"Homecoming" by Bruce Dawe ~ A Fine Poet, Family Man and True Gentleman.

Read “Homecoming” by Bruce Dawe on Genius

Vale Bruce Dawe, 1930-2020.

‘and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry
— they’re bringing them home, now, too late, too early’ #ozlit https://t.co/A4KybtDpnp

— Sarah Holland-Batt (@the_shb) April 2, 2020

A poem about Australian soldiers coming home from the Vietnam war,

written by Bruce Dawe in 1968.

Dawe uses a one-stanza, or to be more precise, a one-sentence structure throughout his poem, as well as an inconsistent rhyming scheme to create subtle emphases among the onrush of images.

In order for the full effect of the poem to capture the reader, it is best read aloud.

“Homecoming” is featured in the Macmillan anthology of Australian literature alongside other great Australian texts.

"Bruce Dawe was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne in 1930. Bruce Dawe's mother and father were from farming backgrounds in Victoria and, like his own sisters and brother, never had the opportunity to complete primary school. He always had encouragement from them (the younger of his two sisters also wrote poetry) and his mother, proud of her Lowlands Scots ancestry, would often recite poems she had learned in her 19th century childhood. Dawe's father's ancestors came from Wyke Regis in Dorset, England, in the mid-19th century. Dawe attended six schools before leaving Northcote High School at 16 without completing his Leaving Certificate. Of the four children in the family, he was the only one to attend secondary school.

After leaving school at 16, he worked in various occupations (labourer, farmhand, clerk, sawmill-hand, gardener and postman) before joining the RAAF in1959. He left the RAAF in 1968 and began a teaching career at Downlands College, Toowoomba in 1969. He holds four university degrees (BA, MLitt, MA and PhD) - all completed by part-time study.

Dawe married Gloria Desley Blain on 27 January 1964. Between Dec 1964 and Jul 1969, Bruce and Gloria had four children: Brian, twins Jamie and Katrina, and Melissa. Gloria died on 30 Dec 1997 after a long battle with cancer." via My Poetic Side