🟫 Personification	Attributing human characteristics to non-human entities.	“It seems you inwardly grin as you pass” (Line 13)	The rat is given the human trait of grinning, suggesting it mocks the soldiers’ plight. This personification enhances the rat’s role as an observer of war’s absurdity, contrasting its survival with human fragility.
🔻 Rhetorical Question	A question asked for effect, not expecting an answer, to provoke thought.	“What do you see in our eyes” (Line 19)	Addressing the rat, this question prompts reflection on the soldiers’ fear and despair, deepening the poem’s exploration of war’s psychological toll without requiring a literal response.
🟨 Symbolism	Using an object or word to represent an abstract idea.	“Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins” (Line 23)	Poppies symbolize death and remembrance, with their “roots in man’s veins” suggesting they grow from soldiers’ blood, representing the sacrifice and loss of life in war, a powerful anti-war image.

Themes: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

🕰 Theme 1: Time and the Cycles of War: In “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, time is presented as an eternal, impartial force that persists regardless of human suffering. The opening lines — “The darkness crumbles away. / It is the same old druid Time as ever” — liken time to a “druid,” suggesting ancient wisdom and detachment. The arrival of dawn marks both renewal and monotony, as every day in the trenches repeats the same horrors. This cyclical framing emphasizes the futility of war when placed within the vast, unchanging continuum of history, where battles fade into obscurity yet time remains untouched.

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🐀 Theme 2: The Irony of Survival: In “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, the “queer sardonic rat” becomes a central emblem of survival against the odds. While soldiers are “less chanced than you for life” and tied to “the whims of murder,” the rat roams freely between enemy lines, showing “cosmopolitan sympathies” toward both English and German hands. This inversion — where a despised vermin thrives while human beings perish — exposes the absurdity of war. The rat’s indifference to nationality underlines the arbitrariness of human divisions and the bitter irony that life often favors the least noble of creatures.

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🌺 Theme 3: Nature’s Indifference and Coexistence with Death: In “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, the image of the “parapet’s poppy” encapsulates the coexistence of beauty and destruction. The speaker observes that “Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins / Drop, and are ever dropping,” suggesting that the flowers draw life from soldiers’ blood. Yet the poppy behind his ear is “safe— / Just a little white with the dust,” untouched by the violence that sustains others. This juxtaposition portrays nature as indifferent to human suffering, thriving in the soil enriched by death without moral judgment or emotional response.

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💣 Theme 4: The Psychological Strain of Modern Warfare: In “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg, the psychological burden of trench life emerges in moments of reflection and fear. The question “What do you see in our eyes / At the shrieking iron and flame / Hurled through still heavens?” conveys the dissonance between the calm of nature and the chaos of battle. The fallen “strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes” lying in “the bowels of the earth” show how war reduces human vitality to lifeless bodies. Phrases like “quaver” and “heart aghast” capture the internalized terror and emotional erosion that define the mental landscape of soldiers.

Literary Theories and “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

Literary Theory	Application to the Poem	References from Poem
New Criticism	New Criticism focuses on the text itself, analyzing its formal elements like structure, imagery, and irony to uncover meaning without external context. In “Break of Day in the Trenches”, the poem’s use of irony and vivid imagery creates a stark contrast between life and death. The rat, described as having “cosmopolitan sympathies” (Line 8), ironically navigates the war’s divisions freely, unlike the soldiers “bonds to the whims of murder” (Line 16). The poppy, a symbol of death with “roots in man’s veins” (Line 23), is juxtaposed with the speaker’s act of placing one “behind my ear” (Line 6), safe but “a little white with the dust” (Line 26). This contrast emphasizes the fragility of life amidst war’s destruction, with the poem’s tight structure and vivid imagery reinforcing its anti-war message through internal textual elements.	“Cosmopolitan sympathies” (Line 8), “Bonds to the whims of murder” (Line 16), “Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins” (Line 23), “Behind my ear” (Line 6), “A little white with the dust” (Line 26)
Marxist Criticism	Marxist Criticism examines literature through the lens of class struggle, power dynamics, and socioeconomic conditions. The poem critiques the dehumanizing effects of war, which serves the interests of those in power while sacrificing the working-class soldiers. The soldiers, described as “haughty athletes” (Line 14) yet “less chanced than you [the rat] for life” (Line 15), are reduced to pawns in the “torn fields of France” (Line 18), suggesting their exploitation by a system that values territorial gain over human lives. The rat’s ability to cross “the sleeping green between” (Line 12) highlights its freedom compared to the soldiers, who are trapped by the “whims of murder” (Line 16), reflecting the class-based disposability of the lower ranks in wartime hierarchies.	“Haughty athletes” (Line 14), “Less chanced than you for life” (Line 15), “Torn fields of France” (Line 18), “Sleeping green between” (Line 12), “Whims of murder” (Line 16)
Postcolonial Criticism	Postcolonial Criticism explores themes of imperialism, cultural identity, and resistance to colonial power. While World War I is not typically a colonial context, the poem can be read as critiquing the imperial systems that fueled the war, with Rosenberg, a Jewish poet, potentially reflecting on marginalized identities. The rat’s “cosmopolitan sympathies” (Line 8) and its crossing between “this English hand” and “a German” (Lines 9-10) challenge the nationalistic divisions imposed by imperial powers. The “torn fields of France” (Line 18) evoke the devastation of a colonized landscape, exploited for the war’s aims, while the poppy “in man’s veins” (Line 23) symbolizes the universal cost of imperial conflicts, questioning the legitimacy of such wars for marginalized groups like Rosenberg himself.	“Cosmopolitan sympathies” (Line 8), “This English hand / You will do the same to a German” (Lines 9-10), “Torn fields of France” (Line 18), “Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins” (Line 23)
Psychoanalytic Criticism	Psychoanalytic Criticism analyzes literature through the lens of the human psyche, exploring unconscious fears, desires, and traumas. The poem reflects the speaker’s psychological state in the face of war’s horrors, with the rat serving as a projection of the speaker’s survival instincts and detachment. The rhetorical questions “What do you see in our eyes” and “What quaver—what heart aghast?” (Lines 19, 22) reveal the speaker’s anxiety and fear of death, confronting the trauma of “shrieking iron and flame” (Line 20). The act of placing the poppy “behind my ear” (Line 6) suggests a subconscious attempt to cling to beauty and normalcy amidst the “bowels of the earth” (Line 17), reflecting a defense mechanism against the overwhelming terror and mortality of the trenches.	“What do you see in our eyes” (Line 19), “What quaver—what heart aghast?” (Line 22), “Shrieking iron and

Critical Questions about “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

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Literary Works Similar to “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

• 🔴 “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen
  This poem, like Rosenberg’s, vividly depicts the horrors of World War I through stark imagery and irony, exposing the brutal reality of trench warfare and challenging glorified notions of war.
• 🟢 “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae
  Similar to Rosenberg’s use of poppies as a symbol of death and remembrance, this poem uses the poppy to reflect on the sacrifices of soldiers in the war-torn fields of Flanders.
• 🟡 “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke
  This poem contrasts with Rosenberg’s grim tone by idealizing sacrifice, but both engage with the soldier’s experience in World War I, highlighting different perspectives on death and duty.
• 🔵 “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen
  Like Rosenberg’s poem, this work uses vivid imagery and a mournful tone to lament the senseless loss of young lives in World War I, focusing on the dehumanizing effects of war.
• 🟣 “Dead Man’s Dump” by Isaac Rosenberg
  Written by Rosenberg himself, this poem shares the same gritty, visceral depiction of war’s devastation and the futility of conflict, using stark imagery to portray the battlefield’s horrors.

