When Lawson later became unemployed himself, he was able to draw on personal experience for the composition of 'Faces in the Street' Some years later, Lawson recalled the circumstances of writing this now iconic verse in the first volume of his 'A Fragment of Autobiography'.
In 'Faces in the Street' Henry Lawson took on the lie that Australia was the land of plenty and classlessness. He starts off sorrowfully, using the street as a metaphor for the lives of the poor but soon takes on a more angry tone as he proclaims the coming of a revolution which he is sure will change things.
Explanation: The poet tells his son that he wants to go back to his childhood. He wants to get back his lost identity. He expresses a desire to unlearn whatever he has forced himself to learn. Comment: He asks his son to help him be happy once again and acquire the childlike innocence he once possessed as a child. Stanza 1. But now they only laugh with their teeth,. While their ice-block-cold eyes. Search behind my shadow. In the past people were honest, sincere in their dealings with one another.
But now the laugh does not express any real happiness. People laugh showing their teeth. Comment: These lines give the impression of genuine emotion given off by the people. Stanza 2. They used to shake hands with their hearts:. Now they shake hands without hearts:. While their left hands search. My empty pockets. He says that people in the past showed emotions on their faces coming from the heart when shaking hands or when laughing. Comment: These lines give the impression of genuine emotion given off by the people in the past.
Stanza 3. There will be no thrice —. They do not really invite other people. The words are used only for the sake of formality. Comment: These lines brings out the false love and respect expressed.
Stanza 4. Like dresses — home face,. Explanation : The speaker tells us that he has learnt to deal with this fake, insincere world by changing himself like other those people. Like others, he too hides his real feelings.
Comment: The poet dramatically pictures falseness and changes. Stanza 5. To laugh with only my teeth. And shake hands without my heart. Explanation: The poet admits that he has learnt to say what fits each situation instead of speaking the truth. He fakes his behaviour. Comment: The poet says he has also learnt to greet people with pretended gladness. Stanza 6.
When I was like you. To unlearn all these muting things. The poet has learnt to behave with pretended gladness. He tells his son that he wants to get rid of this false laugh showing only the teeth. The poet regrets his fake behaviour and so expresses his desire to unlearn all those bad things and learn how to laugh sincerely. Stanza 7. So, show me, son,. How to laugh; show me how.
Once upon a time when I was like you. The poet asks his son to show how to laugh sincerely. Children do not fake things. They show what they really feel. Comment: The poet asks his son to help him be happy once again and acquire the childlike innocence he once possessed as a boy. Explain the things the poet has learnt when he grew into an adult. Gabriel Okara the Nigerian poet brings out the difference between the behaviour of the people in the past and their behaviour at present.
In the past people laughed with their hearts sincerely. They greeted one another with real gladness. But now, people laugh with any real happiness and greet one another with an artificial, pretended smile. Okara says that he has also learnt to behave in an artificial manner like other people. This poem is nothing but a criticism of modern life. Justify this statement. The background of the poem is that the poet remembers the way people used to behave and interact with each other in the past and how people interact with others now.
The purpose of this poem is to try to bring them back to the past behaviour with emotion and with their heart. The son is a small boy and he does things with real emotion. The father wants to forget his fake personality and re-learn really the cordial behaviour. And he is asking the son to show him how to express true love and show real feelings to others. It means that our facial expressions reveal our feelingsjoy, anger, sorrow, disapproval etc. This is true to some extent.
Nowadays people greet one another with a smile, but there is no real happiness. This is very catchy title. It clearly indicates the past. The poet remembers that in the past, people used to show happiness from their hearts on meeting someone.
But nowadays people think that the arrival of a guest creates big problem. So they want riddance at the earliest possible. Artificiality has taken the place of reality. He remarks that there was a time when people felt real joy on meeting their friends and relatives. Their behaviour was so genuine and full of warmth affection.
In the poem the poet has contrasted the past with the present, so the title is justified and appropriate. OR What are the values and African cultures presented by the poet? The poem is a monologuethe poet addresses his son, but his son does not say anything.
The poet compares the behavior of the people in the past and their behavior at present. Once upon a time people laughed with their hearts, that is sincerely.
Their eyes shone with real happiness. But now people laugh without real feelings. Now people shake hands without real gladness. When the poet visits someone for a third time the doors are shut on him! Now the poet says that he has also learnt to behave like other people.
He puts an artificial gladness. He changes his facial expression according to different situations. He has become a fake. Now the poet feels sorry for his behavior. He wishes to go back to his boyhood days and show real feelings. He wants his son to make him the poet unlearn the artificial behavior. Okara feels that colonization of Africa by European countries England, France and others has spoilt the native African simplicity and sincerity.
First read the questions given below. Next, listen to an excerpt from a poem read out by your teacher or played in a recorder. Then tick the right answers from the options given. In the poem Once Upon a Time, a parent wishes to shed falsehood and regain true ways as a child. Here is a poem where a woman longs to become a child once again to enjoy the comfort, warmth and love she received as a child from her mother, once upon a time.
Poetic Devices:. Repetition: "Once upon a time" in the 1st and last lines. His poems and especially his short stories - I think that his short stories are far better than his poems - were staple fare for generations of Australians. His turbulent life including his battles with alcohol also helped, making him a figure of legend. Norwegian born, Larsen had jumped ship in Melbourne in to join the gold rushes. There he met and married Louisa Albury in Louisa was a remarkable women, one who occupies her own place in Australian history.
Henry was a frail, moody and somewhat introverted child, cut off from others, distressed by the growing troubles in his parent's marriage. Already slightly deaf, at fourteen he suffered a sharp deterioration in his hearing that left him further cut off from the world. Henry's schooling was limited and interrupted. In he left school, working initially with his father on local contract building jobs.
Then in he moved to Sydney to join his mother where he was apprenticed as a coach painter and studied at night towards his matriculation. His troubles moved with him. He was no happier and failed his exams. However, he had also begun to write. His first poem was published in the Bulletin in October Now I want to go back to Faces in the Street. This poem was published in July Henry was twenty one. I make this point because while I pointed out to Neil in my initial response that was still boom time, something that Neil himself recognised as his comment on my post makes clear, I myself misread the poem through a frame set by my knowledge of later developments.
This is in fact a somewhat raw young man's poem. I like it better for that reason. It is also a poem of revolution. Shall its sad people miss awhile the terrors of the street —. The nineteenth century was a time of great political and intellectual turmoil.
This was the century that saw the emergence of the various socialist movements, the publication in of the Communist Manifesto, the foundation of the communist movement. These ideas spread around the world, taking various forms in various countries, including the Australasian colonies. There is not room here, nor do I have the knowledge, to trace all the details of this spread. Very broadly, within the British Empire then the world's leading political and economic power the outcomes were more pluralist, more gradualist, less ideological and hard edged than in continental Europe.
This may seem hard to believe if you read some of the writing of the time from the radical left on one side, the very conservative right on the other. Or if you look at the detail of the political and industrial strife of the 's.
Yet, at least as I see it, in this varying mix of ideas and idealism there was a melding of thought in the Australasian colonies that formed one core component of Australian political and social thought during much of the twentieth century.
In Henry's case, his move to Sydney where his mother had purchased the Republican brought him in contact with his mother's radical friends and inspired him with radical and republican ideas. His first published poem was called A Song of the Republic.
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