Bruce Dawe: Sometimes Gladness
Interactive Revision
Do
you remember when and
where Bruce Dawe was born?
Write it down.

Bruce Dawe, born in Geelong in
1930, is widely recognised as one
of Australia’s greatest living poets.

Meditations on identity are key
elements of Dawe’s poetry as are the
lives of everyday people – their times
of sadness or gladness.
How
many titles of Dawe’s poems
can you remember from your
studies?
Write down as many as you can.
No
– I’m not going to write them all
down because there are too many of
them.
You will need to know at least 5 really
well so that you can draw ideas from
them.
The idea of identity & belonging is both
complex and problematic.
 What do the concepts of “identity” and
“belonging” mean to you?
 Can you write a definition for each in
your own words?
 Try now.

Were your definitions anything like these?
Identity:
*the state of having unique identifying characteristics held by
no other person or thing
*the individual characteristics by which a person or thing is
recognized
World English Dictionary
Belonging:
*secure relationship; affinity (especially
in the phrase: a sense of belonging)
World English Dictionary
Dawe’s
poems show us various
ways in which people attain an
enduring sense of both identity
and of belonging.
In
addition to the daily trials faced on
the journey of life, many people live
with personal problems that prevent
them growing into the people they
would really like to be.
What are some of these personal problems
that can affect our sense of identity and
belonging?
List some in dot point form.
Did you have any of these?
*Lack of friends *Disability
*Family breakdown *Poor hygiene
*Poor health
*Looking “different”
*Lack of money *No “personality”
 The
social groupings of which we are a
part – families, clubs, workplaces and the
like – are usually an important part of
our sense of self.
 Such groups provide a connection to
others.
How many different social groups do
you “belong” to?
List some in dot points.
Did you identify any of these?
*Sporting club
*Religious group
*Hobby club
*Social club
*Book club
*Educational group
*Workplace group
*Entertainment group
*Carers group
*Friendship group
But
many of Dawe’s poems also
highlight ways in which people are
marginalised from the mainstream of
society.
Can you name some of these ways?
Write them down.
Here are some:
 Homeless people
 Mentally ill people
 People with disabilities
 People who don’t speak English
 People who have poor hygiene
There are other people who choose to define
themselves in opposition to traditional social
groups.
Can you name some?
Write them down.
Here are some examples of people who purposely choose to
“opt out” of mainstream society:
*Some religious groups, such as the Amish
*“Cults” that have their own societal expectations, such as
giving up all of your money to the cult leaders
*Missionaries who choose to live a life of poverty amongst the
people they are trying to help
number of poems in Sometimes Gladness are
about people who lack a strong sense of
belonging. These poems raise questions that
explore the complexity of life for those who are
positioned outside of mainstream society and told
that they do not belong or fit.
A
 Some
of Dawe’s poems demonstrate that
sometimes people will take drastic
measures to escape from the institutions
to which they belong, and actively opt
out of the sense of belonging they can
provide.
 Our
sense of identity and of personal security
can be strengthened by our ties to those we
love.
 Some of Dawe’s poems confirm that we can
develop our sense of who we are by
acknowledging that we are only one small part
of a vast universe.
A
sense of self and where we belong may be
impressed upon us from the moment we
enter the world.
 The
early poem, ‘Enter Without So Much
as Knocking’ and the popular ‘Life-cycle’
illustrate that our senses of identity and
belonging can be given to us from birth.
Each of these poems tells the story of a
birth and of the life that follows it.
 Many
of Dawe’s poems are concerned with
the lives of those who do not belong to the
mainstream of society, but rather who are
defined by their status as those on the
margins, or outsiders, in various ways.
‘The
Flashing of Badges’, ‘The Boy’,
‘Drifters’, ‘Cravensville’, ‘Migrants’
and ‘Exiles’, are linked by their focus
on the complexities of life on the
margins.
At
the centre of ‘The Family
Man’, ‘Up the Wall’ and ‘Reverie
of a Swimmer’ are individuals who
choose not to belong.
 These
characters are unhappy in the
environments where they live and
sometimes express this unhappiness
through dangerous or self-destructive
behaviour.
These
poems suggest that it is
very easy for an individual’s sense
of inner security and peace to be
undermined.
A
sense of identity and personal security
can be strongly intertwined with our
intimate ties with loved ones. We can be
diminished by the absence of our loved
ones, and sometimes we will take risks in
order to be with them.
These
complexities are evident in the
poems, ‘Suburban Lovers’, ‘With You
Not by Me’, ‘Cloth’ and ‘City Lovers’.
 The
following topics are similar to those that
students will draw on for ideas arising from
their reading of Sometimes Gladness.
 Written responses may be expository,
persuasive or imaginative.
1
‘We cannot achieve a strong sense of
identity unless we also have a strong sense
of belonging to something other than
ourselves.’
 2 ‘Life changes constantly – to survive we
need to change with it.’
3
‘Sometimes we need to compromise to fit
into our different environments.’
 4 ‘Sometimes our sense of identity is stifled by
the groups to which we belong.’
 5 ‘We need to examine ourselves closely in
order to really understand who we are and
who we can become.’
Happy
Studying