63:, with its usual connotations of celebration, as the title becomes apparent on reading the poem, in which the acts of collecting and processing the bodies of the war dead and shipping them home are described in a highly repetitive fashion, with a rhythm that evokes the beat of a funeral drum. Although the poem was written in 1968, the year Dawe left the
67:, it had its origins, according to Dawe's biographer Peter Kuch, in Dawe's earlier "political awakening in Melbourne in the mid-1950s" and in particular his personal reaction to
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has proposed that Dawe's experiences during that time are echoed in the final lines of "Homecoming":
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published in
Flanagan, Martin (16 May 1989). "Voice of people's poet in touch with the real world".
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for anonymous soldiers, "Homecoming" is an anti-war poem protesting
Australia's involvement in the
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The anti-war sentiment in "Homecoming" is more direct than in Dawe's other well-known war poem, "
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Three
Australian Writers: Essays on Bruce Dawe, Barbara Baynton, and Patrick White
271:"Two Australian poems: 'Trains' by Judith Wright and 'Homecoming' by Bruce Dawe'"
298:"The Quick and the Dead: The Breadth of Australia's Poetry in the Last Decade"
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101:. It also appears in several anthologies of Australian literature, including
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93:"Homecoming" is included in the 1971 collection of Dawe's poetry
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in 1954. Before joining the RAAF, Dawe had worked as a postman.
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Bruce Dawe, "Homecoming", quoted in
Kinsella (2008) p. 322
38:, Winthrop Professor of English and Cultural Studies at
253:"Australian and American literature of the Vietnam War"
200:. Townsville Foundation for Australian Literary Studies
57:", written two years later. The ironic use of the word
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The
Imperial Nightmare: Studies in English Literature
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Contrary
Rhetoric: Lectures on Landscape and Language
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259:, pp. 110–135. Texas A&M University Press.
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Attuned to Alien
Moonlight: The Poetry of Bruce Dawe
81:and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry
304:, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Spring, 1978), pp. 93–119
79:telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintery tree
302:Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature
111:The Macmillan Anthology of Australian Literature
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99:Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems, 1954–1992
44:The Cambridge History of Australian Literature
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173:Wheeler (2011) p. 123; Astley (1979) p. 8
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46:has described it as "one of the finest
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50:in the war literature of Vietnam".
138:Winthrop Professor Dennnis Haskell
103:Two Centuries of Australian Poetry
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277:, pp. 123–124. GRIN Verlag.
134:University of Western Australia
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319:Complete text of "Homecoming"
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65:Royal Australian Air Force
241:Oxford University Press.
95:Condolences of the Season
69:the fall of Dien Bien Phu
203:Haskell, Dennis (2002).
306:(subscription required)
269:Wheeler, David (2011).
257:Australia's Vietnam War
219:Kinsella, John (2008).
107:Oxford University Press
16:1968 poem by Bruce Dawe
296:Headon, David (1978).
251:Pierce, Peter (2002).
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196:Astley, Thea (1979).
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235:Kuch, Peter (1995).
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121:Notes and references
225:. Fremantle Press.
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334:Categories
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238:Bruce Dawe
231:1921361050
215:0702232386
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48:threnodies
24:Bruce Dawe
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141:Archived
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355:Laments
324:The Age
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