Drifters Poem Analysis

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Written in the 1930’s, this particular literature is based around the aforementioned nomadic lifestyle, as implied by the title ‘Drifters’. During the first stanza, Dawe describes how the children and family pet would be ecstatic when the husband tells his wife to start packing. “The kids will yell ‘Truly’ and get wildly excited”. This implies that they do not understand the consequences of the act of moving from their current place to the next residential area. It may be assumed that they’d only see the more adventurous side of the act rather than its consequences. As a response, the poem then depicts the mother being sent out to pick out all the green tomatoes in the vegetable-patch. The unripe tomatoes may metaphorically represent time, particularly the short duration of their stay and as they have not yet matured and…show more content…
The youngest is depicted to be beaming as she was not happy to be living in the current area. This may possibly be due to the fact that she is still very young and does not appreciate much apart from the more materialistic entertainments the area is able to provide. The eldest girl, on the other hand, is unsettled and “close to tears because she was happy there”. The elder may have had fond memories of the events that had occurred there or even bonds she had forged with friends and would be undoubtedly depressed to leave. In the last stanza the wife is shown to be reminiscing about how and when they had first arrived. “She held out her hands bright with berries, the first of the season and said, make a wish Tom, make a wish”. This quote initially creates a sense of hope and happiness and seems to emphasises their hopes of change and being able to move on from their past life but is then compared to and highlights the melancholy feeling created by the father’s recent notion to leave and once again start a new life somewhere
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