The poem “Bushed” by Earle Birney is all about the interaction of man with nature. It is
about moving from the initial position of belief that nature can be controlled by man. Earle
Birney invented a rainbow to the final position that showed that nature is about to kill man. The
title conveys a dual meaning. It clarifies that the poem is regarding the experience of being in the
wilderness or the bush and secondly, it is about feeling bushed or defeated by this particular
experience. The whole poem is a metaphor that can be taken as a short story on a man who is
stranded on a beach. A man learns how to survive having eaten porcupine bellies and preserving
the quills as a prize of the survival skills. When the poem is taken on the metaphorical level, it is
regarding a man who has established a perfect life for himself. Suddenly, some catastrophe
destroys his perfect life and shatters it into pieces. The speaker of the poem refers to the lake lap
as the most peaceful place for him.
The tone of the poem is changed in the last stanza. It begins from the happy survival to
the security loss. he people around the man begin to change gradually and the life he was
leading began to show its own colour. The new life which he considered to be his rainbow now
started to destroy his rainbow. The only option left for him was to wait and see his dreams
shatter one after another. It can only be concluded that it is a particular cycle that man will have
to endure. The poem can also be seen as a technical piece of writing because the tone gives a
feeling of a poem instead of the fact that it is written in prose style. In his own poem, Earle
Birney makes use of such a character that is alone in the wilderness and portrays insanity as the
natural development of few human traits. It suggests that insanity can initiate from the mixture
isolation and fear along with the suitable environment where the feelings can grow properly.
Poem is a type of work that has the ability to explore the extremities of the world. In the
poem of Earle Birney, the extremities are well elaborated associated with one another. The
about moving from the initial position of belief that nature can be controlled by man. Earle
Birney invented a rainbow to the final position that showed that nature is about to kill man. The
title conveys a dual meaning. It clarifies that the poem is regarding the experience of being in the
wilderness or the bush and secondly, it is about feeling bushed or defeated by this particular
experience. The whole poem is a metaphor that can be taken as a short story on a man who is
stranded on a beach. A man learns how to survive having eaten porcupine bellies and preserving
the quills as a prize of the survival skills. When the poem is taken on the metaphorical level, it is
regarding a man who has established a perfect life for himself. Suddenly, some catastrophe
destroys his perfect life and shatters it into pieces. The speaker of the poem refers to the lake lap
as the most peaceful place for him.
The tone of the poem is changed in the last stanza. It begins from the happy survival to
the security loss. he people around the man begin to change gradually and the life he was
leading began to show its own colour. The new life which he considered to be his rainbow now
started to destroy his rainbow. The only option left for him was to wait and see his dreams
shatter one after another. It can only be concluded that it is a particular cycle that man will have
to endure. The poem can also be seen as a technical piece of writing because the tone gives a
feeling of a poem instead of the fact that it is written in prose style. In his own poem, Earle
Birney makes use of such a character that is alone in the wilderness and portrays insanity as the
natural development of few human traits. It suggests that insanity can initiate from the mixture
isolation and fear along with the suitable environment where the feelings can grow properly.
Poem is a type of work that has the ability to explore the extremities of the world. In the
poem of Earle Birney, the extremities are well elaborated associated with one another. The
