Judith Beveridge is a remarkable poet who has an astonishing talent of writing poems that closely reflect on life. Her intentions in writing the poem 'Fox in a tree stump' are to provoke thought on people. She has successfully accomplished this by conveying themes of life value, role of authority and human relations with animals through her rich use of language techniques including symbolism, metaphors and much more.
Firstly, Beveridge has provoked much thought on people in this poem by raising the issue of inequality between men and women through the theme role of authority. She definitely accentuates this aspect by explaining in the poem that the female is the provider by the child being doing the hard labour of killing the fox for her domineering uncle. (stanza 1, line 4-5). The child being forced to do something she does not want to do symbolises how much power men exude over women.
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English: Illustration for the poem "The Village Bl...
The Loss of Sexual InnocenceBeveridge uses a metaphor in the line 'Terror barrel-rode through my stomach' to show how the child is scared and feels sick at the thought of killing an animal. The child being forced to do something she does not want to do symbolises how much power men exude over women Therefore, men have a much higher role of authority than women. Beveridge clearly establishes the fact that the child that the child is female by expressing how indifferent her uncle is to her. Lines such as: his arms like dry river beds dammed at the shoulders/his voice harsh, kelpie-cursing/would not understand if I let the fox run to the bush reveal the harshness of her uncle's character.
Beveridge has used her uncle's portrayal to represent her feminist point of view on men and how non-understanding they could be. The bitter imagery used in the line 'my uncle's quick...