Representative Quotations of “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
“The darkness crumbles away.” (Line 1)	This opening line describes dawn breaking in the trenches, signaling the start of another day in the grim reality of war.	New Criticism: The metaphor of crumbling darkness emphasizes the poem’s formal imagery, setting a transient tone that contrasts the fleeting beauty of dawn with the enduring violence of war.
“It is the same old druid Time as ever” (Line 2)	The speaker reflects on time as an ancient, unchanging force overseeing the war’s futility.	Mythological Criticism: The allusion to “druid Time” invokes a mystical, timeless perspective, suggesting war’s cyclical nature as part of a larger, archetypal human struggle.
“A queer sardonic rat” (Line 4)	The rat, a recurring figure, is introduced as a mocking observer of the soldiers’ plight, navigating the trenches freely.	Existential Criticism: The rat’s sardonic nature reflects an existential indifference to human suffering, highlighting the absurdity and meaninglessness of war in the face of survival instincts.
“Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew / Your cosmopolitan sympathies” (Lines 7-8)	The speaker addresses the rat, noting its impartiality in touching both English and German soldiers, an act that could provoke hostility.	Postcolonial Criticism: The rat’s “cosmopolitan sympathies” challenge the nationalistic divisions of imperial powers, suggesting a critique of the war’s ideological underpinnings from a marginalized poet’s perspective.
“Now you have touched this English hand / You will do the same to a German” (Lines 9-10)	The rat’s neutrality is emphasized as it crosses enemy lines, highlighting the shared humanity of soldiers.	Humanist Criticism: This parallelism underscores the universal humanity of soldiers, transcending national boundaries and critiquing the artificial divisions imposed by war.
“To cross the sleeping green between” (Line 12)	The rat is described as moving across no-man’s-land, a dangerous space between opposing trenches.	Ecocriticism: The “sleeping green” personifies the land as peaceful despite its war-torn state, inviting reflection on the environmental destruction caused by human conflict.
“Less chanced than you for life” (Line 15)	The speaker compares the soldiers’ slim chances of survival to the rat’s greater likelihood of enduring the war.	Marxist Criticism: This line highlights the disposability of soldiers, particularly the working-class, in a war serving the interests of those in power, emphasizing class-based exploitation.
“What do you see in our eyes / At the shrieking iron and flame” (Lines 19-20)	The speaker questions what the rat perceives in the soldiers’ fearful expressions amidst the chaos of artillery fire.	Psychoanalytic Criticism: These rhetorical questions probe the unconscious fear and trauma of soldiers, reflecting the psychological toll of war’s relentless violence.
“Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins” (Line 23)	Poppies, symbolizing death and remembrance, are depicted as growing from the blood of fallen soldiers.	Symbolist Criticism: The poppy serves as a potent symbol of sacrifice and loss, with its roots in “man’s veins” evoking the bloodshed that fuels both the war and the flower’s growth.
“But mine in my ear is safe— / Just a little white with the dust” (Lines 25-26)	The speaker notes the poppy behind their ear is safe, unlike those wilting on the battlefield, lightly dusted by the trench’s dirt.	New Criticism: The contrast between the safe poppy and the ever-dropping ones highlights the poem’s formal tension between fleeting personal survival and the pervasive death surrounding the speaker.

Suggested Readings: “Break of Day in the Trenches” by Isaac Rosenberg

1. Rosenberg, Isaac. “Break of Day in the Trenches.” Poetry 9.3 (1916): 128-129.
2. SIMPSON, MATT. “Only a Living Thing — Some Notes towards a Reading of Isaac Rosenberg’s ‘Break of Day in the Trenches.’” Critical Survey, vol. 2, no. 2, 1990, pp. 128–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41555520. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
3. JOHNSTON, JOHN H. “POETRY AND PITY: ISAAC ROSENBERG.” English Poetry of the First World War, Princeton University Press, 1964, pp. 210–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pt66.9. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
4. JOHNSTON, JOHN H. “POETRY AND PITY: ISAAC ROSENBERG.” English Poetry of the First World War, Princeton University Press, 1964, pp. 210–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pt66.9. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.

Introduction: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

“Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal first appeared in 1964 in her debut poetry collection We Are Going. The poem reflects the deep cultural loss experienced by Aboriginal people through colonisation and urbanisation, contrasting the freedom, joy, and communal connection of traditional life with the alienation, materialism, and regimentation of modern city living. Drawing on vivid contrasts between past and present — such as the “didgeridoo” and “woomera” replaced by “neon lights” and “traffic” — the poem mourns the erasure of Indigenous traditions, language, and landscapes. Its popularity stems from its emotional honesty, accessible language, and powerful imagery, which made Aboriginal experiences visible to a broad Australian audience at a time when such voices were marginalised. By merging personal nostalgia with cultural critique, Noonuccal captures both the resilience and the grief of a people whose way of life has been irreversibly changed.

Text: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

In my dreams I hear my tribe
Laughing as they hunt and swim,
But dreams are shattered by rushing car,
By grinding tram and hissing train,
As I see no more my tribe of old
As I walk alone in the teeming town.

I have seen corroboree
Where that factory belches smoke;
Here where they have memorial park
One time lubras dug for yams;
One time our children played
There where the railway yards are now,
And where I remember the didgeridoo
Calling to us to dance and play,
Offices now, neon lights now,
Bank and shop and advertisement now,
Traffic and trade of the busy town.

No more woomera, no more boomerang,
No more playabout, no more the old ways.
Children of nature we were then.
No clocks hurrying crowds to toil.
Now I am civilized and work in the white way,
Now I have dress, now I have shoes:
‘Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!’
Better when I had only a dillybag.
Better when I had nothing but happiness.

