Where we come from and our attitude to it are powerful forces in our lives.
http://www.englishworks.com.au/imaginary-landscapes-3/
Extended metaphor of landscaped gardens as a work of art
(Weave in comparisons)
Although the majority of Australians live in an urban environment, many of us put a great deal of effort, love and care into our gardens. We often engage landscape gardeners to transform barren soil or wild bushes into a work of art. The fences, the boulders, the placement of shrubs and sculptures are critical to the design process and their placement reflects the views and values of the gardener about balance, colour and our place in the natural environment.
As Professor Andrew Taylor from the Edith Cowen University points out, this process of transformation often reflects who we are and how we see our place in the world. Such gardeners impose a “point of view”, which means they reshape the land, as David Malouf would say, into a work of art that reflects both the practical and imaginative demands of the viewer.
Often known as the “mother of gardens”, a typical Chinese Scholar’s garden of the Sung Period will provide the perfect place to reflect upon Confucian philosophy. Introducing a world of mystery and fantasy, such gardens are rich in symbolism and often exploit the art of ambiguity. Designers emphasise mystery, contrast and narrative. If Western-designed gardens tend to be functional, paths in a Chinese Scholar’s garden twist and turn, often with a rough surface to slow down visitors as on the Island of Whispering Birds.
Likewise, the narrator in Robert Frost’s Mending the Wall expresses his distaste for the neighbour’s love of fences which tends to block out the view and leads to introspection. According to the narrator, this territorial view of the world seems pointless and unnecessary. The narrator prefers to let his imagination roam and enjoys the grandeur and mystery of a borderless horizon.
The aborigines also have a similar non-territorial view of place whereby the land becomes synonymous with self and impacts directly upon their emotional and spiritual well-being. Aboriginal poet, Hyllus Maris, describes herself in her famous “Spiritual Song of the Aborigine” as a “child of the dreamtime people” and reflects upon her intuitive sense of harmony with the land. She is “part of this land like the gnarled gumtree”. Maris celebrates the land as part of her being. “I am this land/And this land is me.” Likewise, in Eva Johnson’s Uluru, the narrator celebrates Uluru (an ordinary sandstone rock to many westerners) as the bearer of “ancient stories”, “where women sing, wash, dance in ritual”. A sense of harmony and continuity are evident as they recall the myths of the ancestors that help them interpret where they come from and their co-existence with the land. (expand with attitudes…)
(timeless narrator) Similarly, the narrator in Bruce Dawe’s Homo Suburbiensis, enjoys the peace and serenity of his vegetable patch. The patch reflects the thoughts and emotions that he “takes down with him there”; it is a place where the old man can wonder at the fertility of his existence as he watches the tomatoes grow and die on the vines. Chaotic and wild, the patch is also symbolic of this “gardener’s” search for nature’s simple pleasures.
(can pick and chose, add and amend according to your favourite poems)
(settlers are overwhelmed by their fears and failures) In comparison, many white settlers view the land, as the neighbour in Mending the Wall, as a place to be tamed and conquered. Coming from England, many struggle with their isolation in a foreign land with which they have no intuitive sense of closeness. After years of exploitation many settlers become prisoners of a barren land. John Kinsella depicts the rape and destruction of the landscape of those who have gradually become imprisoned by their own guilt and anxiety. In many of his poems such as … nature appears as a hostile phenomenon and symbolizes the heartless desires of the inhabitants. In the poem, “Why they stripped the last trees from the banks of the creek”, the old man becomes a victim of the denuded “bare paddocks” which were cleared of trees until the river “ran a stale sort of red”, like a long stream of unhealthy blood. The farm turns into a prison as a reflection of the hostility of the landscape. The farmer’s horror and frustration are evident as the salt takes over and seeps into his bath. In the allegorical “Pillars of Salt”, Kinsella depicts how the destruction of the trees in the wheatbelt area has created insurmountable problems for farmers due to salinity and erosion. The salt reinforces the hostile environment. “The salt is a frozen waste in a place too hot for its own good, it is the burnt-out core of earth’s eye”.
Poems such as “chainsaw” also feature the numerous agents of destruction such as chain saws, “rabbit rippers” and other tools of destruction that are used by these “gardeners” in such a soul-destroying manner. The chainsaw, notes the poet, is not “just machine. In the blur of its action, in its guttural roar it hides the malice of organics.”
Likewise, in XXX, the “heavily bolted door” of the old silo reminds the farmer of his failed dreams. An abandoned farm is testimony to man’s failed dreams. The “swords” and “ploughsheds” are now “rank jokes” that show the inability of the family to adjust to the rising salt table. “The run-off from fertile paddocks makes deltas in the salt’s centre”…
Similarly the farmer in Goading storms out of a darkening field “cursing the dry, cursing the bitter yield” reflects a sense of bitterness with a landscape that resists the farmer’s attempt to tame and transform it. “Sheep on their last legs. Dams crusted over” It is a landscape where “prayers and patience” fail in the face of harsh conditions, and for the farmer there is no escape from this reality. The fears of the farmer mount as he is at the mercy of a ravaged landscape; the poem builds a sense of doom and a pervasive feeling of fear which overwhelms the farmer.
We often create hostile and heartless environments that reflect a soulless spirit or sense of self… . An extreme version of this spirit of exploitation are the faceless landowners who exploit land division laws in outer Melbourne suburbs to suit their money-making agendas. In Plumpton, Glenn Ford, describes himself as the “last man standing” who is determined to withstand the trend towards sub-division. A traditional farmer, Mr Ford has been waging a battle against face-less developers because of their soulless and wilful destruction of land. He says, “They’re the faceless landowners. You never see them. They’re your neighbours, but they’re like ghosts”. They have no personal or spiritual connection with the land, which they rape and destroy at their whim. Mr Ford, a determined farmer, states that many such developers use the land as a rubbish tip and deliberately strip it of any protected grasses to avoid council regulations.
Likewise, the farmers in many of Kinsella’s poems view the land as a necessary cash transaction. Kinsella notes in Wild Radishes, that the farmer’s attitude is dominated by the “bills to be paid, deals to be sealed”. The fact that the radishes are “ripped from the soul” captures a certain harshness in the attitude of the farmer to his conquest. He knows that the radishes “missed will destroy the yield” and affect his profit.
Thus, where we come from and our attitude to landscape plays a powerful force in our lives. The gardens we build and cultivate, the fences we erect or destroy, and the stories we tell about significant landmarks, reflect who we are and our lifestyle needs. Our attitude to landscape which might be as simple as our serene enjoyment of life in the wild vegetable patch, or as complex as our spiritual connection with our ancestors, reflects our view and values about life and influence our relationships with others. It is this connection between people and the land, which makes our surrounding landscape such a powerful force in our lives. This connection often determines our emotional fulfilment in life or lack thereof as in the example of the faceless landowner.
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