Poets, Context and Themes
To understand all the imagery and allusions made within a poem one needs to know about the personal and social context that it was
written in; the factors that influenced the creation of a text.
Personal Context:
 Gender
 Culture
 Religion
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Occupation
Beliefs (Ideology)
Interests
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Education
Ethnicity
Friendships
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Life experiences
Values
Age
Attitudes
Family
Health
Social Context:
Social attitudes in different times and places – affected by religion / politics / cultural knowledge / technology
Cultural Context:
Culture includes the skills, arts traditions and customs that are passed down from generation to generation. All these will impact upon a
writer’s style and perspective.
POET
Geoff Goodfellow
http://www.geoffgoodfellow.
com/
Les Murray
http://www.lesmurray.org/
PERSONAL CONTEXT
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Contemporary
South Australian
Geoff Goodfellow of
Semaphore, South Australia,
is one of perhaps a handful
of people in Australia who
derive an income from
working as a poet.
www.criticaltimes.com.au/p
oems/geoff-goodfellow/
Australian
Poems 1961 – 1994
Les Murray is Australia's
leading poet and one of the
greatest contemporary
poets writing in English. His
work has been published in
ten languages.
POEMS
To Your Three Sons
The Colour Blue
The Violence of Work
On a Roll
PUBLICATIONS
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
“Poems for a Dead Father”
THEMES
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Observations about Society
Individuals
People at Work
Family Relationships
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Observations about Society
Individuals
“Punch on Punch Off”
“Collars and Cuffs”
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
1
Poets, Context and Themes
POET
Bob Magor
http://bobmagor.com/
PERSONAL CONTEXT
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Bruce Dawe
http://www.australianbiogra
phy.gov.au/subjects/dawe/
Judith Wright
http://www.quotesandpoem.
com/poems/PoetsAndPoems/
wright
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Australian
Bob Magor hails from
Myponga SA. He left school
at 15 years of age, spent
about 25 years working a
sheep and cattle farm. At
the age of "about 40" Bob
began putting his rural
experience to use by writing
bush verse and poetry and
has now written seven
books.
The first of his works was
released at the Tamworth
Country Music festivals of
the early 1990s, and he has
gone from strength to
strength since that time.
Australian
Poems 1954 - 1982
POEMS
The Wombat Creek Ball
The Gun Shearer
The Day I Shot the Telly
PUBLICATIONS
“Donkey Derby”
“The FMG”
“Snakes Alive”
A Dog’s Life
“Blasted Crows”
The Flood at the Pub
“Caravanning Bliss”
Not Cricket
Australian
Poems 1942 – 1970
b1915 – d2000
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Contemporary bush poetry
Rural settings
Farming
Humour
Caravanning around
Australia
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City / Suburbs
Family Affections
Friends & Lovers
Reflections
Private Fates
War
Images
Elegies
Dreams
Relationships
Love
Birth
Motherhood
War (Vietnam)
Nature
“Blood on the Board”
“The Exodus”
Katrina
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
Going
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THEMES
The Sadness of Madonnas
“Sometimes Gladness”
Woman to Child
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
Brothers and Sisters
Metho Drinker
Legend
“Five Senses”
“The Other Half”
“Shadow”
“Appreciating Poetry” anthology
2
Poets, Context and Themes
POET
PERSONAL CONTEXT
POEMS
PUBLICATIONS
THEMES
Ogden Nash
http://www.poemhunter.com
/ogden-nash/
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American
b1902 - d1971
Some humour
Confessions of a Born
Spectator
“Appreciating Poetry” anthology
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Observations about society
People & relationships
TS Elliot
http://www.poets.org/poet.p
hp/prmPID/18
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http://www.poetryarchive.com/e/eliot_t_s.htm
l
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
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American who moved to
Britain
B1888 – d 1965
A distinguished poet
The Hippopotamus
“The Waste Land”
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Love
Relationships
Criticisms of society
Death
Immortality
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American
Renowned
B 1830 – d 1886
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
Robert Frost
http://www.ketzle.com/frost/
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American
1874 - 1963
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
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Nature
Life
Love
Time and Eternity
Nature
Philosophy
Edgar Allan Poe
http://www.onlineliterature.com/poe/
e e cummings
http://famouspoetsandpoem
s.com/poets/e__e__cummin
gs/poems
Kahlil Gibran
http://leb.net/~mira/
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American
1809 -1849
Wild Nights
I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
Success
The Secret
The Road Not Taken
Out Out –
Design
The Raven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed
gar_Allan_Poe
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Philosophy
Gothic
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American
1894 -1962
I carry your heart with me
A pretty a day
Snow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ee
_cummings
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Nature
