In light of the Centenary celebration of World War One, the Australian Journal of Poetry have asked young Australians to explore, analyse and explain how poetry is representative of socio-cultural and historical contexts. Drawing on raw emotion, The Measure by Dame Mary Gilmore reveals Mary’s attitude and idea towards war’s futile nature and her value of women’s equality. Mary’s socio-Cultural and historical background surrounding war’s meaningfulness, Her views and ideals about Women’s inequality and the poem’s invited reading and relatable content are all key factors that make this poem so powerful.
Dame Mary Gilmore’s socio-cultural and historical background was evocative in formulating her attitude and idea that war is futile. Born in …show more content…
Mary was a passionate writer and journalist who participated heavily in the radicalism of her day; her second volume of poems, The Passionate Heart (1918), was a reflection of this radicalism (Wilde, "Australian Dictionary of Biography," 1983) Her poem ‘The Measure’ was used to reveal Mary’s attitude that war is futile. This distaste for war is seen in the first copulate of The Measure; where it states, “Must the young blood forever flow? Shall the wide wounds no closing know?” The use of rhetorical questioning is a persuasive tool, which provokes readers to consider if there will ever be an end to war and if peace between the nations will ever be made. The alliteration “wide wounds” was effective in creating strong imagery surrounding the …show more content…
In 1908, Mary started work with the Australian Worker, after suggesting to the editor (Hector Lamond) that they start up a special page for women; he invited her to write the page herself and she edited the ‘women’s page’ until February 1931 (Wilde, "Australian Dictionary of Biography," 1983). Mary conveys her disdain for the lack of female equality in the lines “O woman, mother of the sons of earth, thou holdst one measure of our worth” (Stanza 4, Line 1 and 2) this extract from the poem is an exploration of the concept that a woman’s only worth is having children and being a mother. This idea was highly reflective of Mary’s time as women were only seen as mothers and housewives, who had no other value to society. The fourth stanza of this poem stands out as the language style changes from contemporary English to Old English. This change in language style makes this stanza standout in comparison to the other stanzas, making readers respond to the theme of women’s inequality in more depth; as well as proving the statement that Mary had a very strong values surrounding women’s equality. Additionally, Mary’s value of equality is apparent in the first stanza lines 5 and 6 “ And yet, the equal sun looks down on kingly head and broken clown” This positions readers to consider the worthlessness of creating a hierarchy based of status, wealth and gender. The personification of
Dame Mary Gilmore’s socio-cultural and historical background was evocative in formulating her attitude and idea that war is futile. Born in …show more content…
Mary was a passionate writer and journalist who participated heavily in the radicalism of her day; her second volume of poems, The Passionate Heart (1918), was a reflection of this radicalism (Wilde, "Australian Dictionary of Biography," 1983) Her poem ‘The Measure’ was used to reveal Mary’s attitude that war is futile. This distaste for war is seen in the first copulate of The Measure; where it states, “Must the young blood forever flow? Shall the wide wounds no closing know?” The use of rhetorical questioning is a persuasive tool, which provokes readers to consider if there will ever be an end to war and if peace between the nations will ever be made. The alliteration “wide wounds” was effective in creating strong imagery surrounding the …show more content…
In 1908, Mary started work with the Australian Worker, after suggesting to the editor (Hector Lamond) that they start up a special page for women; he invited her to write the page herself and she edited the ‘women’s page’ until February 1931 (Wilde, "Australian Dictionary of Biography," 1983). Mary conveys her disdain for the lack of female equality in the lines “O woman, mother of the sons of earth, thou holdst one measure of our worth” (Stanza 4, Line 1 and 2) this extract from the poem is an exploration of the concept that a woman’s only worth is having children and being a mother. This idea was highly reflective of Mary’s time as women were only seen as mothers and housewives, who had no other value to society. The fourth stanza of this poem stands out as the language style changes from contemporary English to Old English. This change in language style makes this stanza standout in comparison to the other stanzas, making readers respond to the theme of women’s inequality in more depth; as well as proving the statement that Mary had a very strong values surrounding women’s equality. Additionally, Mary’s value of equality is apparent in the first stanza lines 5 and 6 “ And yet, the equal sun looks down on kingly head and broken clown” This positions readers to consider the worthlessness of creating a hierarchy based of status, wealth and gender. The personification of