Bruce Dawe's Televistas

271 Words2 Pages
In Bruce Dawe’s ‘Televistas’, concerns are raised for a television consumed society, where meaningful relationships lack development. The poem is based around a couple who have met through a television related incident, as explained in the opening stanza. The relationship commences through the television associated ‘pick-up’ line “Watch with me a while’. The couple soon develop a relationship which is focused around television. They spend the hours watching shows from childish cartoons to thrillers. The love factor is only formed between two shows. “Right between the Carol Burnett And the David Nixon Show They fell in love”. This shows the lack of interest in the relationship and gives mockery to true love and romance. The perception of a shallow society and relationship is introduced when conversation was only brought forward during the commercials. “Fortune smiled between commercials, Dreams were swapped and, futures planned”. In the fourth stanza, the first fight the couple have, as in a normal relationship, was due to a television related incident, where a disagreement between viewing desires arose. In the last stanza, promises and farewells were taken place over the epilogue on television. Agreements to the next meeting were also placed in relation to a television program. In ‘Televistas’, Dawe has expressed various stages of relationships, such as fights, promises, and conversations, and he has contrasted them with a television consumed society. In this context, the responder is able to view this particular couple as one who has a relationship shallowly based around television. The responder is also able to recognise an unfulfilling relationship, which is far from what ‘true love’ should be
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