Journeys entail a voyage of the human mind and body, where individuals are challenged and inspired by the world around them. Individuals seek to broaden their horizons and attain a deeper understanding of life through the course of their journey. John Foulcher’s poetry “Summer Rain” conveys journeys as positive interruptions to ordinary routines. Michael Leunig’s cartoon, “Let it go” provides an insight into the powerful nature of an imaginative journey, and portrays how journeys can create inspiration. Similarly, Jeffrey Archer’s short story “A Change of Heart” explores how inner journeys can lead to enlightenment, inspiration and a broadminded outlook on life. Whilst the texts present different aspects of journeys, all three display the ‘nature of a journey’ as a learning experience through which individuals achieve a different perspective of life.
Summer Rain portrays ‘journeys’ as diversions from routine life which rise from interruptions. The poem explores an afternoon car journey along a highway on which an accident has taken place, affecting traffic. The ordinary physical journey is interrupted by the accident causing the pace of the journey to slow down. “Summer” conveys this pause as seasonal and “Rain” portrays this interruption as unexpected and temporary as rain is an ephemeral interruption to summer. This temporary pause enables the poet to “wrench” himself from the road and cars whose personified “shadows slap at the edge of the grass” and “sift the dark trees.” “Dark” implies that the trees are foreign to the drivers who have cast away nature with “shadows.” As he diverts his attention to the “sub-division houses”, he observes an interior world of suburbia where “steam rises from ovens and showers like a mist across a swampland.” This simile symbolises the advantages of journeys, as they allow for observing, an act for which drivers returning home have no time. The true journey lies within the observations of the poet who can hear “the cricket sound of voices and cutlery.” This metaphor identifies the voices of families as a constant chirping noise in the background like those of a cricket. The poet uses second person, “you”, to emphasise the appreciation journeys deserve for inspiring individuals to take time to enjoy their observations.
