Blog 2 (Critical)

CRITICAL – What does A.D. Hope’s poem Australia (written half a century after the 1890s) add to the debate on what is Australia?

Far from a poet who celebrates the natural beauty of Australia or even the colonialists who’s bewildered eyes beheld Australia for the first time in awe and fascination, A.D Hope in his poem “Australia”, provides a scathing critique of the country. Hope has famously been dubbed as the “20th century’s greatest 18th century poet”, alluding to his classical and satirical style of writing, and rightly so. When reading the poem “Australia”, the scepticism, the pride, the arrogance and the disdain with which he writes resembles that of a European who would have beheld the country 140 years earlier. Infact, when reading the poem, one could almost assume that he had been born and bred on the shores of the Emerald Isle itself, not outback New South Wales. But it must be said there is something admirable about the way Hope writes. His use of metaphors and allusions are almost parabolic in nature, as Hope portrays deep meanings through simple, relatable examples. For instance, in the second half of the second stanza, he likens Australia to a women with tender breasts yet a dry womb, in essence saying that Australia has a fertile exterior but within is infact infertile and barren. He also interestingly comments on the drabness of the Australian landscape, which is fascinating because by this time period most people would have generally begun to embrace the uniqueness of the Australian landscape, rather then detest it. Further down the poem, in the fifth stanza, there is again a conceited attack, this time not on Australia, but on Australians themselves. He compares the 5 major Australian cities to parasitic sores and robbers, potentially highlighting the effects of capitalism on the country. He also states in the same stanza that Australia is a place where “second hand Europeans” can breed, which is a bold and somewhat self righteous statement, essentially denoting Australians as second class to Europeans or not real Europeans. A.D Hopes poem adds much to the debate about what Australia is, because, in my opinion, he holds a very traditional and controversial view of the country in a time where one would expect Australians to be progressing in a very different direction. Hope dosent hail it as a glorious british colony, a young country down under, his writing is void of nationalistic sentiment. Nor does he praise the solitude and beauty of the Australian bush, to him it is barren and useless. Hope maintains an intelligent, sceptical and gloriously unique view of the country, one of skepticism and critique. Wether you agree or disagree with the man, you cannot help but praise the prose with which he writes and ingenuity through which he shares his poetry. What does he add to the debate on Australia? That is up to you to decide.