enter without so much as knocking - Bruce Dawe #

From when we are born we go through a gradual process of change and development or periods of transition (stages, phases) from infancy, to adolescence, to youth, middle age and finally old age. Shakespeare, in As You Like It,* calls them the seven ages of Mankind.

The changes in our impressionable and formative years occur in various aspects of our being: the physical, biological, emotional, mental, psychological and social development towards maturity. We begin a journey as a non entity towards the self hood of a unique human being with our own independence, identity and hopefully integrity. Some will have their growth delayed or arrested and remain underdeveloped in one or more aspects due to a failure of the assertions of individuality. We are the ‘author’ of our own lives, or ‘destiny’ and we are ultimately unique, autonomous and responsible for who we become.

Our journey through life moves from innocence to experience to (hopefully) wisdom. Plato claimed “There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.”

enter without so much as knocking #

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

(Epigraph: Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.)

Blink, blink. HOSPITAL. SILENCE.
Ten days old, carried in the front door in his
mother’s arms, first thing he heard was
Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7:
Hello, hello hello all you lucky people and he
really was lucky because it didn’t mean a thing
to him then…

A year or two to settle in and
get acquainted with the set-up; like every other
well-equipped smoothly-run household, his included
one economy-size Mum, one Anthony Squires-
Coolstream-Summerweight Dad, along with two other kids
straight off the Junior Department rack.

* When Mom won the
Luck’s-A-Fortch Tricky-Tune Quiz she took him shopping
in the good-as-new station-wagon (£ 495 dep. at Reno’s).
Beep, beep. WALK. DON’T WALK. TURN
LEFT. NO PARKING. WAIT HERE. NO
SMOKING. KEEP CLEAR/OUT/OFF GRASS. NO
BREATHING EXCEPT BY ORDER. BEWARE OF
THIS. WATCH OUT FOR THAT. My God (beep)
the congestion here just gets (beep)
worse every day, now what the (beep beep) does
that idiot think he’s doing (beep beep and BEEP).

However, what he enjoyed most of all was when they
went to the late show at the local drive-in, on a clear night
and he could see (beyond the fifty-foot screen where
giant faces forever snarled screamed or make
incomprehensible and monstrous love) a pure
unadulterated fringe of sky, littered with stars
no-one had got around to fixing up yet: he’d watch them
circling about in luminous groups like kids at the circus
who never go quite close enough to the elephant to get kicked.

Anyway, pretty soon he was old enough to be
realistic like every other godless
money-hungry back-stabbing miserable
so-and-so, and then it was goodbye stars and the soft
cry in the corner when no-one was looking because
I’m telling you straight, Jim, it’s Number One every time
for this chicken, hit wherever you see a head and
kick whoever’s down, well thanks for a lovely
evening Clare, it’s good to get away from it all
once in a while, I mean it’s a real battle all the way
and a man can’t help but feel a little soiled, himself,
at times, you know what I mean?

* Now take it easy
on those curves, Alice, for God’s sake,
I’ve had enough for one night, with that Clare Jessup,
hey, ease up, will you, watch it –

* Probity & Sons, Morticians,
did a really first-class job on his face
(everyone was very pleased) even adding a
healthy tan he’d never had, living, gave him back for keeps
the old automatic smile with nothing behind it,
winding the whole show up with a
nice ride out to the underground metropolis
permanent residentials, no parking tickets, no taximeters
ticking, no Bobby Dazzlers here, no down payments,
nobody grieving over halitosis
flat feet, shrinking gums, falling hair.

Six feet down nobody interested.
Blink, blink. CEMETERY. Silence.

Analysis of enter without so much as knocking #

We enter the world rudely, without warning, at awkward inconvenient times, intruding into parent’s lives without consideration and can just as abruptly leave this world.

The pretentious Latin caption is the beginning of a Priest’s incantation prior to an Ash Wednesday mass.

“Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return”

I. SOUND EFFECTS

Contrast of silence to a crescendo of noise modulating and a return to silence.

Onomatopoeic words — Beep, Beep - racy rapid pace. The parenthetical beeps could represent, apart from the obvious car horn, a censorship of swear words. Imagery of the “rat race” - the frustration culminates in a final BEEP.

Noise words: Bobby Dazzler, traffic; (beep beep and BEEP), giant faces snarled and screamed.., accident.

