Homecoming (poem)
Encyclopedia
"Homecoming" is a 1968 poem written by Bruce Dawe
. It is included in Dawe's collection Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems, 1954 - 1992.
"Homecoming" is an anti-war poem written about the Vietnam War
. The poem describes the process of collecting and processing the dead from a war and shipping them home. Dawe uses imagery, irony, paradox, repetition, accumulation, and metaphors to portray deep emotions. At the beginning of the poem, the dead bodies are treated like garbage, being put into plastic bags, thrown recklessly into trucks and convoys and having no identity whatsoever until they arrive in Saigon, where they are given names and stored in freezers like piles of meat.
Bruce Dawe
Donald Bruce Dawe AO is an Australian poet, and is considered by many as one of the most influential Australian poets of all time.-Early life:...
. It is included in Dawe's collection Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems, 1954 - 1992.
"Homecoming" is an anti-war poem written about the Vietnam War
Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War
Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War began as a small commitment of 30 men in 1962, and increased over the following decade to a peak of 7,672 Australians deployed in South Vietnam or in support of Australian forces there. The Vietnam War was the longest and most controversial war Australia...
. The poem describes the process of collecting and processing the dead from a war and shipping them home. Dawe uses imagery, irony, paradox, repetition, accumulation, and metaphors to portray deep emotions. At the beginning of the poem, the dead bodies are treated like garbage, being put into plastic bags, thrown recklessly into trucks and convoys and having no identity whatsoever until they arrive in Saigon, where they are given names and stored in freezers like piles of meat.