Further Reflections on Dawe's poetry

Dogs in the morning light:

What do I first notice about the poem? The first impression I noticed about this poem is, it tells us a story about the dogs.

What is most striking or memorable about the poem? The sentence that is memorable about this poem is, ‘Dazed dazed they go into the maze of history where the sharpest barkers fall in silence….’ This line tells me that the dog’s doesn’t know where they are going.

Do I like it? Does it grow on me? The poem is quite exquisite, I don’t fancy it as much as I would like too because It’s hard to understand the story of it.

What is the main subject or image? I perceive that the main subject is about dogs roaming around the streets. I am not quite sure.

What does the poem say? I am not quite sure.

What other texts/events do you think the poem connects to? I consider this poem to connect to a text about dogs.

There was a time:

What do I first notice about the poem? My first impression whilst reading this poem is the ‘rhyming’.

What is most striking or memorable about the poem? The most striking and memorable part about this poem is when he says ‘we matched their brontosaurian height’.  It tells us that he has matched their height now, but before he was the short one.

Does it grow on me? Do I like It? I like this poem because it is so accurate about my life, even though it wasn’t about me.

What is the main subject or image? I comprehend that the main subject is about kid being small in the past compared to his friends.  

What does the poem say? I ponder that the poem is saying, there was a time in our life when we were small compared to everyone, and we didn’t really fit in with people.

How does it say it? It uses simile to compare the height of the people. He uses the word Brontosaurian to make us believe that they were very tall. As we know that a Brontosaurus is a tall dinosaur.

What other texts/events do you think the poem connects to? This poem connects to our lives because we most likely have been through that stage.

Cloth:

What do I first notice about the poem? The first impression that came into my head when I first notice this poem is, it is a quite short poem but there a whole story by the words and details used in it.

What is the most striking or memorable about the poem? The poem is quite striking in terms of a detailed poem. It makes me visualise the subject (Cloth) as being used in different ways to create clothes.

Do I like it? Does it grow on me? I like this poem because it puts us into a perspective about the cloth being like us.

What is the main subject or image? The main subject of this poem is the ‘Cloth’,

What does the poem say? The poem tells us a story about ‘Cloth’. It makes us believe that the ‘cloth’ has feelings like us; by thinking that when it gets stitched onto something it believes that it is his family.

How does it say it? It uses the word family as a metaphor, to make us visualise it as a real person.

What other text/events do you think this poem connects to? I don’t know.

For Annie:

What do I first notice about the poem? When I first read this text, I instantly notice that it is very emotional and true.

What is the most striking or memorable about the poem? The story is very striking in terms of emotive. It’s very memorable to me because he tells the story of him finding his sister that died.

Do I like it? Does it grow on me? I truly love this poem because of the emotion he puts into it, and how it makes me sad because it shattered him that he had a sister and never knew, and to find out she died in her first year makes the story more sad.

What is the main subject or image? The main subject is a sister that he never knew he had, but found her after twenty-seven years and sought to see her but he find out she died in her first year of life.

What does the poem say? The poem talks about his sister that he never knew he had, and how she died in her first year. It hurts him because no one told him about it, but I think he is also happy that he found out because the research brought her up to life.

How does it say it? It says it by using emotive language and rhyming to contemplate with the story of his life.

What other Text/Events do you think this poem connects? This poem has to connect to events about people researching their family tree.

Intensive Care:

What do I first notice about the poem? When I read this poem for the first time I noticed that it was telling a story about a patient.

What is the most striking or memorable about the poem? The most striking or memorable part about the poem is when he describes the doctors/nurses as being lovingly intent as those in any NASA control room.

Do I like it? Does it grow on me? The story is mediocre. It doesn’t really grow on me but does give me facts about intensive care even though it is a poem.

What is the main subject or image? The main subject of this poem is the process of cardiac surgery to a patient.

What does the poem say? The poem explains that we need more intensive care workers.

How does it say it? It says it by expressing a story about a patient and how he recovered from heart surgery.

What other Text/Events do you think this poem connects? This poem connects to the events of people going to surgery to repair the heart of a person.