Essay: "Life-Cycle" by Bruce Dawe

Journeys often are unchanging and are undeveloping. Life-Cycle by Bruce Dawe develops this idea that often life journeys can be useless as there is a lack of development. The beginning of the poem shows the newborns “Carn, they cry, Carn…feebly at first”. This is repeated at the end when the elderly are “loyally crying Carn…Carn…(if feebly) unto the very end”. Dawe shows how both at the start and the beginning of the “life-cyle” is repeated suggesting a lack of development and change. The title life-cycle itself suggests the idea that you end where you start, supporting this idea of a lack of change and movement. Dawe suggests that the journey undertaken through life can sometimes be useless due to a lack of change and development.

Journeys do not always provide insight and enlightenment. This idea is explored through the use of satire in Dawes language. Dawe uses satire to comment on how often people believe that journeys are beneficial as they provide insight to the world “until now, hearts shrapnelled with rapture, they break the surface and are forever lost”. Dawe through the use of satire subverts this idea of the children becoming enlightened, in reality Dawe suggests that they become “forever lost”, never really completing the journey of their life. This idea is commented on through “their minds rippling out like streamers”. Dawe suggests that the children lose their minds through this simile, comparing minds to streamers being thrown. The use of satire cements such an idea that journeys do not always provide insight and enlightenment, rather it is possible that they cause people to deviate from another journey that they should be taking.


Journeys remain static throughout time, regardless of how many people embark on the journey. This idea of an everpresent journey is shown through the symbolism of the idol figures]“centaur-figures from the past to replenish continually the present”. Dawe creates a sense of an ever-present journey, in which many people will join and cheer for the team and when they die they are replaced – with the cycle of the journey continuing. Dawe comments on this static nature through the use of satire “so that mythology may be perpetually renewed”. Dawe suggests that the journey the fans are taking is one that is made up or mythological. He also comments on how this artificial journey is forever repeated, showing the audience the static nature of the journey.


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