100641 Approaches to Text: Poem Analysis of Ngingali by Eckermann

This essay provides a close reading of Ali Cobby Eckermann's poem 'Ngingali', focusing on the use of metaphors, particularly those related to 'shadows'. The analysis explores how the poet uses poetic language, including metaphors, similes, personification, and symbolism, to convey the poem's key ideas about the experiences of the Stolen Generation. The essay examines specific lines and phrases, such as 'My mother is a granite boulder' and 'I sit in her shadow', to interpret the meaning and function of the metaphors within the context of the poem. The student argues that the metaphors of shadow represent the child's memories of his or her mother, depicting longing and the enduring presence of the mother despite separation. The analysis considers the emotional impact of these metaphors, demonstrating how they contribute to the poem's overall themes of grief, loss, and the desire for connection. The essay concludes by emphasizing the effectiveness of Eckermann's poetic techniques in making the poem's theme vibrant and engaging.

Running Head: POEM ANALYSIS
POEM ANALYSIS
Name Of The Student
Name Of The University
Author Note

POEM ANALYSIS
Ali Cobby Eckermann, is the first Australian aboriginal poet to receive the Windham-
Campbell Prize. She is an Australian poet of indigenous Australian ancestry. Her poem reflects
her griefs and agony of being a part of the stolen generation of Australia. Her poem ‘Ngingali’ is
dedicated to those who had a dreadful childhood for being a part of the ‘Stolen Generation’.
Ali Cobby Eckermann composed the poem Ngingali, to depict the distress of a child who
is growing up without his or her biological mother. The memories of a child, who is the victim of
aboriginal policies of Australia and a part of the ‘Stolen generation has been portrayed all
through the poem. In order to make her description vivid and lively, she has used poetic
language as well as instruments like metaphors, simile, personification as well as symbolism.
The metaphor used in this line-‘My mother is a granite boulder/I can no longer climb nor
walk/around/her weight’ are-‘climb or walk’. In theis line the phrase -‘climb or walk’ depicts
how an aboriginal child who has been separated from his or her parents, misses the company of
his or her mother. It also indicates the child’s urge to stay close to its mother.
In the lines- ‘I sit in her shadow/gulls nestle in her eyes/their shadows her epitaph/’ the
word ‘shadow’ is a metaphor. It is indicative of the child’s memory of his or her mother. Here ‘I
sit in her shadow’ refers to the child’s vision. In his or her vision, the child can identify its
resemblance with its mother. The child is imaginative and its mind glides through a series of
discrete memories related to her mother, just like discrete shadows of a sunny day. The line –“
their shadows her epitaph” implies that these ‘shadows’ or discrete memories in the child’s
vision, compose the memoir of the beautiful days of his or her childhood. The metaphor
‘shadow’ is also indicative of the fact that the child’s mother is always with the child like a
shadow and the child can envision the existence of her mother through an imaginary shadow.

POEM ANALYSIS
The line-“ a pebble of her in my pocket” implies that, those transient days are very
precious to the child. This line compares a piece of the child’s memory of his r her mother with
like ‘pebbles’scattered at the sea shore. Hence ‘pebble’ is another metaphor used by the poet.
Here, the piece of mother’s memory or ‘pebble’ is so precious to the child that it carries that
‘pebble’ with care inside his or her pocket. The mother of the child was a granite boulder. Hence
the word ‘pebble’ is also representative of its mother. When the child carries that pebble in his
or her pocket, it give the child a feeling as if , the child is carrying its mother with him or her.
Hence, in the conclusion, it can be said that, the poet Ali Cobby Eckermann has portrayed
the desire of a child to get his or her mother back from whom he or she has been separated
forcefully. The use of metaphor , symbolic words has made the theme of this poem vibrant as
well as engaging.

POEM ANALYSIS
Bibliography
Bendle, Mervyn F. "Australia as Lost Child." LiNQ (Literature in North Queensland) 26.2
(2016).
Blignault, I., et al. "A resource for collective healing for members of the Stolen
Generations." Canberra: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation (2014).
Hand, Karl. "SERVING MAMMON ON STOLEN LAND." Postcolonial Voices from
Downunder: Indigenous Matters, Confronting Readings (2017): 143.
Korff, Jens. "Meaning of land to Aboriginal people." Creative Spirits (2017).
Reading Material: “Ngingali” by Ali CobbyEckermann