Homo_Suburbiensis

Homo Suburbiensis This poem strikes in a narrative tone explaining a story, specifically a story with morals, wise and Bruce tries to get his audience to understand and realise his thoughts. The first sentence quotes ‘one constant in a world of variable’, I think this means one thing stays unchanged, and ‘in a world of variables’ symbolises the constant’s surroundings, circumstance or situation. So it’s like one stable factor in many different cases. Then it gives an example, which is also indicated by a dash/hyphen. He describes a man that’s quite lonesome and ordinary, with his garden which describes around what date, time and setting we are meant to be looking at. He uses metaphors that tease my intelligence and I think he lets us think for while and try to interpret such a background. I also think there’s a little irony in this poem, because the start of the poem Dawe describes the setting as a comfortable cosy sort of environment and very fitting and familiar to the man, but then during the middle of the poem Dawe writes that the man stands there lost and confused in his homey surroundings but then in the next paragraph he lists what the man hears, slowly unfolding his ironic sentence and explaining what he means in hints however the sentence is incomplete as if Bruce Dawe wants you to think of the reason yourself which puzzles and almost resists the intelligence of the readers. I think he has used his earlier sentences as a hint or link and my interpretation of what he means of ‘offering up’ is offering what any man can and then he starts listing down aspects of life, so I think he means just living and bringing himself and all the events and feelings that makes up his personality into this world as an input and effect on other peoples’ lives and futures including his and ‘instead’ meaning instead of bringing something great and interesting, he can only offer himself in this world even if it really is.. not much. So the constant is peoples’ lives, past, his time, pain, feelings, and all in very different surroundings all over the world.