Late Ferry
The Poem ‘Late Ferry’ was written by Robert Gray in the early 1930’s and he wrote this poem about the busy Sydney Harbour. This poem was set at a ferry stop at night time in the Harbour and there are various clues within the poem that prove this. The poem goes on about a ferry’s last journey of the night through the small bays and the Sydney Harbour. Robert Gray also talks about experiences on a ferry and he interprets the many things around him in the bay into previous experiences, by saying for example the Harbour Bridge is like a giant prop in a Busby Berkley Spectacular. Overall, Robert Gray expresses his love for the spectacular beauty of the Harbour, Harbour Bridge and the lit-up city, and he shares this view with the audience through various techniques.
3 Images of Australia portrayed in this poem
The Sydney Harbour Bridge
The bustling Sydney city beaming with life
The Yachts that decorate the Sydney Harbour
How these images are presented or portrayed
1. The Sydney Harbour Bridge
The quote “their silver lame, the bridge like a giant prop” shows a clear image of an Australian icon ‘the harbour bridge’. Gray has used a similie to show the importance of this icon, the harbour bridge, to Australia. This quote shows the beauty of the harbour bridge by using the words “silver lame” which means shimmery and shiny. This tells that the harbour bridge is an icon of beauty that is well known and admired and is the “giant prop” in Sydney’s reputation, as when people see the harbour bridge they know that Australia’s it’s home.
Newspaper Article
The image of the harbour bridge in this newspaper article is portrayed through the technique of a camera angle called a long – shot. This shot gives a good clear view of what the harbour bridge look’s like at night time all lit up. Just like Gray used as a similie to show the beauty and importance of the harbour bridge in his poem, this photographer picked the best spot to show the Bridge lit up and showed the harbour as well. This shot looks like a stage setting and the bridge is obviously the main focus of the shot just like a “giant prop” and the fact that the shot is focusing on the harbour bridge shows the importance of this icon to Australia.
2. The bustling Sydney city beaming with light
The image of a bustling city and beaming with life and activities are portrayed through a metaphor in the poem ‘Late Ferry’. The second last stanza of the poem identifies the busyness of the city by describing the various headlights of cars moving along the harbour bridge as being a Busby Berkley production, which is a metaphor. The line which reads “ a Busby Berkely Spectacular with thousands of frenzied, far-off choreography, their silver lame”, identifies Gray’s association with the numerous car headlights moving about the bridge as an aspect of an urbanised image of Australia. The essence of the urbanised Australia is therefore represented in this example by the way Gray metaphorically describes the car headlights as “thousand of frenzied, far-off choreography”.
Newspaper Article
In comparison to Gray’s poem ‘Late Ferry’, the image from a tourism advertisement presenting Sydney Harbour identifies a more balanced and less urbanised view of the Harbour city through the use of a long-angle shot. The clear skies and few yachts and ships contradicts Gray’s description of the Harbour city as “thousands of frenzied far-off choreography”, instead depicting a less congested and busy city. The long-angle shot camera image of the Harbour which depicts the spaciousness of the city therefore contradicts Gray’s portrayal of activities in the Harbour, which describes a more ‘frenzied’ city lifestyle.
Poem
A second text which presents the lifestyle in Sydney Harbour is the poem ‘Harbour Town’ by Icehouse, which presents another contradiction to the idea of a Harbour city bustling with life in ‘Late Ferry’. The poem ‘Harbour Town’ which writes “ Well, you can see these people, at the end of every working day, down at the local bar or maybe hanging out in some dark café, down on the waterfront” portrays a laid back and relaxed mood of behaviour in the Harbour city, contradicting Gray’s idea of “thousands of frenzied, far-off choreography”.
3. The Yachts that decorate the Sydney Harbour
Gray uses the technique of a certain type of imagery to show the audience exactly what the Harbour looks like, and the specific technique of a metaphor is used to show this. In the quote “the tomato stake patch of the yachts”, he is trying to say that “The huge dark harbour”is like the soil in a garden and the stakes with tomatoes on them represent the tall yachts that float in one spot until their ready to be sailed. This Image/metaphor helps create a small part in the big picture of the Sydney Harbour.
Painting
This Painting "Jostling for position - Sydney Harbour" by James Boisset uses a close up shot to show the busy harbour filled with yachts that are in a race. This show’s what the yachts look like in action where as Gray showed his image of yachts that were parked not ready to sail yet. Boisset creatively painted this to show the water culture that Australia has, and the fact that he painted it while the yachts were passing under an icon of Australia shows the love and passion that goes on in the harbour.
By Adriana, Lester, Nicole.B & Angella
