Bruce Dawe- “Homecoming”

Bruce Dawe- “Homecoming”

Bruce Dawe is an Australian poet who wrote about contemporary Australian issues. Most of his poetry explored further conflicts including the massacre of protestors in Tiananmen Square and the Iraqi wars and most of Dawe’s poem revolves around Australian society, politics and culture. Dawe worked in the forces for a while and his poetry was influenced by the Vietnam War was fought in the 1960s and early 1970s. Based on Dawe’s own reading and reflection, he was opposed to the war, believing it to be futile. “Homecoming” is one of his famous antiwar poems.

In “Homecoming” Bruce Dawe describes the homecoming of dead Australian and the futility of war. “Homecoming” is a lament for the dead, as the dead soldiers are both young and also the victims of a war. The title reflects the poem as the poem is about collecting of bodies as a result of war. The structure and imagery emphasizes the antiwar views of the poet.

“Homecoming” uses a variety of repetition in order for the reader to gain impression of an endless war. The poem starts in monotone with many simple verbs such as “they’re bringing them home”, “they’re picking them up”, and “they’re zipping them in”. These repetitions of the sound “ing” depicts how days after days, it is all the same, the bodies of the soldiers are all following the same routine day after day and being treated with no feelings because they have seen it long enough, Dawe invites the reader to imagine this cold place. Dawe forced the readers to feel for these soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for their country and yet not enough, their bodies are treated with cold handed way, following a routine of putting them in trucks, convoys, tagging them, giving them names and boarding them onto the jets so they can return to home. The verse, "the noble jets are whining like hounds", creates a distinct image of jets flying in to land carrying nothing but grief as "dogs in the frozen sunset raise their muzzles in mute...