Introduction
This essay is a critical analysis of the poem Shower by the Australian writer Les Murray.
Les Murray was born in 1938 in New South Wales/Australia. He grew up in a poor farming family, and his love for nature and the Australian landscapes, which shows in his poetry, developed early.
Murray writes about his “love of the land, the tensions between rural and urban life”, and “the struggle for an independent means of expression” (Poetry archive, date unknown)1.
The poem Shower is, as the name suggests, a humorous piece about the pleasures of showering.
Analysis of form and structure
The poem consists of two stanzas; the first consists of eleven lines, the second of fourteen lines. Each line has a different length and a different …show more content…
Sometimes, it is a communal affair (“or a barrack with competitions/best in a stall”), meaning that you have no privacy while In the shower but can still enjoy it, as the line “this enveloping passion of Australians” suggests. Showering can be exciting as well as relaxing (“action sauna”; “sleek vertical coruscating ghost of your inner river”).
In the last two lines, Murray makes fun of showering traditions in other countries. “Only in England is its name an unkind word” suggests that English people do not like to talk about the pleasures of taking a shower, as opposed to Australians like the poet himself. “only in Europe is it enjoyed by telephone” is a humorous reference to the detachable showerheads that are used in (continental) Europe, which must be a strange sight for non-Europeans but is completely normal for Austrians, for example.
Murray makes taking a shower sound like a fantastic experience. Most people probably see a shower as a necessity, but he seems to really enjoy it. He calls it the “sweetest dressing of the day”, i.e. it is a lovely topping of a day.
Personal
This essay is a critical analysis of the poem Shower by the Australian writer Les Murray.
Les Murray was born in 1938 in New South Wales/Australia. He grew up in a poor farming family, and his love for nature and the Australian landscapes, which shows in his poetry, developed early.
Murray writes about his “love of the land, the tensions between rural and urban life”, and “the struggle for an independent means of expression” (Poetry archive, date unknown)1.
The poem Shower is, as the name suggests, a humorous piece about the pleasures of showering.
Analysis of form and structure
The poem consists of two stanzas; the first consists of eleven lines, the second of fourteen lines. Each line has a different length and a different …show more content…
Sometimes, it is a communal affair (“or a barrack with competitions/best in a stall”), meaning that you have no privacy while In the shower but can still enjoy it, as the line “this enveloping passion of Australians” suggests. Showering can be exciting as well as relaxing (“action sauna”; “sleek vertical coruscating ghost of your inner river”).
In the last two lines, Murray makes fun of showering traditions in other countries. “Only in England is its name an unkind word” suggests that English people do not like to talk about the pleasures of taking a shower, as opposed to Australians like the poet himself. “only in Europe is it enjoyed by telephone” is a humorous reference to the detachable showerheads that are used in (continental) Europe, which must be a strange sight for non-Europeans but is completely normal for Austrians, for example.
Murray makes taking a shower sound like a fantastic experience. Most people probably see a shower as a necessity, but he seems to really enjoy it. He calls it the “sweetest dressing of the day”, i.e. it is a lovely topping of a day.
Personal