Drifters by Bruce Dawe

This poem is about a family that’s always on the move, with no place to settle down for long, hence the poem was titled ‘Drifters’ to describe this family. ‘Drifters’ looks at the members of this family response to frequently change and how it has affected them.

This poem is told in third person narration in a conversational tone. This gives the feeling as if someone who knows this family is telling the responder the situation of this family. The use of phrases like ‘notice how the oldest girl…’ gives a feeling that the narrator is pointing out to the responder the family members, as if the narrator and the responder are both present at the scene when the family’s moving at the time.

The blackberries were used as an indicator of time, showing us how long the family has stayed in this place for, and the changes of the blackberries from when they had first arrived to when they were leaving also used as a symbol to create mood of sadness and the lost of hope.

We know from several lines of the poem that the family only stayed at the house that they’ll soon be leaving for a very short while. From the lines:

‘and she’ll go out to the vegetable patch and pick up all the green tomatoes from the vines,’ – The green tomatoes tell us that the tomato plant has not been planted long, not long enough to produce ripe fruits by the time they’re going to leave.

‘And the first thing she’ll put on the trailer will be the bottling-set she never unpacked from Grovedale,’ – Again this tells us that they only stayed for a short time for they didn’t get the chance to use the bottling-set yet.

On their arrival the berries were the ‘first ...

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On their arrival the berries were the ‘first of the season’ but by the time when they drove past the blackberry cane was they’re saw only ‘their last shrivelled fruit’. – This tells us that they perhaps only stayed for about two or three months.

As well as giving us an idea about how long the family stayed in this home for they berries were also used as a symbol that relate to the Drifters themselves. When they arrived, ‘She (Tom’s wife) held out her hand bright with berries, the first of the season, and said: “Make a wish, Tom, make a wish.”’ The fresh berries signify fresh hope for the family, especially for the older members of the family who hopes to be able to settle down at last. By the time of they’re leaving, the berries will have become ‘Shrivelled fruits’. The berries have changed and the hope that it once signified will be dried like the berries.

The different family members react differently to the decision to move. The small children wouldn’t be upset by having to move again, in fact they’ll be excited because they’re young and it’s all fun and adventure like to them. Perhaps for a family like this the young children may have been in situations like this many times, maybe for as long as they remember. ‘and the brown kelpie pup dashing about and tripping everyone up,’ gives a very real image of a family moving houses with pets.

The first nine lines of the poem gives the responder a feeling that this is just an ordinary family moving, though ‘and she’ll go out to the vegetable patch and pick up all the green tomatoes from the vines,’ gives the reader a feeling that the decision made to move was made quite abruptly as they can’t even wait a few more days before picking the tomatoes and also the feeling that this is not a family that’s well off as they can’t leave anything that they can use behind.

Then we come to the tenth and eleventh line:

‘And the first thing she’ll put on the trailer will be the bottling-set

she never unpacked from Grovedale,’

From reading these two lines the reader learns that the family has only moved to this place that they’ll soon be leaving not long ago. The sentence was cut into two separate lines because the composer deliberately wanted to created a pause before the reader gets to the ‘she never unpacked from Grovedale,’ to give that line emphasis as this is the line the reader learns about the family’s situation.

The last eight lines of this poem create a feeling of sadness, not only from what was written in these lines but also how the pace slowed down as each line becomes shorter.

The last eight lines tell us about Tom’s wife’s feelings about having to move again. Tom wife was probably the person in the family with the biggest hops to settle down. The lines ‘she won’t even ask why they’re leaving this time, or where they’re heading for’ shows the responder her disappointment of her dreams of settling down being shattered by the fact that they have to move again, and this time most likely won’t be the last.

This poem looks at the different responses to the change of location. For this family, changes cause them problems because having to move houses so often means that they’ll have to spend so much time adapting to a new environment. Once they ‘re almost settled, they need to move off to a new environment again and they’ll have to adapt to that new environment. The green tomatoes on the vines is a symbol that represents that, they planted the tomato plant, and they were so close to getting ripe tomatoes from the vines but since they have to move again, they’re not going to get a chance to get the fruit. This could be the same for other aspects of their lives, making new friends could be an example. They may have just started to become friendly with the people of their neighbourhood, but soon they’ll have to move again. The family is not going to get enough time to enjoy their newly adapted environment because soon they’ll have to adapt to a new one.