Bruce Dawe

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Bruce Dawe (born 15 February 1930) is an Australian poet, and is considered by many as one of the most influential.

Dawe began writing poetry at the age of 13, influenced by writers such as John Milton and Dylan Thomas. Dawe's poetry revolves around Australian society, politics and culture. Dawe’s anti-war poems originate from his experiences during the time of the Vietnam War, and the horror of death is always evident in Dawe’s war poems (The Museum Attendant, Turn Again Home, Around El Salvador). Dawe often uses long sentences in his poems such as Drifters, which is only two sentences long. This is done to preserve the moment and the mood of the poem, as most of them occur over a short period of time.

Dawe was born in Geelong, Victoria. At the age of 16, he left school to become a legal clerk, but was eventually fired for lack of attention to his work. He later worked as a salesman, laborer in a saw mill, office assistant, insurance salesman, copy boy with The Truth and The Sun newspapers, then moved to the country to work as a labourer on a dairy farm. Eventually he moved to the city and worked as a labourer in Melbourne.

During a stint in the Royal Australian Air Force, he worked as a teacher of English at Downlands College. He taught there for two years, until he was appointed as a lecturer in Literature at Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, and later went on to work as a professor at the University of Southern Queensland.

He continues to write, and frequently makes stories for his grandchildren, featuring them in magical adventures.

[edit] Some of his poems

• Drifters
• The Corn Flake
• The Family Man
• The Victims
• The Museum Attendant
• Turn Again Home
• Around El Salvador
• Home Coming (1975)
• Vietnam Postscript (1975)
• The Flashing of Badges
• Search and Destroy
• "Enter Without So Much as Knocking"
• "Going"
• "Weapons Training (poem)"