Freedom on the Wallaby Literary Elements

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Written by Elmina Jazvin

Genre

Five stanza political poem

Setting and Context

Australia during the 1891 Australian shearer's strike

Narrator and Point of View

Speaker of the poem is the poet himself
Point of view: first person

Tone and Mood

Tone: proud, cynical
Mood: serious, enraged

Protagonist and Antagonist

The main protagonist of the poem is the personified Freedom; Antagonist: tyrants.

Major Conflict

Freedom of "Our fathers" in Australia gets threatened by the greedy hands of tyrants

Climax

The speaker of the poem encourages those involved to fight back and raise the rebel flag.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

Rebel flag as an allusion to Eureka flag

Imagery

Imagery of Australia as a garden that needed grubbing and clearing

Paradox

N/A

Parallelism

"An’ Freedom’s humping bluey,
And Freedom’s on the wallaby"

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Royalty's regalia metonymy

Personification

Freedom is personified as a female character:

"Then Freedom couldn’t stand the glare
Of Royalty’s regalia.
She left the loafers where they were
An’ come out to Australia."

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