Annotations: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Line	Simple Meaning	Literary Devices
In my dreams I hear my tribe	The speaker dreams of hearing her community’s joyful sounds.	Imagery 🎨, Nostalgia 💭
Laughing as they hunt and swim	The tribe is happy and active in traditional life.	Imagery 🎨, Positive Tone 🌞
But dreams are shattered by rushing car,	Modern life interrupts her dreams with cars.	Juxtaposition ⚖️, Onomatopoeia 🔊
By grinding tram and hissing train,	The noise of urban transport replaces natural sounds.	Onomatopoeia 🔊, Imagery 🎨
As I see no more my tribe of old	She no longer sees her community as it was.	Contrast ⚖️, Nostalgia 💭
As I walk alone in the teeming town.	She is isolated in the crowded city.	Alliteration ✨, Imagery 🎨
I have seen corroboree	She has seen traditional dances and ceremonies.	Cultural Reference 🪶, Imagery 🎨
Where that factory belches smoke;	A factory now stands where traditions once occurred.	Personification 🗣️, Imagery 🎨
Here where they have memorial park	A park now stands in a place once used traditionally.	Contrast ⚖️
One time lubras dug for yams;	Aboriginal women once gathered food here.	Historical Reference 📜, Imagery 🎨
One time our children played	Children once played freely in nature.	Nostalgia 💭, Imagery 🎨
There where the railway yards are now,	A railway has replaced the old play areas.	Contrast ⚖️, Imagery 🎨
And where I remember the didgeridoo	She recalls hearing a traditional musical instrument.	Cultural Symbol 🪘, Imagery 🎨
Calling to us to dance and play,	The instrument invited the community to gather and celebrate.	Personification 🗣️, Imagery 🎨
Offices now, neon lights now,	Modern infrastructure replaces traditional spaces.	Repetition 🔁, Imagery 🎨
Bank and shop and advertisement now,	Commercial areas have replaced nature and culture.	Listing 📋, Contrast ⚖️
Traffic and trade of the busy town.	The town is full of business and transport.	Alliteration ✨, Imagery 🎨
No more woomera, no more boomerang,	Traditional tools are no longer used.	Repetition 🔁, Cultural Symbol 🪶
No more playabout, no more the old ways.	Traditional lifestyles and customs are gone.	Repetition 🔁, Nostalgia 💭
Children of nature we were then.	They once lived in harmony with nature.	Metaphor 🌿, Nostalgia 💭
No clocks hurrying crowds to toil.	They had no time pressure in the past.	Personification 🗣️, Contrast ⚖️
Now I am civilized and work in the white way,	She works under Western systems now.	Irony 😏, Contrast ⚖️
Now I have dress, now I have shoes:	She has adopted Western clothing.	Repetition 🔁, Symbolism 🪶
‘Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!’	Others see her new life as fortunate.	Irony 😏, Direct Speech 🗨️
Better when I had only a dillybag.	She feels life was better with only a traditional bag.	Symbolism 🪶, Nostalgia 💭
Better when I had nothing but happiness.	She believes the old life was happier despite having less.	Contrast ⚖️, Hyperbole 💥

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Device	Example from Poem	Explanation
Alliteration ✨	“teeming town”, “traffic and trade”	Repetition of initial consonant sounds to create rhythm and draw attention to certain images or ideas.
Cultural Reference 🪶	“corroboree”	Direct mention of a traditional Aboriginal ceremony, grounding the poem in cultural identity.
Contrast ⚖️	“Children of nature we were then. / Now I am civilized and work in the white way”	Shows stark differences between traditional and modern life, highlighting cultural loss.
Cultural Symbol 🪘	“didgeridoo”, “woomera”, “boomerang”	Objects representing Aboriginal heritage and traditions, evoking identity and belonging.
Direct Speech 🗨️	“‘Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!'”	Quoted speech from an external voice, showing societal attitudes and irony.
Historical Reference 📜	“One time lubras dug for yams”	Refers to traditional food-gathering practices of Aboriginal women before colonisation.
Hyperbole 💥	“Better when I had nothing but happiness”	Exaggeration to stress that emotional well-being outweighed material possessions.
Imagery 🎨	“grinding tram and hissing train”, “neon lights now”	Vivid sensory descriptions that make the contrast between past and present tangible.
Irony 😏	“Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!”	The “luck” is viewed sarcastically, as the job comes at the cost of cultural loss.
Juxtaposition ⚖️	“dreams are shattered by rushing car”	Placing opposing elements side by side — peaceful dreams versus harsh urban noise — to highlight change.
Listing 📋	“Bank and shop and advertisement now”	Enumerating modern intrusions, emphasizing the overwhelming transformation.
Metaphor 🌿	“Children of nature we were then”	Compares Aboriginal people to “children of nature” to show their close bond with the land.
Nostalgia 💭	“Better when I had only a dillybag”	Expresses longing for the simplicity and joy of the past.
Onomatopoeia 🔊	“hissing train”, “grinding tram”	Words that imitate sounds, making the urban intrusion more vivid.
Personification 🗣️	“that factory belches smoke”	Gives human qualities to a factory, making industrialisation seem aggressive.
Positive Tone 🌞	“Laughing as they hunt and swim”	Joyful tone reflecting the happiness of traditional life.
Repetition 🔁	“No more woomera, no more boomerang”	Repeating phrases for emphasis, reinforcing the sense of cultural erasure.
Sensory Detail 👂	“Calling to us to dance and play”	Appeals to hearing, allowing readers to imagine the didgeridoo’s sound.
Symbolism 🪶	“dillybag”	Represents Aboriginal culture and self-sufficiency, contrasting with modern possessions.
Tone Shift 🎭	From joyful memories (“Laughing as they hunt and swim”) to resignation (“Now I am civilized and work in the white way”)	Change in tone from nostalgia to loss, mirroring the emotional journey of the speaker.

Themes: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

🌿 Connection to Nature and Traditional Life: In “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the poet evokes a deep sense of harmony with the natural world and Indigenous traditions, portraying a lifestyle in which people lived as “children of nature” without “clocks hurrying crowds to toil.” This connection is shown through sensory-rich memories of hunting, swimming, and communal gatherings, as in “Laughing as they hunt and swim” and “the didgeridoo calling to us to dance and play.” These images, combined with references to traditional tools like the “woomera” and “boomerang”, establish a world where life was guided by seasons and culture rather than economic systems. By contrasting this life with her present, Noonuccal mourns the loss of not only natural surroundings but also the values and rhythms embedded within them.

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⚖️ Cultural Displacement and Loss: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal vividly depicts the displacement of Aboriginal culture under the forces of colonisation and urbanisation, where spaces once used for communal living are transformed beyond recognition. The poet laments how “One time lubras dug for yams” in the very spot where “the railway yards are now”, symbolising a profound shift from self-sustaining cultural practices to industrial domination. Factories “belching smoke” stand where corroborees once gathered the community, and neon lights have replaced the warmth of fires. Through repetition — “No more woomera, no more boomerang” — the poet reinforces the eradication of cultural symbols, underscoring that displacement is not merely physical but an erasure of language, art, and identity.

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😏 Irony of Civilisation: In “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the poet critiques the so-called “progress” of Western civilisation, using irony to reveal the cost of this transformation. While others remark approvingly, “Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!”, the speaker counters with the belief that life was “better when I had only a dillybag”. This ironic juxtaposition highlights how societal definitions of success — wearing a dress, owning shoes, and working in the “white way” — are hollow when they replace cultural fulfillment with economic labor. The modern world’s markers of “civilisation” are shown not as gains, but as losses disguised as benefits, as material possessions have supplanted what she calls “nothing but happiness.”

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💭 Nostalgia and Memory as Resistance: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal is deeply anchored in nostalgia, where memory serves as both a personal refuge and an act of cultural preservation. Even as she walks “alone in the teeming town”, her mind returns to the days when she was surrounded by her tribe, “laughing as they hunt and swim”. The contrast between dreams — vibrant, communal, rooted in tradition — and waking reality — filled with “traffic and trade of the busy town” — intensifies her longing for a time before disruption. This persistent return to the past is more than longing; it is a subtle form of resistance, asserting that the old ways hold enduring value despite the dominance of the present.

