Bruce Dawes “Homo Suburbiensis” epitomises a world of contradiction where nature is fighting against the unnatural suburbia that man has created.
Dawe presents everything that man had to offer in a world of variables and shows that although man has lost traditional roots and beginnings connecting to the land, there has been no change and control over the constant values that man has held throughout time. In this poem there is a strong sense of honesty and sombre in the tone. This is shown through the harsh truth that is being exposed about humans and their loss of traditional roots and beginnings.
The poem by has no particular rhythm scheme, but instead uses free verse to add to the sense of a natural life.Homo Suburbiensis begins by “One constant in a world of variables – a man alone in the evening in his patch of vegetables” this juxtaposing image illustrates man as the “one constant” because the world around him continues to change and adapt as humans insist on creating a built environment, but man has remained the same and will always find their way back to the roots and beginning which is the environment.
This image also portrays an image of individuals against a world that is no longer peaceful, but rather it is now a world of chaos and orderly structure. The poem shows a major contradiction as human have tried to re create the environment and turn it into a place of ownership and property but the land knows no limit as the land will, regardless of any boundaries set, return into its natural self and grow and expand into places that man cannot stop.
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This is shown through the quote “where the easement runs along the back fence and the air smells of tomato-vines”. Furthermore, irony is shown in this poem by the growth of a vegetable sprawling over a compost bin. The irony of nature fighting against a man made creation for doing a job that nature can do alone in time shows that nature is powerful and can do a job without interference.
The colour metaphor “He stands there, lost in a green confusion” shows that man is confused because this green environment is no longer natural and man has now confused its role in the world.
“Offering up instead not much but as much as any man can offer” is a spiritual connotation suggesting that humans have forgotten that these values and symbols of “- time, pain, love, hate, age, war, death, laughter, fever” are man in essence and we are nothing more than the values that we have held from the beginning of time.
Thus Bruce Dawes poem Homo suburbiensis is a contradiction of nature fighting for its place in a manmade environment and helping humans realise that there is more to the world than the materialistic things that we have created. This poem helps us get in touch with our true values of time, pain, love, hate, age, war, death, laughter and fever.
