David Malouf - 'Off the Map'

The poet - David Malouf:

David Malouf was born on 20 March 1934 in Brisbane.  He is an acclaimed Australian writer, who has a great interest In Europe. In his writings he looks at Australia, from the point of view of inhabitants within society, rather than an outside point of view.

"Off the Map" overview:

This is a beautiful poem about how people are intrigued by the city landscape due to its physicality's, while the country/farm landscape is appreciated and loved for its freedom into the inner and imaginative landscape.

How has the poem conveyed the relationship between humanity and the landscape?

Some landscapes are appreciated for their physical landscape, while others are appreciated for their inner and imaginative landscapes. This contrast of two different landscapes that please people in different ways are conveyed in David Malouf’s “Off the Map.” Through the use of various poetic techniques, this poem has communicated the battle between a farm landscape and a city landscape.

The city landscapes is intriguing for its physicality, while the farm landscape is appreciated for its freedom into the inner and imaginative landscape it provides.  While inhabitants travel the distance between the two landscapes, they must re-adjust to their surroundings. “Truck-drivers throbbing on pills climb out of the sleep.” The word 'climb' conveys a hesitant journey undertaken by the inhabitant to leave their inner landscape, as they are leaving the farm landscape for the city landscape, and must leave the ability to escape into the inner landscape behind. The 'sleep', that the inhabitants are climbing out of is symbolic of the inner and imaginative landscape of the inhabitant. The eighth stanza also demonstrates the journey and struggle to leave landscape for another through the connotations of 'climb' in "they climb towards dawn." The motif of sleep throughout the poem highlights the urgency for the inhabitant to reach their inner landscape, as sleep is the road to the inner landscape for many inhabitants. Examples of this are "sleep, dozing, out into a dream and nightfall. "

The contrasting landscapes are in a battle against one another as the farm landscape tries to protect the inhabitants from the dangerous dazzle of the city landscape. This is illustrated through the use of war motifs that create war imagery, this destructive imagery demonstrates the battle between the two landscapes. This imagery is created by words such as 'bronze Anzacs, wars, daredevil boys, campfires in the rain and skull.'

The two conflicting landscapes create a sense of confusion for the inhabitants as they are unaware of which landscape is better. The use of a simile in stanza four demonstrates the lack of direction and confusion created. "pointing nowhere, like saints practising stillness", this demonstrates the lack of direction, through the juxtaposition of pointing nowhere. When you point nowhere, you are unsure of where to go, and where to send other inhabitants. Statues and images of saints usually have a hand pointing upwards, or outwards, but they aren't pointing to any specific place.

The farm/country landscape provides inhabitants with a path to the imaginative and inner landscape.  The physical country side landscape provides freedom of thought and space to escape into the inner landscape. "Rode off into headlines and hills or into legends." This conveys the physical landscape, and is conveyed to be very large and spacious as inhabitants are able to ride into them. The headlines created are ones that are created in the mind and are important to the individual inhabitant, which is why they create them and are part of their imaginative landscape. When inhabitants sleep, they lose themselves in their inner and imaginative landscape where possibilities are endless, just as legends and headlines are endless.

The city landscape is intriguing and its lights at night draw in inhabitants. Through the use of connotations, the city is described as a landscape that dazzles outsiders. "New streets that glow in the eyes of farm boys, cities alive only at nightfall." The connotations of glow, communicate to the responder that the city is radiating brightness and almost brilliance and it engulfs the outsider, while engulfing it leaves the imaginative landscape behind, it leaves the individualism that the city landscape and its inhabitants lack.

Some landscapes are appreciated for their physical landscape, while others are appreciated for their inner and imaginative landscapes. This wonderful poem has demonstrated that inhabitants have a good and healthy relationship with the country and farm landscape, as it provides freedom of thought and individualism while the city landscape restricts individualism and takes away that inner and imaginative landscape. This illustrates that the city landscape has a bad relationship with the inhabitants and this has been displayed through the use of various language devices.  

Connections between other poems:

'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar and 'Off the Map' by David Malouf

Both these poems give an insight into the freedom that the country landscape gives, as to let the imaginative landscape run free and a peaceful escape into the inner landscape.

David Malouf conveys this through his poem 'Off the Map.' The physical country side landscape provides freedom of thought and space to escape into the inner landscape. "Rode off into headlines and hills or into legends." This conveys the physical landscape of the hills, and is conveyed to be very large and spacious as inhabitants are able to ride into them and let their thoughts, ideas and imagination run free. When inhabitants sleep, they lose themselves in their inner and imaginative landscape where possibilities are endless, just as the possibilities created in legends are never-ending.  'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar conveys this message as well. "Over the thirsty paddocks, watch, after many days." The personification of the paddocks as being thirsty illustrates them as thirsty for imagination and individualism. As paddocks can never realistically be thirsty, it is symbolic of the imaginative landscape as nothing is impossible in that landscape. 'After many days' also communicates to the responder that the inhabitants can stay lost in their inner landscape for days at a time, as it is a peaceful and endless escape.