Literary Theories and “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Theory	References from the Poem	Explanation
Postcolonial Theory 🌏	“One time lubras dug for yams”, “No more woomera, no more boomerang”	Examines the impact of colonisation, showing how Indigenous practices, tools, and spaces have been replaced by Western industrial and commercial structures. Highlights cultural erasure and identity loss.
Marxist Theory 💰	“Now I am civilized and work in the white way”, “Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!”	Analyses class structures and economic power; critiques how capitalist labor systems replace communal living with wage work, framing material possessions as progress despite emotional loss.
Eco-Criticism 🌿	“Children of nature we were then”, “Better when I had only a dillybag”	Focuses on the relationship between humans and nature; the poem contrasts sustainable traditional lifestyles with the environmental and spiritual costs of industrialisation.
Feminist Theory 👩	“One time lubras dug for yams”, “Now I have dress, now I have shoes”	Highlights Indigenous women’s roles in traditional life versus their assimilation into Western gender norms; explores how colonialism reshaped female identity and labor.

Critical Questions about “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Works Similar to “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Representative Quotations of “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Quotation	Context	Explanation with Theoretical Perspective
“In my dreams I hear my tribe” 🗨️	Opening memory of cultural connection.	Postcolonial Theory 🌏 – Highlights the centrality of Indigenous community in identity, framing the dream as resistance to colonial erasure.
“Laughing as they hunt and swim” 🌞	Depicts joyful traditional life.	Eco-Criticism 🌿 – Connects joy and freedom to a harmonious relationship with nature.
“Dreams are shattered by rushing car” 🔊	Modern sounds interrupt her memories.	Postcolonial Theory 🌏 – Symbolises colonial intrusion disrupting cultural continuity.
“One time lubras dug for yams” 📜	Refers to women’s traditional food gathering.	Feminist Theory 👩 – Reflects Aboriginal women’s agency in pre-colonial society, later undermined by Western norms.
“Where that factory belches smoke” 🗣️	Industrialisation replaces traditional spaces.	Eco-Criticism 🌿 – Personifies environmental degradation, critiquing industrial encroachment on sacred land.
“No more woomera, no more boomerang” 🪘	Lists lost cultural tools.	Postcolonial Theory 🌏 – Shows material symbols of cultural heritage erased by colonisation.
“Children of nature we were then” 🌿	Describes life before colonisation.	Eco-Criticism 🌿 – Frames traditional Aboriginal identity as inseparable from the natural world.
“Now I am civilized and work in the white way” 😏	Speaks ironically about assimilation.	Marxist Theory 💰 – Critiques the capitalist and colonial framing of “civilisation” as economic participation.
“Isn’t she lucky to have a good job!” 🗨️	A voice from outside praises her assimilation.	Marxist Theory 💰 – Ironically shows capitalist labour as falsely equated with progress.
“Better when I had nothing but happiness” 💭	Concludes with longing for a simpler past.	Postcolonial Theory 🌏 – Rejects materialist measures of success, valuing cultural and emotional richness instead.

Suggested Readings: “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. Collins, John. “Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal.” Race & class 35.4 (1994): 77-87.
2. Fox, Karen. “Oodgeroo Noonuccal: Media Snapshots of a Controversial Life.” Indigenous Biography and Autobiography, edited by Peter Read et al., vol. 17, ANU Press, 2008, pp. 57–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24h88s.9. Accessed 12 Aug. 2025.
3. Collins, John. “OBITUARY: OODGEROO OF THE TRIBE NOONUCCAL.” Aboriginal History, vol. 18, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 1–4. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046080. Accessed 12 Aug. 2025.

Introduction: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

“Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal first appeared in 1962 in her debut poetry collection We Are Going, which was the first book of poetry published by an Aboriginal Australian woman. The poem is a powerful political manifesto that articulates the demands of Aboriginal Australians for equality, justice, and dignity. Through a series of parallel constructions and contrasts—“hope, not racialism,” “brotherhood, not ostracism,” “independence, not compliance”—Noonuccal rejects tokenistic gestures and calls for tangible change in social, political, and economic life. The poem’s popularity lies in its uncompromising yet lyrical voice, its rhythmic, chant-like repetition that mirrors protest slogans, and its ability to turn lived oppression into an eloquent public demand for reform. Its enduring resonance comes from its unflinching exposure of racial discrimination (“Must we native Old Australians / in our land rank as aliens?”) and its insistence on self-determination, making it a cornerstone of Aboriginal literary and political expression.

Text: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

We want hope, not racialism,
Brotherhood, not ostracism,
Black advance, not white ascendance.
Make us equals, not dependents.
We need help, not exploitation,
We want freedom, not frustration;
Not control, but self-reliance,
Independence, not compliance,
Not rebuff, but education,
Self-respect, not resignation.
Free us from mean subjection,
From a bureaucrat Protection.
Let’s forget the old-time slavers:
Give us fellowship, not favours;
Encouragement, not prohibitions,
Homes, not settlements and missions.
We need love, not overlordship,
Grip of hand, not whip-hand wardship;
Opportunity that places
White and black on equal basis.
You dishearten, not defend us,
Circumscribe, who should befriend us.
Give us welcome, not aversion,
Give us choice, not cold coercion,
Status, not discrimination,
Human rights, not segregation.
You the law, like Roman Pontius,
Make us proud, not colour-conscious;
Give us the deal you still deny us,
Give goodwill not bigot bias;
Give ambition, not prevention,
Confidence, not condescension;
Give incentive, not restriction,
Give us Christ, not crucifixion.
Though baptised and blessed and bibled
We are still tabooed and libelled.
You devout Salvation-sellers;
Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers;
Make us mates, not poor relations,
Citizens, not serfs on stations.
Must we native Old Australians
in our land rank as aliens?
Banish bans and conquer caste
Then we’ll win our own at last

