Dogs Of God Poem Analysis

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Australia’s national identity is connoted to a multicultural, diverse and developed country that allows a comfortable and laid-back lifestyle. However, David Hallett, a poet born in 1950, refutes this stereotype through the poem, Dogs of God. His poem reflects upon the growth in capitalism ever present within his context and critiques upon its corruption, leading to the loss of Australian values of mateship and ‘giving everybody a fair go’. In this poem, Hallett employs various poetic techniques to address Australia’s response to the controversial issue of refugees and ‘boat people’ as the effect of being obsessed with wealth and ultimately controlled by money.
Australian values of mateship and ‘giving everyone a fair go’ are rapidly becoming …show more content…
As Australians are becoming increasingly controlled by money, Hallett uses the symbolic figure of ‘the dog’, that represents a servant or slave, critiquing Australian society for submitting to their greed and money. This juxtaposition of ‘money is god and we are the dog’ coupled with the objectification of humans as ‘cogs’ in a machine emphasises the dehumanisation and loss of human values. However, the poet suggests that Australians fail to realise their mindless state, in line 8 where ‘to buy is to feel’ emphasising that the only way to achieve happiness is through participating in capitalism. Further, the use of enjambment in lines 12 to 15 allows the reader read on as if the stanza is a shopping list to express how Australians still partake in their mundane daily tasks without realising their dehumanisation. As the poem continues, Hallett comments on Australia’s issues of high rent price and refugee crisis, where he highlights how the pursuit of wealth has led to these problems. The poet stresses the current renting issue of Australia through the employment of the hyperbole in line 22, where he suggests that Australians ‘double the rent’. Whereas the rent has not actually been ‘doubled’, this

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