Oodgeroo's Poem Time Is Running Out

Oodgeroo's poem "Time is Running Out" is representative of both her style and thematic concerns. "Colour Bar" likewise expresses these ideas. Some features of her style are rhyme, symbolic language and alliteration.

Rhyme is represented in both "Time is Running Out" and "Colour Bar". In "Time is Running Out" there is no set rhyme scheme that runs throughout the poem. In the first stanza the rhyme scheme is that every second line rhymes for example, spade and trade. In the second and third stanzas there is no rhyme scheme although in the third stanza there are lines that rhyme but there is no set pattern.

"Colour Bar" uses rhyming couplets. A rhyming couplet is when the scheme is AA, BB. This poem consists of nine rhyming couplets. Oodgeroo breaks this rhyme scheme twice in the poem. Oodgeroo does this as she wants to emphasise and make her point stronger and clearer. For example as long as brothers banned from brother hood, you still exclude. Brotherhood and exclude do not rhyme, therefore it makes the reader re-read the line to rethink what it said, hence it is a very useful technique.

Alliteration is when a poet such as Oodgeroo uses the same sound at the start of words occurring together. Oodgeroo uses alliteration in many of her poems. In the "Time is Running Out" she uses alliteration in the line; Stealing, Bottling the black blood. She does this as she wants to emphasise this point and make the focus on it. "Bottling her black blood" is an example of the sound device. The harsh 'b' sound is effectively used here as it reinforces the bitterness of the stanzas tone.

In "Colour Bar" Oodgeroo uses, alliteration mainly to make two foremost points stand out the most is; the colour bar! It shows the meaner mind, of moron kind. A moron is someone with limited mental capacity; Oodgeroo uses this in a derogatory sense. Oodgeroo is saying that people who make racist slurs against an innocent child are not members of humanity.

Symbolic language is a technique that is heavily used in poetry. Symbolic language is when someone reads a word and a lot of other words pop into their head that relate to the central word. An example of this in "Time is Running Out" is Black blood, where black can be read in many different ways; Old blood is a blackish colour which