Judith Wright is commonly regarded as Australia's greatest twentieth century female poet. She was born on her father's station property at Wallamumbi in New South Wales in 1915 and even attended the University of Sydney, where she graduated with a BA in 1936. Between then and the outbreak of the Second World War she was in various secretarial jobs all while continuing to write. However, it wasn't until her return to Wallamumbi that brought home to her the unbelievable power of the Australian landscape. Wright's work shows that she takes a special interest in the resilience of the human spirit, the ability of people to continue to live their lives in the face of adversity and misfortune. However, what is remarkable to note is Wright's concern and feelings for the plight both of the Aborigines and of the Australian environment. In all of Wright's work there is evidence of a deep love of the land these people live in and is able to incorporate a constant imagery to relay her emotions.
             In Wright's poem, Request to a Year, the reader gets a first hand look into the fascination that she possesses about the resilience of human nature. In this poem, one finds that there is a mother sitting on a high rock sketching out the landscape that appears massive, quiet and dispassionate. Below her the scene shifts to her son who is struggling to survive as he balances on an ice floe that is approaching a waterfall. Yet, the mother does nothing and continues to sketch. Finally he is eventually saved by the mother's daughter who, stretching out an alpenstock (walking stick), pulls him to safety. What is most striking about this scenario is the "firmness" of the mother, who, unable to do anything to help her son, remains on the rock and sketches the event. She is as immobile as the rock itself. It's almost hard to swallow because it doesn't seem right that a mother would watch as one of her ...