My Brother 2. The mood of the poem is of regret for the passing of time
and its effect on the poet’s brother. What words suggest this?
(Bruce Dawe)
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
The other day you were driving through town
on one of the new freeways, 3. What words and phrases suggest that the brother is out of
touch with the changes over time?
doing a steady forty-five as usual,
(a)____________________________________________________
minding your own business, miles away, (b)___________________________________________________
and the traffic kept cutting you down,
4. The poem is a metaphor for the passing of time. Explain this
the young kids in the big unpaid-for cars, as best you can. _______________________________________
______________________________________________________
and the older men going flat out to keep ahead
______________________________________________________
of their life insurance payments, ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
and I didn’t have the heart to tell you
that they didn’t drive at that speed any more 5. What changes occur in this poem? ______________________
______________________________________________________
(well, not in the middle lanes, anyway)
______________________________________________________
and I wished to Hell I was back twenty years ago ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
when the roads were free and you were as fast
as the best of them. 6. Outline how this is:
(a) changing worlds ____________________________________
______________________________________________________
Questions ______________________________________________________
1. What is the effect of the poet directly addressing his (b) changing self _______________________________________
brother? ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________ (c) changing perspective ________________________________
______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
My Brother 2. The mood of the poem is of regret for the passing of time
and its effect on the poet’s brother. What words suggest this?
(Bruce Dawe)
“I wished to Hell I was back twenty years ago”.
3. What words and phrases suggest that the brother is out of
The other day you were driving through town
touch with the changes over time?
on one of the new freeways, (a) “they didn’t drive at that speed any more”.
(b) “back twenty years ago when the roads were free and you were
doing a steady forty-five as usual,
as fast as the best of them”.
minding your own business, miles away,
4. The poem is a metaphor for the passing of time. Explain this
and the traffic kept cutting you down,
as best you can. The traffic has been used to highlight that the
the young kids in the big unpaid-for cars, world has changed and is faster and that the brother is not going at
the same speed any more. It uses juxtaposition (contrasting the
and the older men going flat out to keep ahead
speed of the freeway and the younger drivers with the older man’s
of their life insurance payments, “steady forty-five”) to show that he no longer fits in.
and I didn’t have the heart to tell you
5. What changes occur in this poem? The voice of the poet
that they didn’t drive at that speed any more changes from regret (“traffic kept cutting you down”) to a sense of
admiration for the brother as a younger man (“you were as fast as
(well, not in the middle lanes, anyway)
the best of them”).
and I wished to Hell I was back twenty years ago
6. Outline how this is:
when the roads were free and you were as fast
(a) changing worlds - the traffic is faster, the world is faster
as the best of them. (b) changing self – the poet’s brother has failed to change in the
face of advancement in the world (“minding your own business,
miles away”)
Questions (c) changing perspective – the poet changes his perspective from
1. What is the effect of the poet directly addressing his regret and, in some ways, frustration to admiration for his brother.
brother? The effect of the poet directly addressing his brother is
that it personalises it, and it highlights that he feels some empathy
for him. He doesn’t want to hurt his feelings by telling him that he’s
too slow for the changed conditions over the last 20 years.