Annotations: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Line	Original Text	Simple English Explanation	Literary Devices
1	We want hope, not racialism	We want optimism, not racism	Antithesis, Repetition
2	Brotherhood, not ostracism	We want unity, not exclusion	Antithesis
3	Black advance, not white ascendance	We want progress for Aboriginal people, not white dominance	Antithesis, Alliteration
4	Make us equals, not dependents	Treat us as equals, not as reliant on others	Antithesis
5	We need help, not exploitation	We need support, not being taken advantage of	Antithesis
6	We want freedom, not frustration	We want liberty, not obstacles	Antithesis, Alliteration
7	Not control, but self-reliance	We want independence, not domination	Antithesis
8	Independence, not compliance	We want autonomy, not submission	Antithesis
9	Not rebuff, but education	We want learning opportunities, not rejection	Antithesis
10	Self-respect, not resignation	We want dignity, not giving up	Antithesis
11	Free us from mean subjection	Release us from cruel oppression	Alliteration
12	From a bureaucrat Protection	From government control disguised as help	Irony
13	Let’s forget the old-time slavers	Let’s move past historical oppressors	Allusion
14	Give us fellowship, not favours	Offer us partnership, not charity	Antithesis, Alliteration
15	Encouragement, not prohibitions	Support us, don’t restrict us	Antithesis
16	Homes, not settlements and missions	Give us proper homes, not controlled communities	Antithesis
17	We need love, not overlordship	We want compassion, not domination	Antithesis, Alliteration
18	Grip of hand, not whip-hand wardship	Offer friendship, not oppressive control	Antithesis, Metaphor
19	Opportunity that places	Chances that make us equal	–
20	White and black on equal basis	Both races treated the same	Antithesis
21	You dishearten, not defend us	You discourage us, not protect us	Antithesis
22	Circumscribe, who should befriend us	You limit us instead of supporting us	Antithesis
23	Give us welcome, not aversion	Accept us, don’t reject us	Antithesis
24	Give us choice, not cold coercion	Let us choose, don’t force us	Antithesis, Alliteration
25	Status, not discrimination	Give us respect, not prejudice	Antithesis
26	Human rights, not segregation	Grant us equality, not separation	Antithesis
27	You the law, like Roman Pontius	You, the authorities, act like Pontius Pilate	Allusion, Metaphor
28	Make us proud, not colour-conscious	Help us feel pride, not judged by race	Antithesis, Alliteration
29	Give the deal you still deny us	Give us the fair treatment you withhold	–
30	Give goodwill, not bigot bias	Offer kindness, not prejudice	Antithesis, Alliteration
31	Give ambition, not prevention	Encourage our goals, don’t block them	Antithesis
32	Confidence, not condescension	Build our confidence, don’t patronize us	Antithesis, Alliteration
33	Give incentive, not restriction	Motivate us, don’t limit us	Antithesis
34	Give us Christ, not crucifixion	Share Christian love, not suffering	Antithesis, Allusion
35	Though baptised and blessed and bibled	Despite being Christianized	Alliteration
36	We are still tabooed and libelled	We’re still stigmatized and slandered	Alliteration
37	You devout Salvation-sellers	You hypocritical religious people	Irony, Metaphor
38	Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers	Treat us as equals, not outcasts	Antithesis
39	Make us mates, not poor relations	Treat us as friends, not lesser kin	Antithesis, Metaphor
40	Citizens, not serfs on stations	Recognize us as citizens, not slaves on farms	Antithesis, Metaphor
41	Must we native Old Australians	Why must Indigenous Australians	Rhetorical Question
42	In our land rank as aliens?	Be treated as foreigners in our own country?	Rhetorical Question, Irony
43	Banish bans and conquer caste	End restrictions and social divisions	Alliteration
44	Then we’ll win our own at last	Then we’ll achieve our rights finally	–

Literary And Poetic Devices: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Device and Symbol	Definition	Example from Poem	Explanation
🟢 Alliteration	The repetition of initial consonant sounds in closely positioned words to create rhythm and emphasis.	“Freedom, not frustration” (Line 6)	The repetition of the “f” sound emphasizes the contrast between the desired state (freedom) and the current state (frustration), enhancing the poem’s rhythm and urgency.
🟡 Allusion	A reference to a well-known person, place, event, or work, often to add deeper meaning.	“You the law, like Roman Pontius” (Line 27)	Refers to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus, implying authorities’ moral failure in upholding justice for Indigenous people.
🔵 Anaphora	The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or lines for emphasis.	“We want hope… We need help… We want freedom…” (Lines 1, 5, 6)	The repeated “We want” and “We need” emphasize the collective demands of the Aboriginal people, reinforcing their urgency and unity.
🔴 Antithesis	The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses to highlight opposition.	“Hope, not racialism” (Line 1)	Contrasts positive (hope) and negative (racialism) concepts to underscore the speaker’s desire for equality over discrimination.
🟠 Assonance	The repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words to create musicality or emphasis.	“Make us mates” (Line 39)	The repeated “a” sound in “make” and “mates” creates a rhythmic flow, emphasizing the call for camaraderie.
🟣 Caesura	A pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation, to create emphasis or rhythm.	“Give us Christ, not crucifixion.” (Line 34)	The comma creates a pause, emphasizing the contrast between Christian love and the suffering imposed on Indigenous people.
🟤 Consonance	The repetition of consonant sounds, typically within or at the end of words, for effect.	“Banish bans” (Line 43)	The repeated “n” sound reinforces the call to eliminate restrictions, adding a forceful tone.
🔷 Diction	The choice of words and style of expression to convey tone or attitude.	“Mean subjection” (Line 11)	The word “mean” conveys a harsh, degrading form of oppression, reflecting the poet’s disdain for unjust treatment.
🟡 Enjambment	The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a pause.	“Opportunity that places / White and black on equal basis” (Lines 19-20)	The thought flows over the line break, linking the idea of opportunity to racial equality, emphasizing their connection.
🔶 Hyperbole	Exaggeration for emphasis or dramatic effect.	“Must we native Old Australians / In our land rank as aliens?” (Lines 41-42)	Exaggerates the alienation of Indigenous people to highlight the absurdity of their marginalization in their own country.
🔸 Imagery	Vivid descriptive language that appeals to the senses.	“Grip of hand, not whip-hand wardship” (Line 18)	Evokes tactile and visual imagery of a friendly handshake versus oppressive control, contrasting inclusion with domination.
🟥 Irony	A contrast between expectation and reality, often highlighting hypocrisy or injustice.	“From a bureaucrat Protection” (Line 12)	The term “Protection” is ironic because it refers to oppressive government policies, not genuine care, exposing their hypocrisy.
🟦 Juxtaposition	Placing two elements side by side to highlight their differences or similarities.	“Homes, not settlements and missions” (Line 16)	Juxtaposes the warmth of “homes” with the institutional “settlements and missions” to critique forced displacement.
🟧 Metaphor	A direct comparison between unlike things without using “like” or “as.”	“Whip-hand wardship” (Line 18)	Compares oppressive control to a whip, evoking imagery of slavery and dominance to criticize colonial authority.
🔹 Parallelism	The use of similar grammatical structures to create rhythm and reinforce ideas.	“Give us welcome, not aversion, / Give us choice, not cold coercion” (Lines 23-24)	Repeated “Give us… not…” structures emphasize demands for positive treatment over negative experiences.
🟪 Personification	Attributing human characteristics to non-human entities.	“You dishearten, not defend us” (Line 21)	The law or authorities are given the human ability to “dishearten,” emphasizing their active role in harming Indigenous people.
🔺 Repetition	Repeating words or phrases for emphasis or rhythm.	“Give us… Give us…” (Lines 23, 24, 29, 30, etc.)	The repeated “Give us” underscores the speaker’s persistent demands for justice and equality.
🔻 Rhetorical Question	A question asked for effect, not expecting an answer, to provoke thought.	“Must we native Old Australians / In our land rank as aliens?” (Lines 41-42)	Challenges the reader to consider the injustice of treating Indigenous people as outsiders in their own land.
🟨 Symbolism	Using an object or word to represent an abstract idea.	“Christ, not crucifixion” (Line 34)	“Christ” symbolizes love and salvation, while “crucifixion” represents suffering, highlighting the gap between Christian ideals and actions.
🟩 Tone	The poet’s attitude or mood conveyed through word choice and style.	“Make us proud, not colour-conscious” (Line 28)	The tone is assertive and demanding, conveying urgency and a call for dignity over racial prejudice.

