Australocentrism
Though Murray is not a political poet in the traditional sense of the word, the most pervasive theme that stretches across the entire body of verse written by Murray is one that can appropriately be termed as leaning to the right, benevolently nationalistic and framed by a populist celebration of the rural, the working class and the Aboriginal that is certainly conservative, but by not stretch of the imagination radical. Murray turned his artistic vision toward far too many diverse subjects to ever be limited as an extremist in his political attitudes, but he consistently celebrates Australian nationalism as inhabited by those outside the embrace of the intelligentsia and the political elite. This theme is not directly addressed in any one single poem, but is like the image that is completed when all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle connect.
Living in the Groove
Living in the groove, on the other hand, is directly addressed directly (as well as obliquely) in certain poems. As for what “the groove” means:
“Even some given a choice would rather work the metaphors than live them”
Those who live metaphors by rejecting institutionalism, elitism, and—most of all—governmental bureaucracy is manifestation of living in the groove. Murray’s profound distrust of bureaucracy and its malevolent ability to stifle imaginations and creativity is also expressed quite directly at the end of “Canberra Remnant.”
“only a few
souls still awake
to polish a bead,
to tum a page,
to label a fly
or a golden age,
in a thousand redeeming
projects they
keep safe from the Government
of the day.”
The Mechanics of Writing Poetry
Like many artists—especially prolific ones—in his later period, Murray turned his vision inward to examine the art of writing and the mysterious power of language. His collection The Daylight Moon is filled with verse which examines the way that language can be manipulated to express very specific emotions without the writer actually telling the reader what emotions the characters are conveying. It is a textbook example of the literary dictum “show, don’t tell.” On the other hand, his poem “The New Hieroglyphics” is itself an analysis of the connection between language and the symbols meant to convey it. Its potential to cause confusion among some readers is part of the poems point that language and conveyance of meaning is not as easy as it seems and that potential inexorably works it way to the poem’s concluding stanza:
“All peoples are at times cat in water with this language
but it does promote international bird on shoulder.
This foretaste now lays its knife and fork parallel.”
