Les Murray - Rollover

Les Murray speaks for an imagined and idealised Australia, concentrating on the takeover of farms by the bankers in the poem ‘The Rollover’. When Les Murray writes his poems he tends to refer them to his personal experience in life (like ‘The Blowfly Grass’). His personal experiences mainly came from his hometown Bunyah, which is a small community in the mid north coast of NSW. In the poem it presents the fear and powerless farmers against the concept of capitalism. Les Murray also contrasts the roles of both ‘city’ and ‘country’ in the ‘The Rollover’, which involves the poetic tool juxtaposition and the political powers that have destroyed the land, this action has been classified as cruelty and violent.
‘The Rollover’ is blatantly about bankers evicting farmers from their homes/farms. In the first stanza, Les Murray talks about the challenging of constitutional laws, as stated ‘Murray is against big economics, big government, big media and especially against the city-slickers who work on their behalf. He is fro Catholicism, Aboriginals, Rednecks, farming, deserts, water-gardening, eccentric learning, and cows. He is fiercely territorial, always talking about coming into his own kingdom, returning to a place from which he draws physical and spiritual sustenance’ (from: Redmond 1997).   The quote: ‘Some of us’ the poetic term satire is used in a subtle manner. The following quote shows no feelings or bitterness towards the bankers: ‘toddlers and wives are out beside the fence, crying, and the big kids (referring to fathers and young adults) wear that thousand-yard stare (referring to war) common in all refugees’, this quote from the poem means that the toddlers and wives were greatly upset and depressed as they saw their older brother or fathers fighting for Australia as they head off to war.
In the second stanza, Les Murray states the differences between farmers and bankers. The quote: ‘faithful VDU’ defines a dog shot dead, but also shows the easiness of a dog...