The Glasshouse Mountains
THE DRIVING QUESTION
How can man's relationship with nature be represented in inspired and meaningful ways?
How can man's relationship with nature be represented in inspired and meaningful ways?
A commentary on the poem
OPENING PARAGRAPH GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT'S MEANING |
John Foulcher's poem, The Glasshouse Mountains conveys the contrast between man-made landscapes and the majesty of the untouched natural world. As in many of Foulcher's poems, his meaning is implied rather than stated and he is just as interested in using words to 'paint' a landscape for us all to experience.
|
BODY PARAGRAPHS EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE POEM AND THE TECHNIQUES THAT HELP THE POET GET THAT MEANING ACROSS. It is traditional to work from the beginning of the poem, dealing with each image in turn, though it may be necessary to draw from other parts of the poem to make a point stronger. Use your common sense when writing a commentary. Use the voice of a teacher, communicating ideas to a clever student. Whilst there is a sense of closure at the end of a commentary, there is no need for a conclusion, unless you want to comment on the overall structure of the poem or another technique that carries through the poem as a whole. |
The poem begins by describing the man-made world. Foulcher chooses his verbs carefully, depicting the freeway as "riddled" with traffic and the estates that "cluster". The words suggest infection rather than progress and this technique is carried through the poem as "houses spread", supermarkets "white ant" and the "golf course gashes". Foulcher positions the reader to see a conflict between the man-made and the natural landscape by depicting the town as a disease.
The adversarial relationship between man and nature becomes more obvious in the juxtaposition of the "new estates" and the "ruins of rainforest" and in the simile, "houses spread like fungus". Again, there is a sense of disease and decay as the natural world gives way to progress and human habitation.
But Foulcher is also interested in painting landscapes with words and he does this by creating strong visual imagery. The roads, seen from a distance, are depicted through the metaphor of "the thick grey trunks / of streets, fallen / everywhere" so that the houses set along the road look like a 'fungus' growing from the trunk of a fallen tree.
A series of stand alone nouns punctuate the picture: "Video shops. Clubs. Supermarkets..." The reader understands they exist but Foulcher positions us to take no interest in them as they lack the poetic treatment he has given to the rest of the town.
The imagery undergoes a subtle shift as the land becomes gradually personified as the "golf course gashes the hill's flank". The idea of decay and disease is giving way to more violent imagery to show man's impact on the natural landscape. Even the pineapple plantations do not escape criticism, described as "sharp and brittle" and irritating the landscape as an "itch in the furrowed dirt".
Finally Foulcher positions the reader to look beyond the foreground of the landscape he is painting to see the mountains beyond. The newness of the estates earlier in the poem is contrasted by the mountains that are "worn away / from an older crust". Where verbs depicting disease and infection are used to depict the suburban landscape, the mountains majestically "leap" and "lift" to suggest their ability to strike awe into the hearts of those who look upon them. The mountains become all the more lively when juxtaposed against the "dying plain", suggesting they are a vibrant representation of the power of the natural world.
Foulcher again takes the role of the artist, evoking images of natural, towering skyscrapers with the sun carving "shadows from their tall storeys". He uses words to evoke the natural sublime (the power of nature to humble and awe us to bring us moral and emotional renewal). This is amplified in the simile of the mountains that "lift like voices" and "echo...all along the coast" as we are invited to see the mountains as an uplifting choir with a power that will resonate even after one leaves this place.. |