Robert Gray Poetry free essay sample

Gray’s thematic concerns arise from his personal context, alongside his love of the Australian environment, â€Å"My poetry is very physically located† and his Buddhist ideals which influence his literary style. Gray’s thematic concerns and themes are manifest in all of his poems, demonstrating copious readings, including psychoanalysis and deconstruction, especially palpable within â€Å"Diptych† and â€Å"The Meatworks†. Multiplicities of poetic techniques are used to reinforce Gray’s thematic concerns, including symbolism, anecdotes and imagery.Diptych is a confessional poem depicting Gray’s sentiments on humanism, while also psychoanalysing his parent’s relationship, â€Å"as the inadequacies of their temperaments are an underlying attitude of my poetry†. The name Diptych is a metaphoric allusion to his parents, who were â€Å"like the panels of a diptych, forever separated while in close proximity. † Reinforcing this notion is the absence of evident stanza, and the utilisation of a two-tiered structure, while also exemplifying the detachment of his parent’s relationship, through the composition of each panel symbolising their relationship. We will write a custom essay sample on Robert Gray Poetry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The first stanza depicts a portrait of Gray’s mother, whereby the first person view and conversational tone augment the friendly nature, â€Å"My mother told me how one night†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Despite the first stanza being about the mother, the anecdote presented features considerably about Gray’s father; â€Å"becoming legend†, symbolising his authoritarian domineering over his mother. Psychoanalytically, the anecdote of Gray’s mother biting â€Å"off the tail of a lizard† metaphorically symbolises the oppression from her marriage. Gray’s mother driving the â€Å"bull from the garden† metaphorically alludes to female marginalisation, enforced by her husband.A post-modern reading explores intertextuality, where the philosopher Heidegger inspires Gray, through the description of his mother as â€Å"very warm† and as â€Å"extending care†, expressing Gray’s affection towards his mother. Gray’s father is criticis ed repeatedly throughout the poem, demonstrating his influence on Gray’s life. Anthropomorphism and sensual imagery are utilised by Gray to criticise his father, â€Å"a small lizard, dragged through her lips,† symbolising, through psychoanalysis, â€Å"that bitterness† in Gray’s mothers life. The anthropomorphism as a â€Å"bull,† criticises him for being selfish. Vivid imagery helps encapsulate a macabre description of his â€Å"hopelessly melancholic† father, portraying him as â€Å"thin lips, on the long boned face,† painting a sympathetic portrait of his father: â€Å"we are all pathetic. † The two-tiered structure of the poem allows Gray’s mother to be juxtaposed to his father, â€Å"a university man†, but also manifests a feminist reading making discernible women being marginalised in society.Gray’s naturalistic ideals are depicted through the personification of imagery, â€Å"up in those hills†, and â€Å"the sun standing amongst high timber†, displaying the peacefulness of nature. â€Å"The Meatworks† satirically represents Gray’s thematic concern of humanism and naturalism, in relation to the sadistic description of a North Coast slaughterhouse. Gray’s naturalistic and Buddhist id eals are communicated through the â€Å"polemical† nature of the poem, through the depiction of the callousness of humanity’s relationship with nature.Personification in the description of the abattoir, â€Å"gutters crawled off† and â€Å"chomping, bloody mouth† portrays the notion that technology possesses more life compared to the impersonalised abattoir workers. The â€Å"extensive ironic use of personification† in these quotes immediately make discernible Gray’s repulsion towards the perturbing actions towards natural life in the slaughterhouse, so much that he settles for â€Å"one of the lowest paid jobs†, in order to avoid association with those â€Å"bellowing sloppy-yards. The Sensual animal imagery, â€Å"chomping, bloody mouth† also suggest cruelty when read from a Marxist reading, displaying technology attaining power over all forms of life.Sexual allusions suggest depravity, creating a caricaturing image that is destructive rather than creative, â€Å"using a greasy stick shaped into a penis. † Analogous to Gray’s poem â€Å"Journey to the North Coast†, Gray in â€Å"The Meatworks† uses mimosis: â€Å"I don’t tell the reader how to feel†¦ that way the feelings are internalised†¦ that way they become personal. Historically alluding to Hitler’s Nazi re gime and concentration camps, Gray depicts the pigs fear, â€Å"clinging to each other†, metaphorically juxtaposing and contrasting pigs to humans. Gray juxtaposes the repulsive abattoir to the ambience of the beach, â€Å"shiny, white-bruising beach in mauve light†. â€Å"White-bruising beach† is symbolic of the sensitivity of the environment, while also symbolising purity, contrary to the meatworks, highlighting its revolting ether. The Meatworks, analogous to Diptych, can be interpreted as a deconstruction reading, whereby the repulsive demeanour of humanity and naturalism are recurring themes in these poems.