The poems I have chosen to write this essay are Tribal Land and Aboriginal Purpose. Both of these two poems showed a unique touch, unlike the other poems mentioned. Tribal Land is a fairly deep poem, which tells of the traditions and meanings the Aborigines were with whilst in their tribal land. Aboriginal Purpose shows us this man’s Aboriginal heritage and how he doesn’t want to put up with or even co-exist alongside these cruel bitter white men.
Tribal Land highlights the importance of the old tribes and how they are fading away. It shows the deep sorrow for the loss of what was so precious to their communities and how it is all going now, but still rests with them in spirit. The mood conveyed in this poem is of sorrow, as it is saying goodbye to all the greatness that once was of the tribal land, and how sad and sorry he is to leave the once beautiful land. Some of the lines of the poem are questions asking how the rest of his clan could cope with such disappointment of the part, one example of this is, ‘Where will all my tribe go? Will they understand?’ This technique of questioning is an effective way of conveying the person’s depth of crisis and how badly he feels for them.
Aboriginal Purpose shows the man’s love of his people, but the hatred for the white men who stole and took his land. This poems meaning is to show the dislike of the white men and how they took away all the Purpose of the Aborigines, hence the title. One technique the author has effectively used throughout the poem is to start of the sentence with