Photographs of
Pioneer
Women
Class notes and analysis
PHOTOGRAPHS OF PIONEER WOMEN
Ruth Dallas
You can see from their faces
Life was not funny,
The streets, when there were streets,
Tugging at axles,
The settlement ramshackle as a stack of
cards.
And where there were no streets, and no
houses,
Save their own roof of calico or thatch,
The cows coming morning and afternoon
From the end-of-world swamp,
Udders cemented with mud.
There is nothing to equal pioneering
labour
For wrenching a woman out of shape,
Like and old willow, uprooted, thickening.
See their strong arms, their shoulders
broadened
By the rhythmical swing of the axe, or
humped
Under loads they donkeyed on their
backs.
Some of them found time to be
photographed,
With bearded husband, and twelve or
thirteen children,
Looking shocked, but relentless,
After first starching the frills of their caps.
overview
Dallas uses a photograph of early New Zealand pioneering women to honour our
past. From such difficult beginnings a new nation, our nation, has been forged.
Dallas’ tone is at the same time empathetic and celebratory.
In the first stanza Dallas sets the scene. Tone is immediately established in the first 2
lines,
‘You can see from their faces
Life was not funny,’
The streets ‘tugging’ at axles is truly representative of those early towns and villages
in 19th century New Zealand. Her vivid portrayal of the scene continues in the first
stanza and she is clever in the detail she provides. The reader is made aware of the
houses, what they are built of and some of the difficulties those early women
endured, while at the same time clinging desperately to some of the ‘normalities’ of
being a women in a pioneering frontier.
…..
Language techniques
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•
•
•
Narration: 2nd person – draws the
reader into the poem immediately
adjectives: vivid and explicit – we
understand that the houses are not
in orderly rows
Simile: provides a vivid image of a
street.
Alliteration: faces/funny, OR
streets/settlement/stack, OR
cows/coming/cemented – all serve
to link ideas together to provide a
strong image for the reader
Language techniques continued..
PHOTOGRAPHS OF PIONEER WOMEN
Ruth Dallas
You can see from their faces
Life was not funny,
The streets, when there were streets,
Tugging at axles,
The settlement ramshackle as a stack of
cards.
And where there were no streets, and no
houses,
Save their own roof of calico or thatch,
The cows coming morning and afternoon
From the end-of-world swamp,
Udders cemented with mud.
•
•
•
•
•
There is nothing to equal pioneering
labour
For wrenching a woman out of shape,
Like and old willow, uprooted, thickening.
See their strong arms, their shoulders
broadened
By the rhythmical swing of the axe, or
humped
Under loads they donkeyed on their
backs.
Some of them found time to be
photographed,
With bearded husband, and twelve or
thirteen children,
Looking shocked, but relentless,
After first starching the frills of their caps.
•
•
•
Scene setting: !st verse sets the scene
to allow reader to ‘view’ the photo as
Dallas is. 2nd half of first stanza refers to
the rural areas compared to town in the
first half.
Hyperbole: strengthens the image of
isolation and desperation being created
and also add sense of isolation (from
England and the frontier towns) the
women must have been feeling
Change of tone and pace: denotes
change of focus. Dallas now begins the
process of honouring the women and at
the same developing understanding of
what life must have been like for them
Verbs: harsh, enduring and descriptive
Simile: informs us of the hardships the
women endured and the sacrifices they
were prepared to make to forge a new
life
In this phrase we are given a very clear
image of the pioneer women. A mature
willow tree usually has a thick trunk, is
twisted and has lots of knots in it.
Dallas forces us, the reader, to have an
image in our minds by using this
imperative
The last 2 phrases remind us strongly that
these workers are still very female who
have female desires and who have to,
even with all the harsh physical work they
do, still have to face the harsh physical
normalities of childbirth. All men would
have had beards and women mostly
wore a small hat to cover their hair as
was the fashion at that time.