Themes: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

★ Equality and Human Rights: One of the central themes in Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” is the demand for equality and recognition of universal human rights, which is conveyed through a persistent plea for dignity and fair treatment. By juxtaposing phrases such as “Black advance, not white ascendance” and “Status, not discrimination,” the poet dismantles systems of racial hierarchy, insisting on parity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The repeated antitheses—“Human rights, not segregation” and “Citizens, not serfs on stations”—emphasize the unjust exclusion of Indigenous people from full civic participation, exposing the hypocrisy of a nation that preaches democratic values yet perpetuates structural inequality. The poem frames equality not as a concession granted by the dominant society, but as a rightful claim grounded in moral and legal justice, underscoring that without recognition of these rights, any national identity remains incomplete.

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★ Self-Determination and Independence: A strong thread running through “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” is the call for self-determination, which the poet frames as both a political necessity and a moral imperative. Lines such as “Not control, but self-reliance” and “Independence, not compliance” reject the paternalistic governance structures that reduced Aboriginal Australians to passive dependents. The appeal is not for mere inclusion within existing oppressive systems, but for the dismantling of those systems in favour of autonomy and agency—symbolized in the shift from “Homes, not settlements and missions” to self-directed community building. By framing independence as an antidote to both “exploitation” and “frustration,” Noonuccal redefines freedom as the ability to shape one’s destiny without interference, thereby challenging colonial policies that sought to manage and control Indigenous life under the guise of ‘protection.’

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★ Resistance to Racial Discrimination: The poem’s repeated structural pattern serves as a rhetorical weapon against entrenched racial prejudice, making resistance to discrimination a core theme in “Aboriginal Charter of Rights.” The poet condemns the systemic racism that subjects Aboriginal people to “mean subjection” and “bureaucrat Protection” while hypocritically preaching equality. By invoking the biblical allusion “Give us Christ, not crucifixion,” she equates racial injustice with moral betrayal, highlighting the gulf between religious ideals and colonial practice. Furthermore, the rhetorical question, “Must we native Old Australians / in our land rank as aliens?” crystallizes the paradox of being both the original custodians of the land and its most marginalized inhabitants. The persistent rhythm of negation and assertion throughout the poem functions as an act of verbal protest, systematically rejecting every form of racist exclusion and replacing it with an inclusive vision of justice.

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★ Unity and Brotherhood: Finally, “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” envisions unity and mutual respect as essential foundations for a just society, urging the dismantling of both physical and psychological barriers between races. Through pleas such as “Brotherhood, not ostracism” and “Give us welcome, not aversion,” Noonuccal portrays reconciliation as an active process that requires genuine fellowship rather than superficial charity. Her call to “Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers; / Make us mates, not poor relations” emphasizes the importance of shared social spaces where equality is lived rather than legislated. This vision of unity does not demand the erasure of cultural identity, but rather its affirmation within a framework of mutual respect, in which “Grip of hand, not whip-hand wardship” becomes a symbol of solidarity. By rejecting division and advocating for brotherhood, the poem transforms a political manifesto into a moral appeal for collective humanity.

Literary Theories and “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Theory	Application to “Aboriginal Charter of Rights”	References from the Poem
⚖️ Postcolonial Theory	The poem critiques the legacies of colonization, exposing the structural racism and political oppression imposed on Aboriginal Australians. It deconstructs the colonial narrative of ‘protection’ by revealing it as “mean subjection” and challenges the alienation of Indigenous people in their own land. The demand for “Human rights, not segregation” reflects resistance to ongoing colonial hierarchies.	“Must we native Old Australians / in our land rank as aliens?” / “Banish bans and conquer caste”
✊ Critical Race Theory	Noonuccal addresses systemic racial discrimination, demonstrating how law and governance perpetuate inequality. The juxtaposition “Black advance, not white ascendance” critiques racialized power structures, while “Status, not discrimination” calls for equity in legal and social standing. The theory’s focus on lived racial experience is embedded in her depiction of ongoing marginalization.	“You the law, like Roman Pontius” / “Give goodwill not bigot bias”
🕊️ Humanist Theory	The poem appeals to universal human dignity, emphasizing shared values like brotherhood, love, and respect. Lines such as “Brotherhood, not ostracism” and “Grip of hand, not whip-hand wardship” frame justice as a moral obligation grounded in empathy, transcending racial and cultural boundaries. The humanist ideal is the foundation for her vision of an inclusive Australian society.	“Make us mates, not poor relations” / “Give us choice, not cold coercion”
📢 Marxist Theory	The text critiques class oppression intertwined with racial inequality, portraying Aboriginal Australians as an exploited underclass within capitalist and colonial structures. Demands for “Homes, not settlements and missions” and “Opportunity that places / White and black on equal basis” highlight economic disparity and the denial of material resources, aligning with Marxist calls for structural change.	“We need help, not exploitation” / “Citizens, not serfs on stations”

Critical Questions about “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Works Similar to “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

• 🌾 “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Like “Aboriginal Charter of Rights,” this poem confronts the dispossession of Aboriginal Australians, using direct, communal voice to assert cultural identity and protest colonial erasure.
• 🪶 “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Shares the same social justice focus, employing a symbolic image of a trapped gum tree to parallel the oppression and confinement of Indigenous peoples.
• 🌍 “Song of Hope” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Aligns in its rhythmic call for unity and equality, envisioning a future where Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians coexist in mutual respect.

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Representative Quotations of “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Quotation	Context in the Poem	Theoretical Interpretation
🌾 “Hope, not racialism”	Opens the poem with a direct contrast between aspiration and racial prejudice, setting the tone for the demands that follow.	Critical Race Theory – Challenges systemic racism by framing equality as the necessary foundation for national progress.
✊ “Black advance, not white ascendance”	Highlights the imbalance of power between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, rejecting racial hierarchy.	Postcolonial Theory – Deconstructs colonial power structures that position whiteness as dominant.
🏠 “Homes, not settlements and missions”	Critiques imposed living arrangements under government ‘protection’ policies.	Marxist Theory – Calls for material equality and the dismantling of state-controlled dependency systems.
🕊️ “Brotherhood, not ostracism”	Urges reconciliation and mutual respect over exclusion.	Humanist Theory – Promotes universal moral values and shared humanity.
⚖️ “Human rights, not segregation”	Explicitly demands equal legal and social rights for Aboriginal Australians.	Critical Race Theory – Confronts legal discrimination and racialized law enforcement.
📜 “Must we native Old Australians / in our land rank as aliens?”	Uses rhetorical questioning to expose the paradox of Indigenous alienation in their homeland.	Postcolonial Theory – Exposes the irony and injustice of settler-colonial citizenship structures.
✝️ “Give us Christ, not crucifixion”	Critiques the hypocrisy of religious institutions preaching salvation while perpetuating oppression.	Postcolonial Theory – Highlights religious colonialism and the betrayal of Christian moral ideals.
🤝 “Make us neighbours, not fringe-dwellers”	Rejects spatial and social segregation.	Humanist Theory – Envisions integration through equality and mutual respect.
🏛️ “Citizens, not serfs on stations”	Condemns economic exploitation in rural labour systems.	Marxist Theory – Frames Aboriginal oppression as class exploitation reinforced by race.
🔓 “Banish bans and conquer caste”	Calls for the removal of systemic restrictions and social stratification.	Postcolonial Theory – Advocates dismantling racialized caste-like structures inherited from colonization.