The modern mechanised world can be a very noisy place with clashing discordant sounds bombarding our ears. We block these out with ear muffs or with Bluetooth earphones.

II. SUBJECT MATTER

• “Blink, Blink..” Life is short, and over before you know it.

• Traces the rites of passage from cradle to the grave.

• Social commentary from perspective of various phases of life.

III, TONE

Varies from gentle sympathetic to subtle satiric as the persona passes from one phase of life to another:

objective, sardonic, sarcastic, parodic, cynical disrespectful. flippant, demotive, detached; undercutting pomposity and eroding the falsity and solemnity of any pretence.

fast racy, hectic pace of childhood congested life in the fast lane.

imperative tone during adolescence of sign posts “No Breathing!”

impersonal, depersonalised – no names of family members. The family has no warmth or closeness. irony and satire of last stanza.

IV. POETIC TECHNIQUES

• anonymous archetypal male of the lucky country

• Not didactic - rather we are left to draw our own conclusions.

Dramatised scenes

• much of the narrative is acted out; including direct speech - creates realism; verisimilitudeness.

Contrast:

Innocence, idealism of youth / realism of experience wonderment of stars / “godless money—hungry. sensitivity “soft cry..” /ruthlessness “head kicking” Natural beauty / man-made “fixing the stars..“ 1st class mortician’s job / image in real life silence of: baby’s sleep! Cemetery / Noise of city life

Omission (ellipsis)

Much of narrative is left out to be filled in by readers – his death is represented by a - dash.

The trail-off sentences have conveyed three meanings: they show cynicism, are similar to rhetorical questions, and lead into the next stage of his life.

Three of the stanzas in youth and middle age begin with link words:

• However, Anyway, Now, - They represent the fast pace of the poem and life.

Humour

— caricatures - exaggeration, irony.

Motifs— provide unity, cohesion - togetherness.

- Cars (name?)

- Bobby Dazzler

- No….

- stars.. Consider the alternative meanings of “stars” - movie stars, aspirations.

Figurative language -

ex: “underground metropolis

permanent residentials”,

Stressed words at beginning of new line:

ex: “ unadulterated fringe of sky”

“ kick whoever’s down”

Language

Dawe is renowned for his exceptional ear for the tones, patterns, rhythms, cadences and resonances of the Australian vernacular idiomatic speech. Like Henry Lawson before him and countless others since (David Williamson), Dawe strives to imitate the tribal voice he hears the ordinary (battlers) Australian speak. His wide variety of occupations, and the unusual range of people he has met enriched his language and he is able to reproduce authentic echoes of the flexible, colourful and diverse Australian colloquialisms and slang which he surreptitiously slips into what at first sight appears solemn poetry:

“even adding a healthy tan he’d never had living, gave him back for keeps
the old automatic smile with nothing behind it…”

Slipping In the parenthetical “back for keeps” undercuts any suggestion of seriousness we might have entertained in what might have been potentially a very emotional and tragic premature death. The net effect is that we become alienated or detached from his death and consider it objectively.

You will find many examples of dry Australianisms in Dawe’s poetry

a) Language used as a weapon of satire, sarcasm to deflate, erode, subvert or undercut accepted myths, traditions.

First stanza speaks of a baby waking into life. The sentences are deliberately short and simple. The baby takes in the hospital, sees signs and expectations.

i) lucky - We’re known as the Lucky country yet as we grow older our luck runs out and we have to fend for ourselves. - false heartiness

ii “economy sized mum “ - commercial standardised, commercialised

iii) “settle in” - casual idiom. Breezy confidant language of T.V. hosts

iv) “Fortch” - Slang for fortunate - very familiar

v) Road side signs - commanding - imperatives

vi) “No-one had got around to fixing up yet “- our compulsion to improve on nature.

vii) harsh turns of phrase - “back-stabbing”, “money-hungry” Aggressive language of ambitious business world.

viii) Mixture of colloquial and formal language:

b) ambiguity: (equivocations, double entendres, nuances)

Poetry communicates by what is suggested and each responder gleans meaning through inferences.

curves - on the road or on Clare’s body.

first class job

winding the whole show up

interested

soiled

c) connotations - word associations:

i) “real” - pragmatism?, Machiavellian?, compromise of Ideals? Realpolitik’s? unscrupulous? ruthlessness.

ii) “soiled ‘ - compromise? guilt? dirtied - bed sheets with bodily fluids?

iii) “hit whenever you see a head and kick whoever’s down”

The winner takes all mentality – never give a loser a break nature of the modem business world.

iv) “Probity” - integrity, uprightness, genuine, sincerity, (irony)

d) Euphemisms -

Morticians rather than undertakers.

