Bruce Dawe's poem Homecoming conveys that modern welfare has a devastating and apprehensive impact on not only the involved soldiers but also on family and friends and particularly as a result of the Vietnam War. In the poem, the clever symbolism and vivid imagery help emphasise the emotional damage caused to friends and family in the result of the death of a loved one, a deep suffering which is often left unrecorded in the annuals of history. Dawe's use of poetic devices including, alliteration, personification and similes in lines as such " telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree" and "wide web of suburbs" further develops the thought of the numerous affected perturbed friends and family as well as the abysmal consequences modern
