BRADMAN’S LAST INNINGS CONTEXT
Sir Donald Bradman:
 born in 1908
 the most renowned and respected of Australian cricketers
 of shy manner, he attained heroic stature in the interwar period and
captained Australia in test matches against England from 1936 to 1948
 He represents an era, long gone, when sportsmen were gentlemen
and the love of a game, not the 'star' status and huge financial
rewards
 Bradman represents an Australia and a romantic past, when the kind
of man he was and the principles he lived by symbolised a unified
Australians’ beliefs… such as:
 The dominant Australian cultural ideal that people should have an
understated confidence, even in hard times (be positive but not
“cocky”).
 The value of fair play and good sportsmanship
 The Australian value of simplicity - about life and its purposes.
Poetry analysis… another process option:
 One way to approach your analysis of any poem (or any text)
is find out as much as you can about the subject of the poem
 Having a good inside-understanding of the context of a
poem can help you SPOT the main concerns and values which
are being represented… then you can find the best lines in
the poem which “show” these concerns and values

 Foulcher recalls the cricketer's reputation, in this poem, and
subjects it to his keen poetic techniques of symbolism and
imagery:
'Bradman's last innings' is framed by the event commemorated
in the title - Bradman's last appearance at the crease, “Bowled for a
duck, you could have asked for better....” the irony is created
by the cricket jargon “for a duck”. The bluntness of the term used to
show his unceremonious dismissal seems too harsh for such an
important historical occasion.
At the end of the poem, cricket jargon links back to the
bluntness of the opening line - “four runs short of that
century / average, at the last, betrayed by your own
game”. Here, the negative and harsh emotive language and the
high modality of “that century” and “the last” bluntly shows the
experience of Bradman’s last match being more bitter than
ironic. The final lines mirror the cruel summation of a brilliant
career.
 Foulcher sketches the great batsman's life in the context of its
significance in Australian history
 Foulcher makes symbolic connections between Bradman and
Australian culture and history.
 The poem symbolises the national and international renown of
Bradman’s values and life. The poem (metaphorically) reflects
the values and lives of other ordinary Australian during the
tumultuous years of WWI… WWII… and the Great
Depression