Poetry can often explore the extremes of the world. It could be an extreme climate, extreme sports, or extreme feelings. In Earle Birney's poem "Bushed", such extremities are written in relation to one another; Isolation enhances fear, which in turn depresses the mind, and ultimately leads to insanity. Through this, the poet wishes to convey insanity as a gradual and cumulative development from fear and isolation.

Fear and paranoia are pervasive throughout the entire piece. Right from the beginning, a disturbing scene of a rainbow being struck by lightning is imaged, and although the first two stanzas may suggest otherwise, the rest of the poem is written and presented this way. In the fourth stanza, this becomes clear, as the main character perceives ospreys as valkyries, and feels the pain of the impalpable "boil of the sunset." Additionally, from the third stanza, the lone character finds himself starting...