Halitosis for bad breath

e) Oxymoron

monstrous love

Themes, issues, concerns

Below are some of the possible themes of the poem. Find evidence for the theme, discuss its relevance. You may find other themes as well.

1. Life is short, nasty and brutish – Hobbes

2. Life is predictable;, humdrum, sterile;, meaningless, pointless.

The speed of the poem reflects the pace of life while the detachment and lack of emotion indicates the lack of meaning, caring or compassion.

3. Modern Man is obsessed with commercialism, materialism - consumerism.

Well-equipped, smoothly-run, economy-size: these compound words are commonly used in advertising, as if the life is being sold to the child. This is reinforced by the use of a list, and the use of stereotypes, both of which are impersonal.

Economy-sized Mum… is a sexist description and is a typical stereotype of the 50s.

Anthony Squires - Coolstream - Summerweight Dad Anthony Squires is an Australian brand of suit.

Straight off the Junior Department rack.

These children have no names, gender or description (Except to point out that they are wearing what everyone else their age wears). Everything about the family is described in sexist, standardised, depersonalised tones. The family has not grown - it has been bought and constructed.

*Luck’s-A-fortch Tricky-Tune-Quiz

*Note the capitals: the emphasis is over-the-top. Evidence of consumerism (and sexism) again - after winning the quiz, Mum chose to celebrate by taking him shopping.

Good-as-new station-wagon - more consumerism. it’s not “second hand”, it’s “good as new”. The price of 495 pounds would have been very expensive for a car. Also note that a station wagon is room enough to carry the 2.3 children that was the national average.

Consumerism demonstrates the shallowness and hypocrisy of modern ideals and values.

In rich countries, consumption consists of people spending money they don’t have to buy goods they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.

4. Life is predatory; a struggle; us against the world Everyone for themself.

realistic like every other godless
money-hungry back-stabbing miserable
so-and-so,

5. Modern man needs to dominate and mould nature to their tastes

The stars are “littered across the sky” Something “no one had got around to fixing up yet.”

6. We judge everything by appearances

Bobby Dazzler’s false heartiness reflects the false, materialistic nature of the world into which the child has been born. “Hello, hello, hello all you lucky people”. This is immediately followed by a cynical comment from the narrator (and he really was lucky because it didn’t mean a thing to him then) - Bobby Dazzler doesn’t have an impact on the child’s life - yet: the child is lucky because he is innocent of the falseness of society. Note the irony of this comment in contrast to the rest of the stanza.

7. People can become callous about death.

The callousness of everyone around him - a person has just died, and people are paying attention to the make-up on his face. Confirmed by the apathetic and unemotional reaction of observers:

(Everyone was very pleased) - he’s dead, but he looks good.

the old automatic smile with nothing behind it- shows the extent of the facade he had developed in order to fit in with society, which kills genuine emotional responses and individualism, and encourages conformity.

As Robert Frost claimed in Home Burial:

“The nearest friends can go / With anyone to death, comes so far short / They might as well not try to go at all.”

The whole idea of the funeral directors making him look good ties in with the theme of the hypocrisy of society - the ultimate comment on society is that with “that automatic smile with nothing behind it”, the man might as well have been dead even before the accident: “He was dead before he was killed”.

winding the whole show up - this man’s life was like a TV show, which is now finishing, hence the jokey, happy talk show host-style narrative, with undertones of bitterness and irony. This also winds up the poem.

Underground metropolis - ie, the necropolis. Even in death, the man cannot escape the metropolis.

Like a talk show host or an advertisement, the narrative breezes over items, as if to generate interest: permanent residentials, no underground parking, etc. Even death is cheapened and sold.

8. People are too ashamed to have a soft cry in the corner because they have given in to a society which is emotionally bankrupt and centred on the illusion of getting ahead.