The Farmer Retires to Town- Bruce Lundgren
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 09/06/2014 09:37 PM
- Pages: 3
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In Bruce Lundgren’s Poem, “The Farmer Retires to Town”, Lundgren creates the persona of an everyday Australian farmer. Through this persona and the techniques employed, readers are provided with memorable everyday experiences a farmer yearning for his old life, resenting city life and having a close relationship with the land. The techniques used to convey these experiences include; similes, first person language, personification and juxtaposition, along with Lundgrens use of connotative words.
Throughout the poem the reader is provided with the experience of the retired farmer yearning for his old life; yearning to return to his farm and escape the suburbs. Juxtaposition, simile and the use of connotative words are the main techniques that Lundgren has used to convey this. In the poem, the farmer’s old life on the farm is juxtaposed with his life in the city. For example: “Crowding houses, next door, next street…” conveys a negative description of his cramped and confined current life. This is juxtaposed only a few lines afterwards with, “A dog barking… is that of my neighbour a mile away”, a positive description of the wide open spaces and freedom of his old life. The use of juxtaposition emphasises the positives of his old life by comparing it with the negatives of his present life, and by doing so, it strongly conveys the persona yearning for his old life. Lundgren also uses a simile to portray this experience:
“… the sweet smell of wet soil and tangled clover comes like a kindness through my window open wide”
The simile uses the words with positive connotations such as “sweet” and “kindness” to fondly describe the smells and events of the farmer’s old life. This further conveys and emphasises the yearning that the farmer experiences towards his old life.
Readers are also shown the persona experiencing resentment towards life in the city. This is conveyed through Lundgrens use of juxtaposition and connotative words. The juxtaposition of the farmer’s...
Throughout the poem the reader is provided with the experience of the retired farmer yearning for his old life; yearning to return to his farm and escape the suburbs. Juxtaposition, simile and the use of connotative words are the main techniques that Lundgren has used to convey this. In the poem, the farmer’s old life on the farm is juxtaposed with his life in the city. For example: “Crowding houses, next door, next street…” conveys a negative description of his cramped and confined current life. This is juxtaposed only a few lines afterwards with, “A dog barking… is that of my neighbour a mile away”, a positive description of the wide open spaces and freedom of his old life. The use of juxtaposition emphasises the positives of his old life by comparing it with the negatives of his present life, and by doing so, it strongly conveys the persona yearning for his old life. Lundgren also uses a simile to portray this experience:
“… the sweet smell of wet soil and tangled clover comes like a kindness through my window open wide”
The simile uses the words with positive connotations such as “sweet” and “kindness” to fondly describe the smells and events of the farmer’s old life. This further conveys and emphasises the yearning that the farmer experiences towards his old life.
Readers are also shown the persona experiencing resentment towards life in the city. This is conveyed through Lundgrens use of juxtaposition and connotative words. The juxtaposition of the farmer’s...