The Bunyip and The whistling kettle

A detailed Summary of The Bunyip and The whistling kettle

Analysing 'The Bunyip and the whistling kettle' written by the Australian poet John Manifold

The poem 'The Bunyip and the whistling kettle' was written by the modern Australian poet John Manifold. He is telling the story of a modern camper who goes into the bush oblivious to the danger in the area. He does not know what the bush is really like and is too careless in what he does which eventually leads to him being attacked in the 'bunyip-haunted creek'.

The poet suggests that the bush is no place for people who are too attached to modern convinces and that going into the bush alone and with little knowledge of the area and basic survival skills is unwise and dangerous. We can clearly see that the camper did not do much research in choosing where to camp as he settles 'near a bunyip-haunted creek.' He also is unable to survive even five minutes in the bush without modern devices. He came in a 'nasty little car' instead of walking and we are told that 'he did not live on tea and damper But took a little stove along.' The poet suggests that he has ruined the purpose of coming into the bush as the bush is natural and people normally go to the bush to be close to nature. Instead 'this sacrilegious stranger' brings 'gadgets' to the b

kettle. The poet writes that the kettle ' Screamed as it guessed its master's plight'. The kettle is shown to have human qualities with its ability to 'guess' and 'scream'. This gives the reader the impression that the kettle had been with its master a long time and that he had used it a lot. He used the alliteration of 'waratahs and wattles which emphasises the Australian aspect of the surroundings.

em that the bunyip was the one who killed the camper, instead the speaker observes that ' A ripple broke against the shingle, And dark with blood it met the moon.' The only way we could tell it was a bunyip was that earlier it mentioned 'a bunyip haunted creek' and that bunyip was mentioned in the title.

The poem is organised in stanzas that are sets of four lines. The stanzas all together add up to nine, which may just mean that after nine stanzas the poet felt that the poem had ended and there was no need to write any more. But it could also mean much more. Nine is a final number and in many religions and culture represents the end. For example in the Christian religion number have great meaning 1 means begins, 6 is the devils number etc. The poet could have been using nine stanzas as a way of showing the end of the campers life that the poem was about death. The poem also uses casual language which shows us that the poet really does know abou

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Approximate Word count = 913
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English