Themes in Gilgandra to the Sea
The song ‘Gilgandra to the sea’ by Benjamin B Howe has camaraderie; mateship, determination, courage and confidant feel to it. This message is conveyed by applying some of the conversational dialogue between soldiers along their journey, “The Turk and Hun will settle at the bottom of the sea” and “As we go marching on to victory”. The poet does this successfully be making it sound like the reader is experiencing the coo ee march and their positivity. It makes people feel happy, confident in their success and involved.
Message of Gilgandra to the Sea
The song makes you sad because they went in there thinking they would beat the enemy easily and quickly but instead they where there for a very long time and it was hard to achieve victory at the expense of hundreds and thousands of lives, friends, comrades and family who would die. Their naivety is the saddest part of this song.