Satire has the power to persuade and influence the reader to view the poets/authors viewpoint and used to expose various flaws within society such as foolishness, corruption, or racism. Bruce Dawe, a poet famous for his use of satire, criticises aspects of his society during the end of the 1960s, and the start of the 1970s in the following poems; “ A Victorian Hangman tells his love,” a poem criticising blind obedience of such a cruel and inhuman act, and “Weapons Training,” of how our attitude to certain races changes when at war and how cruel and harsh we can become.
Bruce Dawe is widely recognised as Australia's most popular poet, born in Fitzroy, Victoria in 1930 and was educated at Northcote High School, Melbourne. “Dawe writes with…