Writing the Wheatbelt

Introduction

In both literary and scientific texts, writers use a range of poetic devices to represent the unique landscape of the Wheatbelt.

As a class, read and annotate the provided texts in order to identify poetic techniques noted below. Students may then use some of the techniques to craft a piece of creative or scientific writing about the Wheatbelt.

Text 1: From: A Small Fragment of the Earth, Elizabeth Jolley [1]

“…All the miles of wheat in all directions, folded and mended in places, are pulled together as if seamed, by little dark lines of trees, as if they are embroidered with rich green wool or silk on a golden background. In the design of the embroidery are some silent houses and sheds. Narrow places, fenced off and watered sparingly, produce a little more of the dark green effect. At the intervals, there are unsupervised windmills, turning and clicking with a kind of solemn and honest obedience…”

Things to note in Text 1:

• Elizabeth Jolley uses the metaphor of embroidery to detail the landscape. The language in this extract is borrowed from sewing: folded, mended, seamed, embroidered.

• The style or feel of this piece is gothic. The landscape feels vast and uninhabited, as we can see in the descriptions of ‘silent houses and sheds’ and ‘unsupervised windmills’.

Text 2: From: Between Wodjil and Tor, by Barbara York Main [2]

Extract 1, p70

“…Water sluiced down the slopes of the granite tor, now streaked with dark velvet algae where the water trickled and seeped, for days after the rain ceased. Such seepage courses were edged with pale-green tufts of sweet-smelling parsley ferns (Cheilanthes), with spongy clumps of dark green mosses, while all over the rock the brittle grey mats of lichens swelled with water and deepened to a turquoise blue with their fruiting cups glistening darkly at their centres. The water slid down into the outflowing creek courses, in the bends of which deep pools formed where the tadpoles grew and fed amongst the weedy tangles. The pincushion tussocks (Borya) were now green and sprinkled with tiny white stars of flowers…”

Things to note in Extract 1:

• Barbara Main chooses verbs beginning with ‘s’ to mimic the gentle, gushing sound of the water: sluiced, streaked, seeped, ceased, slid.

• The extract seamlessly blends scientific details (such as plant names) with poetic description that builds imagery. This technique is essential in scientific writing as it communicates highly specific details. Note how the author carefully combines adjectives, such as ‘brittle grey’ to capture the feel and appearance of the plants, and how she uses metaphor, such as ‘tiny white stars’ to build a picture of the landscape.

Text 3: From: Between Wodjil and Tor, by Barbara York Main

Extract 2, p5

“…The pointed tops of the pines were the first to feel the approaching wind. They quivered gently, while a faint hiss passed through their dark, tufted boughs; a purr ran through the stiff wire threads of the sheoaks; a piece of papery bark lifted from the dry rind of a mallee and slipped noisily to the ground. Deep in the stirring stillness of the sand heath sounded the approaching roar of the distant wind as it came rushing over the scrubby slopes and roaring through the timber along the wide flats; it came soughing through the stubble of paddocks and strumming in wire fences until it flung its daemonic force into the heart of this dark, scrubby thicket. All through the scrub ran a sibilant murmuring, rising and falling with the lurching gusts of the wind. The teased seed heads of cane grass tussocks were tossed in the air like ragged feathers…”

Things to note in Extract 2:

• In this extract, Barbara Main employs zoomorphism to animate the landscape. Note the active verb phrases used to describe the trees: ‘they quivered gently,’ ‘a faint hiss passed through,’ ‘a purr ran through,’ and the connection between these phrases and a cat or similar animal crawling across the plains.

• The author also uses similes associated with animals, with the seed heads ‘tossed in the air like ragged feathers’

• In the second paragraph, the author selects verbs with ‘s’ sounds to mimic the sound of the wind: stirring, rushing, soughing, strumming. She also describes the ‘sibilant murmuring,’ which refers to the poetic technique of sibilance: the repetition of the ‘s’ sound.

Task Outline for Assessment in English

Your task is to choose one of the following options and write 200-300 words:

1. Write a detailed description of a particular animal. Use poetic techniques to allow a reader to visualize the animal. A beetle, thorny devil, or a peacock spider would make great studies.

Extension: Choose your vocabulary carefully to influence the reader’s feeling about the animal. You can represent the animal as sinister, vulnerable, aggressive, or friendly.

2. Write a description of the surrounding terrain from a bird’s eye view. Zoom out and reflect the shifting shadows, the patterns of salt lakes and granite, and the ways the roads and fence lines intersect the landscape.

Extension: Create an extended metaphor, such as Jolley’s embroidery, and use this language to build details.

3. Write a description from the point of view of someone moving through the landscape in a vehicle. Try to make the landscape move instead of the narrator, such as ‘thin trees flit past in strips of light and shadow’, rather than: ‘I fly past the thin trees’.

Extension: Use zoomorphism or personification to animate the landscape as Main has in Text 3. For example, white gums at night could be looming ghosts or spirits. You will need to demonstrate:

• Creative selection of language or use of poetic techniques to describe specific details.

• Accurate spelling and interesting vocabulary.

• Correct grammar across a range of sentence lengths and types.

• Evidence of editing to refine your work from draft stage to good copy.