Can this poem be related to belonging? (1 Viewer)

[day26_]

As the title of this thread asks...can this poem be related to belonging?

Municipal Gum by Kath Walker

Gumtree in the city street,
Hard bitumen around your feet,
Rather you should be
In the cool world of leafy forest halls
And wild bird calls
Here you seems to me
Like that poor cart-horse
Castrated, broken, a thing wronged,
Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged,
Whose hung head and listless mien express
Its hopelessness.
Municipal gum, it is dolorous
To see you thus
Set in your black grass of bitumen—
O fellow citizen,
What have they done to us?​

My prescribed text is Romulus my father and so far i can only find connections to a place as a link between these texts..
please help if you can see any other form of belonging!
thanks, take care

heres the url if anyone wants it:
Municipal Gum by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) at Old Poetry

 

[ItsColinoOo0o]

doesn't the poem just center on the lack of connection between man and nature?

since kath walker is actally an aboriginal, she emphasizes a lot on the connection to the land or the dreaming

in the poem she uses negative or emotive words like "hard" "poor" castrated etc etc to show the man's lack of connection to nature or to the wild.

the bitumen is metaporhized as grass. You can also talk about the colour black, how it symbolizes death and this also links to the "broken" "hell" "hopelessness' mentioned in the text

 

[day26_]

thankyou for your help
what you said is right, spesh bout the bitumen & negative/emotive language
but i asked my teacher and he said it is connected to belonging as the tree is a symbol of the ATSI community. (metaphor?)
belonging to a place, to people and to the wider world CAN be derived from it which is what i had last night when i posted this thread but was fretting too much lol
anyways, thanks for your help Colinoo0o0o0 !