BLAKE WEEK TEN REVIEW: Alicia Michael
This week I want to review a poem I found in Alicia's journal called "Steak and Cake?" I found this really funny because it is kind of my life during my football season written into a peom. The RSL, the VB, the steak and chips. Have you been stalking me girl? I am kind of glad it is all over now. I still go to the club to the bar but I don't have to train anymore haha. It's the good life. I will post the poem below and go through it. It's funny stuff.
“Steak and Cake?”
Go down to the rsl
Order your favourite meal
Steak and chips
Orange and poppyseed cake
Make it a real date
Have a beer
The coast is clear
Have more than two
And the jokes on you
Go home turn on the t.v
Sip another v.b
Come on you’ve worked all day
Unwind your favourite way
Don’t worry what people say
Because you’re a dinky dye
Aussie mate
That can handle anything put on your plate
Steak and cake?
Go on get out there see the land
Go and watch any band
And you’ll find something better
Than in any letter
A painting to make you think
To make you open the blind eye and blink
And see steak and cake stink
I think Alicia captured what she feels is colloquial Australia in this poem. Is this what Patrick White also did? Some might say yes. I like what Alicia wrote because she is pretty spot on with the RSL part of her poem. Playing football for a leagues club has shown me this. After a game it's straight to eat some steak cooked well done and then straight to the bar for more than a few VB's or whatever your choice is. Alicia you should play football. You would fit it well. The poem is funny and i like the lines "Orange and poppeyseed cake, make it a real date." It is a crack up. I can just imagine her reading this with a manly aussie accent. What a shazza!
Get stuck in Alicia! It's orange and poppey seed! Your fave!
I like the second stanza where it talks about having a few beers. It's exactly what happens. You can be talking away and downing the drinks and not realising that things are slipping away from you (like your coordination) and then a schooner might get dropped on the floor. Or maybe someone might fall off their barstool. Seen it happen.
I like her third stanza also how it says to enjoy being home after work with a cold beer. It's a stereotypical aussie male thing to do and Alicia somehow knows all about this. Hopefully she reads this review and posts a reply as to how she knows alot about aussie culture when she is a lebo bulldogs supporter haha.
The last stanza is what I liked most though. The poems mood shifts and it is time to get serious. Things get turned upside down. Alicia no longer speaks of the Aussie culture but of other culture within Australia. She speaks about getting out from the RSL and going to see the land. Go and listen to music or go and look at art. This is different culture to that of steak and cake and VB's down at the local RSL. Alicia says that it might open the blind eye and blink. I think this is a great line. She implies that people who go and drink away their time are blind to what is truly out there in the world. She is right in a way. Too much of one thing isn't really that great. It is repetitive and boring. One can be blind to this.
The last line of the whole poem sums it up in a neat little package. "And see steak and cake stink." Alicia lets us know that she isn't really in aggreance with Patrick White's steak and cake vision of Australia. She doesn't like it. She thinks it stinks. I commend her for saying this. I know other people in the class don't like White's portrayal of Australia in the book and it's good to see she stood up for herself.
Steak and Cake.
You bloody rippper.
Good job Alicia.
Tucks Signing Off.