Late Ferry

On a literal level the poem is about a person standing on a balcony

watching the late ferry leaving its wharf, that narrow wood jetty.
The speaker is an observer; he is detached from the action of the
poem. The ferry heads out across the harbor towards the Sydney
Harbour Bridge. The ferry passes out beyond the lights and
reflections of the bay where the yachts are moored, their masts
looking like the stakes that tomatoes are tied to in a patch of
garden. The ferry leaves the bay and heads out across the darkness
of the harbour towards the bridge to the neon redness from
advertisements on the sides of tall city buildings. The ferry wades
into the open harbor and the speaker realizes that it will soon
disappear among the lights of all the traffic under and around the
bridge. The speaker describes the city and then the ferry disappears
from view.
Importantly, we need to examine the meaning of this poem on a
symbolic level. The voyage of the ferry can be seen to represent an
important transition in life, when a child, having grown into early
adulthood, breaks away from home and journeys out to discover the
world. In order to discover the world a person must venture out from
their safe jetty and safe waters into the dark harbour, symbolic of
the bigger world.

QUESTIONS
1. The ferry commences its trip across the harbour. What sounds
accompany the ferry as it leaves the jetty?
2. As the ferry leaves the jetty and journeys onward, a series of
images is put forward the wind in the palms, the masts of
the moored yachts like a tomato stake patch, the
streetlights reflecting from the dark water, a ceaseless
activity like chromosomes uniting and dividing. What
impressions do these images suggest about the ferry and its
place in the scheme of things?

3. Waiting for the ferry on the other side of the dark water is the
city. There the red lights tremble down in the water as if into
ice and the larger white lights feel nervously about in the
blackness. These images suggest things about the city a
kind of neurotic anxiety, fear and nervousness. How do these
images contrast with those associated with the beginning of
the ferrys journey?
4. The ferry wades into the harbour and the observer fears he
will lose sight of it in the silver blizzard of light beneath the
Bridge. The secne is transformed into a Busby Berkeley
spectacular. What point is being made by comparing the city
to the world of Hollywoods creation? How might this relate to
the poets attitude to what the ferry represents?
5. The film image is taken further. The ferry now seems like a
moth caught in the intense beam of light from a projector.
What aspects of the ferry are emphasized by this image?
6. In the final stanza the observer recognizes that eventually the
ferry will be obliterated in the bright light of the city. The final
images emphasise the lasting impressions of the city its
individuality is contained in its yellow light reminding the
observer of honeycomb. The ferrys light is yellow as
opposed to the silver blizzard of light of the city. What is the
point of this contrast? What finally do you think the ferry is
intended to represent?
7. This poem is a sequence of images that symbolically convey
the consequences of venturing out from a safe place to
discover the world. Find images to represent each of the
following
i)
the safe jetty
ii)
venturing out into the big world
iii)
the dangers of the big world
iv)
the promise of the big world.

8. What is this poem saying about discovery?

Ideas about
discovery from
the rubric

Evidence from the How is the idea

conveyed?
poem (quote)

Discoveries can
be confronting
and provocative

As the ferry
moves into the
harbor it will be
lost
soon/amongst a
silver blizzard of
light/ swarming
below the bridge/
a Busby Berkeley
spectacular

The concept of
discovery can be
understood
through studying
and
understanding out
text.
Discoveries can
lead us to new
worlds and
values, stimulate
new ideas, and
enable us to
speculate about
future possibilites

(techniques with
explanation)

The author use

powerful imagery
and reference to a
Hollywood
director to
emphasise that
fact that
discovery is