BROTHER AND SISTERS Judith Wright (circa 1946)
The road turned out to be a cul-de-sac;
stopped like a lost intention at the gate
and never crossed the mountains to the coast
But they stayed on. Years grew like grass and leaves
across the half-erased and dubious track
until one day they knew the plans were lost,
the blue-print for the bridge was out of date,
and now their orchards would never be planted.
The saplings sprouted slyly; day by day
the bush moved one step nearer, wondering when.
The polished parlour grew distrait and haunted
where Millie, Lucy, John each night at ten
wound the gilt clock that leaked the year away.
The pianola---oh, listen to the mocking-bird--wavers on Sundays and has lost a note.
The wrinkled ewes snatch pansies through the fence
and stare with shallow eyes into the garden
Lexical chain of nouns and
pronouns which symbolize
traditional elements of British
imperial society and rural-colonial
homesteads. – which contrasts
with the more ”native” Australian
images created by vernacular and
the allusion to the Bogon Moth
(native to Australia).
where Lucy shrivels waiting for word,
and Millie’s cameos loosen around her throat.
The bush comes near, the ranges grow immense.
Feeding the lambs deserted in early spring
Lucy looked up and saw the stockman’s eye
retelling her she was cracked an old.
The wall
groans in the night and settles more awry.
O how they lie awke. Their thoughts go fluttering
from room to room like moths: “Millie, are you awake?”
“oh John, I have been dreaming.” “Lucy, do you cry?”
---meet tentative as moths*. Antennae stroke a wing.
“There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all.”
*Eastern Australian tribes of Aborigines would meet at Kosciusko to trade goods
and stories at the same time each year. At the same time that the Bogon moths
go to Kosciusko to breed – and the aborigines would feast upon the Bogons.
Ideas in Brother and Sisters:
 Significance of family
 Unity
 Innocence  old age
 Fear of loneliness in old age
 Images of English homes contrasted with the Australian bush
 Dreams which don’t come true
 Values which fade with time
 Abandonment
 Absence of parents
 The paternal authority and protective nature of brothers (men?)
 The fleeting nature of human life
… [continue]…