My Country Poem Annotation
Initial Thoughts:
Mackellar is describing the country that she loves.
"running in your veins". This represents blood and heritage.
"Strong love of grey-blue distance" speaks for the size and space of the country
Definitions:
Coppice - A thicket of small trees or bushes
Lithe - Thin, supple, and graceful
Title:
The title 'My Country' immediately converses up images of the unique countryside and diverse oceans.
Tone and Connotations:
The poem begins with Mackellar describing another country. This is because she has portrayed it as "ordered woods" and soft, dim skies". But then she continues and the tone becomes more of a love affair with Australia with Mackellar saying "My love is otherwise". This brings to mind Australia's natural assets. The beauty in the abundant and varied landscapes.
Devices:
Onomatopoeia - “drumming of an army” creates a feel that soldiers are marching to the beat of nature.
Alliteration - "lithe linanas", "flood, fire and famine". The use of alliteration helps to emphasize the characteristics of Australian rural life.
Imagery - An example of this is "of droughts and flooding rains". This describes Australia as cruel in times of droughts and unpredictable in the rainy season.
Personification - By using words like, "she" and "her" the poet personifies Australia. The audience gets a feel that Australia is not just lifeless piece of land.
Form:
My Country is a rhyming poem, fourteen stanzas in length. The opening two stanzas describe the British landscape, but this is not the country the young Dorothea Mackellar yearns for.The genre is part of bush poetry and does not tell a story.
Context:
Dorothea Mackellar was born on 1 July 1885. She was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Mackellar was educated at home and began writing at a very young age. Her best-known poem is My Country, written at age 19 in 1904, while homesick in England.
Overall Meaning:
This poem deals with nature descriptions about Australia. It was written in order to inform people about the beauty and the wilderness of this country. Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is a poem expressing Mackellar’s deep passion and love for her country, Australia. The whole poem’s intention seems to evoke the sense of praising for the country and express Mackellar’s deep love for the country.
Analysis
Mackellar is describing the country that she loves.
"running in your veins". This represents blood and heritage.
"Strong love of grey-blue distance" speaks for the size and space of the country
Definitions:
Coppice - A thicket of small trees or bushes
Lithe - Thin, supple, and graceful
Title:
The title 'My Country' immediately converses up images of the unique countryside and diverse oceans.
Tone and Connotations:
The poem begins with Mackellar describing another country. This is because she has portrayed it as "ordered woods" and soft, dim skies". But then she continues and the tone becomes more of a love affair with Australia with Mackellar saying "My love is otherwise". This brings to mind Australia's natural assets. The beauty in the abundant and varied landscapes.
Devices:
Onomatopoeia - “drumming of an army” creates a feel that soldiers are marching to the beat of nature.
Alliteration - "lithe linanas", "flood, fire and famine". The use of alliteration helps to emphasize the characteristics of Australian rural life.
Imagery - An example of this is "of droughts and flooding rains". This describes Australia as cruel in times of droughts and unpredictable in the rainy season.
Personification - By using words like, "she" and "her" the poet personifies Australia. The audience gets a feel that Australia is not just lifeless piece of land.
Form:
My Country is a rhyming poem, fourteen stanzas in length. The opening two stanzas describe the British landscape, but this is not the country the young Dorothea Mackellar yearns for.The genre is part of bush poetry and does not tell a story.
Context:
Dorothea Mackellar was born on 1 July 1885. She was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Mackellar was educated at home and began writing at a very young age. Her best-known poem is My Country, written at age 19 in 1904, while homesick in England.
Overall Meaning:
This poem deals with nature descriptions about Australia. It was written in order to inform people about the beauty and the wilderness of this country. Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is a poem expressing Mackellar’s deep passion and love for her country, Australia. The whole poem’s intention seems to evoke the sense of praising for the country and express Mackellar’s deep love for the country.
Analysis