Discussion Essay Exemplar Ash Wednesday by Irene Murray

Hints
Introduction Use the first sentence to introduce the subject of your discussion.(The topic sentence needs to refer to the statement and question.) Identify the poet and poems to be addressed in your essay. Acknowledge the presence of an Australian voice/s and/or experiences found in each poem. Topic sentence introduces the first poem you will discuss by outlining the particular Australian voice/s or experiences the poem contains. Give an outline of the poem that includes its: form/structure subject matter theme/s (This should be no more than 1-2 sentences) Supporting points will show how the voices or experiences are created by the poet examples from the text (QUOTES), the technique/s used in the example, analysis of how your example and technique have worked to created distinctively Australian messages or ideas. AIM FOR AT LEAST 3 STRONG EXAMPLES. Final sentence will evaluate how well the poet has represented an aspect of Australia. ** SAME AS THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH ABOVE FOR YOUR SECOND POEM**

My Plan Our Australian identity is unique and can be cleverly shown in poetry. Irene Murray, in her poem Ash Wednesday and Midnight Oils Beds Are Burning, both address unique Australian experiences that are concerned with natural disasters and aboriginal justice. Murray has addressed the overwhelming experience of bushfires, while Midnight Oil uses an Australian voice to apologise to the aboriginal population.

Irene Murrays poem, Ash Wednesday, considers the inescapable Australian experience of bushfires through a vivid account of the Victorian and South Australian fires of 1983. This lyric poem of one stanza of 28 lines addresses the theme of natural disasters through detailed description of the scale, destruction and human impacts of these 1983 fires. Murray uses similes, like a monster breathing fire and like a roaring train to allow us to clearly imagine the size, sound and ferociousness of the fires. We come to understand the enormity of the fires through personification, swallowing houses and bushland which allows us to gauge the size of its flames. Our sympathy for the victims of the fires is created through tactile imagery, shocked and numb that illustrate the impact on people caught up in the fires or who have lost their homes. Murray shows us that such fires are sometimes accidental and can be lit without knowing when she uses personification, lit by a mans blind error. Finally we learn of the strength of Australians who have chosen to stay and rebuild their homes through the metaphor, they have picked up threads of life anew, which generates our admiration for their courage and resilience. Ash Wednesday effectively shows an unavoidable aspect of Australian life through Murrays clever use of poetic techniques.
* Each sentence that analyses the poem should contain a technique, example/quote, and an explanation of how it creates the Australian message/idea.

Body Paragraphs

Paragraph 3: Poem 2

Paragraph 2: Poem 1

Conclusion

Summarise the key ideas that these poems have provided you with. Make a personal judgment about which of the two poets/poems have been the most effective in representing some aspect of Australia. (This judgment should have been supported by the strength of your analysis in the body paragraphs.)

These Australian poets have addressed the serious issues of our natural threats and poor treatment of aboriginals. While Midnight Oil successfully appeals to our emotions and sympathy for Aboriginal Australians, Irene Murray more effectively takes us through an experience that will affect all Australians. Her clever use of poetry techniques allows us to experience the fire even if we have not had the actual experience ourselves.

IMPORTANT HINTS: Use formal, sophisticated language, cause and effect statements and nominalisation (changing verb statements to nouns to make writing more concise) eg. You should nominalise your words when writing an essay becomes Use nominalisation in your essay writing Write in present tense in order to depict the timelessness of the work, eg. The poem conveys... Use a mix of long and short quotes, quote accurately and use inverted commas, eg. The line the sea is a hungry dog.. is an effective metaphor that conveys the ferocity of the ocean.