Australia is an enomorous and dry continent. It has massive natural wealth which is unexplored and unwploited. In the beginning, the Australian poets regargded the tropical sky, the hard soil and the landscape as inhospitable to the creation of poetry.
A.D.Hope's "Australia" is a tribute to his motherland. Its vastness, nwtural riches, emptyness and life-patterns are all fascinating.
The Variety of Tress :
Australia is a nation of trees. There are tree everywhere and the hills are covered wuth trees of various colours, the colour of drab green and pale grey, the colour of the uniform of the soldiers. These endless hills resemble the outstreched paws of the Sphinx, the legendary figure of Egypt with the head of a man and the body of a lion.
A Young Nation :
Australia is called a young nation, taking into account its political history, geographically speaking, Australia is the last of the lands in the map of the world. One can also call Australis 'the Empliest Nation' because it is thinly populated. In this context, A.D.Hope compares Australia to a bush-Woman, who is beyond all, changes in her life. Her breast is still tender but the womb within is dry. There is something paradoxical about Australia. Though she is empty and dry she is capable of producing the richest and the elitest of mankind, a prophet.
Though australia is in the eastern hemisphere, she is a western nation. She feels inadequate due to lack of old songs, archaic architecture and history. She shares with other younger nations, the emptions and superstitious of a new nation.
The Tribes :
The tribes of Australia are described as monotonous because they resist all kinds of change and remain conservation and stupid. From Cairns to Perth, one end of Australia to another, they multiply in large members. People elsewhere boast that they live a satisfactory life, but the Australian tribes can only boast that they survive. They have to struggle for their existence as the primitive people did in the past.
The Cities :
a majority of the Australian population lives in the five big cities.They are Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide. The concentration of the population in the cities results in the uneven growth of cities. A.D.Hope compares the cities to the ugly sores on a man's body which drain his energy. In these sore spots of the nation, the second-hand Europeans multiply leading a humble life on an alien soil.
A.D.Hope hopes to find prophets from the deserts of Australis, reminding us of the great prophets from the Arabian deserts.