WIld Grapes - Slessor

WILD GRAPES
What are the ideas conveyed in Wild Grapes and what techniques does Slessor use to convey these ideas?
The poem ‘Wild Grapes’ explores ideas regarding the passing of time, and the way memories are lost in time. Slessor does this by providing images that contrast between what is lost, and what is still living. He also describes the effects of time. Slessor reinforces these images with various sound devices.
Slessor begins the poem with a description of the orchard now. He uses the words ‘smoking air’, ‘sour marsh’, and ‘broken boughs’ to evoke images of decay and neglect in the orchard. It helps to emphasise the entirety of the death and destruction of the orchard over time. Slessor also conveys the present decay of the orchard when he describes it as old. This is a contradiction to the normal state of an orchard, which is deemed to be beautiful and filled with luscious fruits.
The first stanza provides a...