Life
Love
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Lebanese-American
1883 - 1931
Love
Marriage
Children
Work
Joy
The Madman (1918)
The forerunner (1920)
The Prophet (1923)
Sand and Foam (1926)
Jesus, the son of man (1928)
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Philisophical
Humanity
Relationships
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American
1806 – 1861
Wrote sonnets
http://www.everypoet.com/
archive/poetry/Elizabeth_Ba
rrett_Browning/elizabeth_br
owning_contents.htm
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Sonnets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
T._S._Eliot
Emily Dickinson
http://www.onlineliterature.com/dickinson/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Khalil_Gibran
Elizabeth Barrett
Browning
http://www.poets.org/poet.p
hp/prmPID/152
3
Poets, Context and Themes
POET
PERSONAL CONTEXT
POEMS
PUBLICATIONS
THEMES
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American
Female – male pseudonym
1819 - 1880
Count That Day Lost
In a London Drawing-room
Roses
Sweet Endings Come and
Go, Love
Two Lovers
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England
1937 – now
Satirical
The Lesson
Dumb Insolence
Icarus Allsorts
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
Wilfred Owen
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/
owena.htm
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British Poet
B1893 – d 1918
WWI poetry
“Appreciating Poetry” anthology
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Poetry about the horrors of
War
Alfred Tennyson
http://www.onlineliterature.com/tennyson/
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England
Poet Laureate
1809 -1892
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
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Life
Love
War
William Blake
http://www.onlineliterature.com/blake/
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England
Romantic
1757 – 1827
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Futility
Insensibility
Strange Meeting
Ulysses
The Charge of the Light
Brigade
The Eagle
Sir Galahad
The Garden of Love
The Tiger
The Sick Rose
Percy Bysse Shelly
http://www.onlineliterature.com/shelley_percy/
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England
Romantic
1792 – 1822
Ozymandias
Adonais
“Into English”
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Religion
Spirituality
Philosophy
Love
The Devil
Love
Romance
William Wordsworth
http://www.everypoet.com/a
rchive/poetry/William_Words
worth/william_wordsworth_c
ontents.htm
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England
Romantic
1770 – 1850
I Wandered Lonely As a
Cloud
The Idiot Boy
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
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Nature
The Lakes District
Love
George Eliot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
George_Eliot
http://famouspoetsandpoem
s.com/poets/george_eliot
Roger McGough
http://www.poemhunter.com
/roger-mcgough/
http://famouspoetsandpoems.c
om/poets/george_eliot/poems
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Love
Life
Nature
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Observations and criticisms
about society
Often satirical
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“Strictly Private”
“Appreciating Poetry” anthology
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
“Songs of Innocence and
Experience”
4
Poets, Context and Themes
POET
PERSONAL CONTEXT
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Wrote Sonnets
England
Elizabethan
b1664 - d1716
John Donne
http://www.luminarium.org/s
evenlit/donne/donnebib.htm
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Geoffrey Chaucer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The_Canterbury_Tales
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1572 – 1631
London
Catholic in a protestant
society
1357 – 1399(?)
The Crusades
A minstrel / squire
William Shakespeare
http://www.shakespearessonnets.com/
http://www.shakespeareonline.com/sonnets/
POEMS
PUBLICATIONS
THEMES
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Love
Nature
Politics
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
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Nature
Relationships
Love
“Canterbury Tales”
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Pilgrims
Humour
The Sonnets
“Blue Light Clear Atoms”
anthology KAS
Extracts from plays
“Appreciating Poetry” anthology
The Flea
The Good Morrow
The Sunne Rising
The Canterbury Tales
http://www.sparknotes.com/
lit/canterbury/
Some other AUSTRALIAN Poets
Peter McFarlane
Rory Harris
Max Harris
CJ Dennis
Banjo Patterson
Edward Dyson
Henry Lawson
Adam Lindsay Gordon
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South Australia
contemporary
South Australia
contemporary
South Australia
1921 - 1995
South Australia
1876 - 1938
Qld
1864 - 1941
Victoria
1865 -1931
NSW
1867 -1922
Australia
1833 - 1870
http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au/?page_id=471
Humour / Satire
http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au/?page_id=336
Humour / Satire
http://www.ernmalley.com/max_harris.html
Humour
Satire
Australian society
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/denniscj/collections/sel
ectedverse.html
http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/banjo-patersonpoems.shtml
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/dysone/dysone.html
Australian bush
Mining / Droving / Farming
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~natinfo/lawson/index2.html
Australian bush
http://www.imagesaustralia.com/adamlindsaygordon.htm
Action and passion
5