The poem I chose to write about is "Bushed" by Earle Birney. Alfred Earle Birney was born in Calgary in 1904. He was very highly educated at four different Universities and was a creative writing teacher. He won the Governor General "s Literary Award in both 1942 and 1945. He had over 22 compilations of his writing published by the time of his death in 1995(Earle 1.). In the following paper I intend to explicate the poem "Bushed" by Earle Birney. I will examine the situation in the poem and will discuss the story that it tells. I also intend to discuss the form through length and content, movement through development and attitude in the poem, syntax through sentence placement and finally discuss Birneys allusions to the native culture. .
The title of this poem in itself tells a story, the word "Bushed" often refers to someone who s lost in the bush, and possibly made to be unstable by living in the bush too long. The title also makes the reader think of those who are more in tune with a culture closer to nature. It can be considered a short story about a man who is stranded on the beach near a forest and in the mountains. He teaches himself the art of survival by building shelter and "learned to roast porcupine belly" (5). When Birney writes "He invented a Rainbow but lightening struck it"(1). Birney refers to "He" who is "Bushed" as creating the perfect existence and having it struck by some sort of disaster. The "rainbow" is merely a built-up illusion but the illusion is shattered when he comes to the realization of his situation. Birney uses the phrase "lake-lap" (2) to seemingly make comfort out of his surroundings by giving it more "human" traits. He also uses phrases such as "till the bight smoke rose from the boil of the sunset" as a way of portraying the world more poetically. He uses negative images to show the subjects fear of the unknown. Also, he describes the trees that have "tossed their antlers up to the stars"(24) showing that the natural world in which he once found beauty is now closing in on him.
Whatever it is, they all have one important thing in common: they all manage to take our minds to different levels, levels we feel comfortable in, and levels which don't leave anxiety rich sweat pouring down the bushed cheeks, and over the late-night puffy eyes. ...
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The idea of Black Power arises and encourages people to "get goose bumps just thinking about being black, being proud of being black and learning to look at bushed-up kinky hair and finding it beautiful"(Gates, 1994, p.186). ...
Atwood implies that the north possesses a mystery that causes enormous mental effects on people who have interacted with it; or more so, nature's pressure has driven them insane. " Mad Trapper of Rat River, also mysterious, who became so thoroughly bushed that he killed a Mountie and show two others One of the motifs in these stories is a warning: maybe it's not so good to get too close to North." ...
Catholic, to be beat is "a shorthand term for beatitude and the idea that the downtrodden are saintly" also included in this article Kerouac is quoted to have said "Beat doesn't mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means beato, the Italian for beatific, to be in a state of beatitude, like Saint Francis, trying to love life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart." ...