Alcohol

Alcohol has always been a destructive force as well as social oil in Australian society
1. Introduction
The purpose of this reports to investigate and demonstrate alcohol use and abuse in Australia with reference to selected Australian poems, figures and statistics from the Australian bureau of statistic.
This topic is of great importance and relevance to today’s Australian society. It is asubject that has somehow impacted on the life’s of almost everyone wether it has done so in a positive or negative way, although it is mainly the negative that has the longest lasting impact
This is a limited report as it only refers to a small number of poems and related material. The information for this report has been sourced from poems such as “The morning after” by Col Wilson, “My son” byNeil mc Arthur, “life span” by an anonymous writer, and “The Metho drinker “ by Judith wright. It also makes reference to the film “Once were warriors” and statistic from the Australian bureau of statistics (ABS).

2. Facts and discussion
Alcohol as social oil

Alcohol has long been social oil in Australian society you could say it’s part of the culture, where in some countries is deemed evilor even illegal Australians have enjoyed a long lasting romance with drinking, whether it is in celebration, sporting events a Friday night at the pub or club, funerals or just as a reward for a hard day’s work, having a beer is perfectly acceptable and a part of everyday life.
In the poem “The morning after “ by Col Wilson we see alcohol being used as social oil and the reason for a greatevening entertaining guests. The poet makes use of rhymes to give the poem a comical feel.
“And then it came back. Last night we had guests,
And I’d entertained with considerable Zest”
This reflects the acceptance of social consumption.
Also in the poem “ life span” by an anonymous writer we can see a clear insinuation of alcohol being a good thing, the poet makes a point of animals not living aslong as men because they do not consume alcohol,
“The animals are strictly dry; they sinless live and swiftly die.
While sinful, gin-full, rum-soaked men survive for three scores of ten.
And some of us, Tough and mighty few, stay pickled till we ‘re ninety-two.”

With a light hearted approach and rhyming scheme the poet makes this poem and its contents appealing to the readers.
In theAustralian Bureau of statistics report for 2004-05 it show that on average 2 million people consume alcohol every day at low risk levels for that year, although this report focuses on the negative results and consequences of excessive drinking it gives us a clear indication of the number of Australians consuming alcohol on a daily social level (13%), which is a number much greater than most countries.Checks and balances

Although we have looked into alcohol consumption being socially acceptable in Australian society there has to be checks and balances in place in order for it to continue being acceptable.
We can go back to the poem by col Wilson quoted in the first part of this report “The morning after” and see that apart from the poems comical feel, rhyming narrative structure used tomake the scenario appealing it also point out certain factors that make you relies that it is ok to a certain extent, the poem starts with,
“To-day’s the first day of the rest of my life,
And I wish I were dead, but won’t tell the wife.
When I woke up this morning she looked in my eye,
And said: ‘How do you feel?’ I said:
‘Marvellous .Why’
She told me:’ last night, my wife’s intuition,Felt some concern for your general condition.”
There we can see that disapproval of excessive drinking is obvious and boundaries must be set in order to maintain what is socially acceptable, the poets feeling of guilt also show that he is aware of these boundaries and that he has crossed them.
On the other hand we have a poem by Neil McArthur” My son” which clearly show where checks...