Patterson, is one of the most famous Australian poems known. However, do the subtle messages encased within have any relevance today? When reading the poem, there are messages that can jump off the page at you, but there are also messages that need to be revealed. I find that the poem can be split into four segments; each segment being one of the Jump off the page messages. The first segment being the character, whoso point of view the poem is from, writing a letter to the countryman he/she (probably male but can’t be certain) met down the
Lacuna because he/she wants to see how his life is going In comparison. The second segment: Imagining Clay, what Hess doing and where In the country. The third segment being the character comparing his/her lifestyle with that of Classy, and the fourth segment being a sort of conclusion; the character thinking about the effects of swapping places with Clay. The subtle messages are exactly that; subtle, they have to be found and thought of. These messages are a lot less generalized and a lot more personal to the character than the previous paragraphs messages.
There are messages of thoughts of Monterrey, thoughts of townsfolk, thoughts of location and lifestyle and thoughts of the choices of life and their consequences. When comparing the verses;And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet Hamlin the murmur of the breezes and the river on Its bars*ND he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,And at night they wondrous glory of the everlasting standard the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt mess they shoulder one another In their rush and nervous haste,Walt their eager eyes and greedy, and their taunted forms and weedy.
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste-the character implies that countrymen are generally a lot more nice, free, simple, accepting and laid-back than the sheep-like, haunting, pallid-faced, hasty townsfolk who are bound to the uniformity of a schedule. The last verse basically states that the character feels that, although the country feels more like home and where he/she meant to be, the predictable uniformity is where he/she belongs and has accepted that fact. When thinking of the relevance of all the messages in today’s modern-day world, inspections can be made.
The modern-day city folk are stuck In uniform schedules based around business and money, with their pallid faces, which co-lenses perfectly with verse seven. The message of some of the townsfolk being Ignorant of the country and others having the feeling that they really, deep down, belong In the and glamour of city life, who don’t even think about moving, there’s people who would be happy either way, but go with their career, and there’s people who feel so strongly about discovering their roots that they actually move to the country.
On the topic of amount people; a lot are very friendly, simply content and free (to an extent), but there will always be the small town gossip factor and not all people will always get along. The evolving government makes them less free as well. I have experienced the people portrayed in this poem from one extreme to the other and I find the messages relevance to be very accurate. In conclusion, no matter how much we think wave evolved above our ancestors, some messages will always stay stuck to the flaws and perfections of the human race. Bibliography . Clay of the Overflow, poem