Suggested Readings: “Aboriginal Charter of Rights” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. Brewster, Anne. “Oodgeroo: Orator, Poet, Storyteller.” Australian Literary Studies, vol. 16, no. 4, 1994, pp. 92–104, www.jstor.org/stable/20646976.
2. Cochrane, Kathleen J. Oodgeroo. U of Queensland P, 1994, www.uqp.com.au/books/oodgeroo.
3. Noonuccal, Oodgeroo. My People: A Kath Walker Collection. Jacaranda Press, 1970, www.wiley.com/en-us/My+People%3A+A+Kath+Walker+Collection-p-9780731407408.
4. “Oodgeroo Noonuccal.” Infinite Women, https://www.infinite-women.com/books/Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
5. “Reading 8C: Oodgeroo Noonuccal 1920–1993.” Working with Indigenous Australians, www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/History_8_Oodgeroo.html. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.

Introduction: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

“We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal first appeared in 1964 in her debut poetry collection of the same name, We Are Going. As the first published volume of poetry by an Aboriginal Australian woman, it marked a milestone in Australian literature and Indigenous political expression. The poem powerfully conveys themes of cultural loss, colonisation, and displacement, using direct, unembellished language to express the grief of a people witnessing the erasure of their traditions and land. The repeated refrain “We are” asserts cultural identity, while the final “And we are going” delivers a poignant acknowledgment of disappearance and survival in the face of oppression. Its popularity stems from its political urgency during the 1960s Aboriginal rights movement, its accessible yet lyrical style, and its deep emotional resonance, encapsulated in vivid images such as “We are the corroboree and the bora ground” and “The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place,” which highlight the intertwined loss of culture and environment.

Text: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Annotations: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Line from Poem	Simple English Meaning	Literary Devices
They came in to the little town	A small group of Aboriginal people arrive in a town.	🖼 Imagery
A semi-naked band subdued and silent	They are partly clothed, quiet, and subdued — showing loss of dignity.	🖼 Imagery, 🎭 Tone (melancholy)
All that remained of their tribe.	Only a few survivors remain from a once large tribe.	🎭 Tone (tragic)
They came here to the place of their old bora ground	They return to a sacred ceremonial site.	🖼 Imagery, 🏺 Cultural reference
Where now the many white men hurry about like ants.	The site is now taken over by white settlers, busy and ignoring its importance.	🖼 Simile (“like ants”)
Notice of the estate agent reads: ‘Rubbish May Be Tipped Here’.	A sign says trash can be dumped here — an insult to the sacred site.	🎭 Irony, 🖼 Imagery
Now it half covers the traces of the old bora ring.	Trash has buried what’s left of the sacred circle.	🖼 Imagery, 🎭 Symbolism
‘We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.	They feel like outsiders in their own land, even though settlers are the newcomers.	🎭 Paradox, ✊ Political statement
We belong here, we are of the old ways.	They are the original custodians of the land, tied to traditions.	🖼 Imagery, ✊ Assertion of identity
We are the corroboree and the bora ground,	They are the traditions and sacred sites.	🖋 Metaphor, 🏺 Cultural reference
We are the old ceremonies, the laws of the elders.	They embody the ceremonies and ancient laws.	🖋 Metaphor, 🏺 Cultural reference
We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told.	They are the stories and myths of their people.	🖋 Metaphor, 🏺 Mythological reference
We are the past, the hunts and the laughing games, the wandering camp fires.	They represent past lifestyles and traditions.	🖋 Metaphor, 🖼 Nostalgic imagery
We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill	They are as powerful and striking as lightning over the hill.	🖋 Metaphor, 🖼 Nature imagery
Quick and terrible,	They are fierce and powerful.	🎭 Tone (forceful), 🖼 Imagery
And the Thunderer after him, that loud fellow.	They are like the thunder that follows lightning.	🖋 Personification, 🖼 Nature imagery
We are the quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon.	They are the calm beauty of dawn.	🖋 Metaphor, 🖼 Nature imagery
We are the shadow-ghosts creeping back as the camp fires burn low.	They are fading spirits of their ancestors.	🖋 Metaphor, 👻 Symbolism
We are nature and the past, all the old ways	They are the land, traditions, and history.	🖋 Metaphor, 🖼 Nature imagery
Gone now and scattered.	Those traditions are now lost and dispersed.	🎭 Tone (mourning)
The scrubs are gone, the hunting and the laughter.	The bush, hunting, and joy are gone.	🖼 Imagery, 🎭 Loss motif
The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place.	Native animals have disappeared from here.	🖼 Imagery, 🏞 Environmental loss
The bora ring is gone.	The sacred ceremonial ground is destroyed.	🎭 Repetition, 🖼 Symbolism
The corroboree is gone.	Ceremonial dances are lost.	🎭 Repetition, 🖼 Symbolism
And we are going.’	They themselves are disappearing.	🎭 Repetition, 🖋 Metaphor (cultural extinction)

Literary And Poetic Devices: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Device	Example from Poem	Explanation	Function in the Poem
👻 Allusion (Cultural/Mythological)	“Dream Time”	Reference to Aboriginal creation stories	Grounds the poem in Indigenous spiritual heritage, asserting cultural identity.
🐜 Analogy	“White men hurry about like ants”	Compares settlers’ movements to ants	Highlights busyness and lack of awareness of cultural significance.
⚖ Antithesis	“We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.”	Contrasting ideas in one statement	Shows irony of dispossession — original owners treated as outsiders.
🎭 Contrast	“We belong here… The bora ring is gone.”	Juxtaposition of belonging and loss	Emphasises the tragedy of cultural erasure.
🔁 Epistrophe (Repetition at End)	“…is gone… is gone… is gone.”	Repetition of the same phrase at the ends of lines	Reinforces sense of loss and finality.
🪞 Imagery	“The quiet daybreak paling the dark lagoon”	Descriptive language appealing to senses	Evokes emotional connection to land and nature.
🏺 Juxtaposition	“Old bora ground” vs “Rubbish May Be Tipped Here”	Placing sacred and profane side by side	Highlights disrespect and cultural desecration.
📜 Listing	“The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo…”	Sequence of related items	Creates cumulative effect of loss and environmental decline.
🎵 Metaphor	“We are the corroboree and the bora ground”	Comparing without using ‘like’ or ‘as’	Shows inseparability of people and cultural traditions.
🎤 Parallelism	Repeated “We are…” structure	Repetition of grammatical structure	Creates rhythm and reinforces identity assertion.
🤔 Paradox	“We are as strangers… but the white tribe are the strangers.”	Self-contradictory yet truthful statement	Challenges colonial perspective and asserts rightful ownership.
🖋 Personification	“The Thunderer after him, that loud fellow.”	Giving human qualities to thunder	Adds character and vividness to natural forces.
⏳ Refrain	“We are…” repeated throughout	Recurring phrase in multiple lines	Acts as a heartbeat of the poem, affirming continuity of culture.
🌀 Repetition	“Gone… gone… gone.”	Repeating a word/phrase	Intensifies emotional weight of loss.
🖼 Simile	“White men hurry about like ants”	Comparing with “like”	Creates a visual image of settler activity.
⛰ Symbolism	“Bora ring”	Represents Aboriginal spiritual and cultural life	Encapsulates tradition, law, and community in a single image.
⏏ Tone (Mournful/Defiant)	“And we are going.”	Author’s attitude toward subject	Conveys sorrow at loss but also resilience through voice.
🧵 Theme	Dispossession, cultural erasure, environmental loss	Recurring central ideas	Frames the poem as political and historical testimony.
🌏 Zoomorphism	“The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo…”	Using animal references to represent place and spirit	Connects identity to native fauna and land.

