DSM 401. BORA RING.
Q. How does the poet describe the disappearance of Aboriginal culture in the first stanza?
Answer: In the first stanza, Wright describes Aboriginal culture as something buried and silenced. The "song is gone" and the "dance is secret with the dancers in the earth," suggesting both death and concealment. Rituals are called "useless," emphasising that they no longer function in contemporary society. The "tribal story" is said to be "lost in an alien tale," indicating that colonial narratives have replaced Indigenous traditions. The language is simple but powerful, conveying finality and sorrow. The stanza establishes the theme of cultural extinction and prepares the reader for deeper moral reflection.
Q. What role do the apple-gums play in the second stanza?
Answer: The apple-gums are personified as if they "posture and mime a past corroboree." Through this personification, nature appears to imitate the ceremonial dances once performed at the Bora Ring. The trees become silent performers, suggesting that the land remembers what humans have forgotten. They "murmur a broken chant," implying that faint echoes of tradition survive in nature. This imagery reflects Indigenous belief in the spiritual connection between land and people. The apple-gums thus serve as witnesses to history, symbolising memory, endurance, and quiet mourning.
Q. Explain the significance of the "splintered spear."
Answer: The "splintered spear" symbolises the destruction of traditional Aboriginal livelihood and identity. The spear, once used for hunting and survival, represents strength, independence, and harmony with nature. Its splintered and buried condition suggests decay, disuse, and forced abandonment. The image implies that Indigenous culture was not naturally forgotten but violently disrupted. By placing the spear underground, Wright reinforces the idea of burial — both literal and cultural. The broken weapon becomes a metaphor for a shattered civilisation and a way of life that colonisation rendered powerless.
Q. What does the rider represent in the final stanza?
Answer: The rider represents modern settler society or the contemporary observer who confronts the haunted landscape. Unlike earlier stanzas that focus on absence, this stanza introduces a living presence. The rider's heart "halts" at the sight of a shadow, suggesting sudden awareness and guilt. The "unsaid word" symbolises suppressed acknowledgment of colonial wrongdoing. Through the rider, Wright shifts the poem from mourning to moral reflection. The rider embodies collective conscience and inherited responsibility for historical injustice.
SECTION B: THEMATIC LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS
Q. Discuss the theme of memory and forgetting in Bora Ring.
Answer: Memory and forgetting form the central thematic tension of Bora Ring. Throughout the poem, Judith Wright contrasts the vanished presence of Indigenous people with the enduring memory preserved in the landscape. Human society appears to have forgotten Aboriginal culture; songs are gone, rituals are useless, and tribal stories are replaced by "alien" narratives. This forgetting is not accidental but linked to colonisation, which actively suppressed Indigenous traditions.
However, nature does not forget. Grass marks the dancing-ring, and apple-gums "mime" a past corroboree. These images suggest that the land holds traces of memory even when people do not. This aligns with Indigenous belief in the spiritual history of the land, which becomes a living archive.
The final stanza complicates the theme by introducing the rider, whose sudden unease reveals that forgetting is incomplete. The "unsaid word" and "ancient curse" imply that suppressed guilt persists beneath silence. Memory thus operates at two levels: spiritual memory in nature and moral memory in human conscience.
Ultimately, the poem suggests that forgetting is a form of violence, while remembering is an ethical responsibility. Wright challenges readers to acknowledge buried histories and confront uncomfortable truths. Memory, in the poem, is not merely recollection — it is moral awakening.
Q. Examine how Judith Wright uses imagery to convey loss and moral responsibility.
Answer: Judith Wright employs stark, evocative imagery to portray both cultural loss and moral reckoning. In the early stanzas, imagery focuses on absence: songs gone, dancers buried, rituals rendered useless. These images establish an elegiac tone. The "splintered spear" and "still nomad feet" symbolise broken continuity and extinguished vitality. Such concrete images transform abstract loss into visible, tangible decay.
Nature imagery intensifies this effect. Grass covering the Bora Ring suggests time's passage, while apple-gums miming ceremony create haunting echoes of a lost world. These images imply that although culture has been silenced, its traces remain embedded in the land.
In the final stanza, imagery shifts from physical absence to psychological presence. The "sightless shadow" symbolises the invisible but persistent presence of history. The "unsaid word" represents suppressed truth, and the "fear as old as Cain" introduces moral universality. Through this biblical allusion, Wright connects Australian colonisation to humanity's oldest act of violence.
Thus, imagery moves from mourning to indictment. What begins as a lament for a vanished culture becomes a confrontation with inherited guilt. Wright's imagery is restrained yet profound, allowing readers to experience both sorrow and ethical discomfort. The poem ultimately suggests that landscape and conscience alike refuse to remain silent.