Themes: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

🌏 Theme 1: Dispossession of Land and Culture: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal foregrounds the deep wound of dispossession suffered by Aboriginal Australians. The poem contrasts the sacredness of the “old bora ground” with the intrusion of settlers who “hurry about like ants” and even place a sign reading “Rubbish May Be Tipped Here.” This degradation of sacred sites is not just physical but symbolic, showing how colonisation strips away spiritual connection to the land. The refrain “The bora ring is gone. The corroboree is gone.” reinforces the extent of cultural erasure, presenting dispossession as both a loss of tangible heritage and a rupture in community identity.

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🧵 Theme 2: Cultural Identity and Continuity: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal asserts Aboriginal identity through the recurring declaration “We are…”, which transforms the poem into an anthem of belonging. By claiming “We are the corroboree and the bora ground… We are the wonder tales of Dream Time,” the speaker resists erasure, intertwining selfhood with tradition, law, and spirituality. Even in the face of loss, the poem preserves the memory of ceremonies, legends, and landscapes, suggesting that identity is not only inherited but also carried forward in words and stories, ensuring cultural continuity despite oppression.

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🏞 Theme 3: Loss of Nature and Environment: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal links the loss of culture to the decline of the natural environment. The lament “The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place” reveals how environmental destruction mirrors the erasure of Aboriginal life. Nature is not separate from culture; it is woven into spiritual identity — “We are nature and the past, all the old ways.” By pairing the disappearance of fauna and flora with the vanishing of rituals, the poem highlights how colonisation disrupts ecological balance as well as cultural survival.

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⚖ Theme 4: Injustice and Colonial Irony: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal exposes the paradox of Aboriginal people being treated as outsiders in their own land: “We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.” This inversion underlines the injustice of colonisation, where the original custodians are displaced by newcomers who then claim ownership. The tone here is both mournful and defiant — mournful for the past that is “gone now and scattered,” yet defiant in reasserting that “We belong here, we are of the old ways.” Through this irony, the poem becomes a political statement on historical wrongs that continue to shape the present.

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Literary Theories and “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Theory	Explanation	References from Poem	Application to the Poem
✊ Postcolonial Theory	Examines the effects of colonisation, focusing on power, identity, and cultural erasure.	“We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.” / “The bora ring is gone.”	Highlights the displacement of Indigenous Australians, the loss of land, and the irony of being made outsiders in their own country.
🧬 Cultural Identity Theory	Analyses how cultural traditions, values, and heritage shape identity.	“We are the corroboree and the bora ground… We are the wonder tales of Dream Time.”	Shows how Aboriginal identity is inseparable from land, ceremonies, and ancestral stories, asserting continuity even in the face of loss.
🏞 Ecocriticism	Studies the relationship between literature and the environment.	“The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place.” / “We are nature and the past, all the old ways.”	Connects environmental destruction with cultural extinction, revealing colonisation’s impact on both people and ecosystems.
🎭 Structuralism	Looks at patterns, symbols, and binary oppositions in a text.	Opposition of “We” vs “white tribe” / Repeated structure “We are…”	Analyses the poem’s structure, where repetition creates a chant-like rhythm, and binary opposites highlight cultural contrast and conflict.

Critical Questions about “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Literary Works Similar to “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. “Municipal Gum” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Shares themes of colonisation and displacement, using imagery of a chained gum tree as a metaphor for the confinement of Aboriginal culture.
2. “Then and Now” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Explores cultural loss and change in an urbanised landscape, echoing the lament and contrasts found in “We Are Going”.
3. “Drifters” by Bruce Dawe – Though not Indigenous-focused, it similarly captures the sense of transience, dislocation, and the fading of past lives.
4. “The Stolen Generation” by Peter Read (poetic adaptation) – Conveys the trauma of forced separation and cultural disconnection, resonating with the dispossession in “We Are Going”.
5. “The Death of the Bird” by A.D. Hope – Uses nature to symbolise exile and alienation, reflecting the environmental and spiritual loss central to “We Are Going”.

Representative Quotations of “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
✊ “We are as strangers here now, but the white tribe are the strangers.”	Spoken by the collective Aboriginal voice, this line highlights the irony of colonisation where original custodians are alienated from their own land.	Postcolonial Theory – exposes the reversal of belonging and the politics of identity.
🏺 “We are the corroboree and the bora ground.”	Asserting identity, the speaker equates themselves with sacred ceremonies and sites, showing culture as inseparable from people.	Cultural Identity Theory – positions tradition as core to self-definition.
🌏 “We are nature and the past, all the old ways.”	Merges cultural heritage with the natural world, emphasising an ecological and spiritual unity.	Ecocriticism – links environmental preservation with cultural survival.
⚖ “The bora ring is gone.”	A stark statement of cultural destruction, referring to the loss of sacred initiation sites.	Structuralism – symbolic of an entire system of cultural law and order being dismantled.
🐜 “Where now the many white men hurry about like ants.”	Depicts settlers’ busy, unconscious movement across a sacred space, contrasting with Aboriginal reverence for the land.	Postcolonial Theory – critiques colonial disregard for Indigenous spaces.
👻 “We are the wonder tales of Dream Time, the tribal legends told.”	Declares identity through oral tradition and myth, situating culture in storytelling.	Mythological/Anthropological Criticism – analyses the role of sacred narratives in cultural continuity.
🖋 “The eagle is gone, the emu and the kangaroo are gone from this place.”	Notes the disappearance of native animals, symbolising environmental and cultural degradation.	Ecocriticism – examines biodiversity loss as part of colonial impact.
⏳ “Gone now and scattered.”	Concise lament for the dispersal of traditions, people, and ways of life.	Postcolonial Theory – reflects fragmentation of community under colonial pressures.
🎵 “We are the lightening bolt over Gaphembah Hill… And the Thunderer after him.”	Uses powerful natural imagery to express cultural force and vitality.	Cultural Identity Theory – frames nature as a metaphor for Indigenous strength and resilience.
🌀 “And we are going.”	The concluding line, open to interpretation as physical departure, cultural extinction, or transformation.	Reader-Response Criticism – invites multiple interpretations based on personal and historical context.

Suggested Readings: “We Are Going” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

1. Fox, Karen. “Oodgeroo Noonuccal: Media Snapshots of a Controversial Life.” Indigenous Biography and Autobiography, edited by Peter Read et al., vol. 17, ANU Press, 2008, pp. 57–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24h88s.9. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
2. Collins, John. “OBITUARY: OODGEROO OF THE TRIBE NOONUCCAL.” Aboriginal History, vol. 18, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 1–4. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046080. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
3. “Oodgeroo Noonuccol — 1920-1993.” Antipodes, vol. 7, no. 2, 1993, pp. 144–144. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41958422. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
4. Riemenschneider, Dieter. “Australian Aboriginal Writing in English: The Short Story.” Antipodes, vol. 4, no. 1, 1990, pp. 39–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41958170. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.