Are you sure you want to leave?

Your test is still in progress. If you leave this page or go back now, all your attempt wil not be saved.

Read the poem below by Judith Wright. Then answer the questions.

Cleaning Day

I carried rubbish down
until the house was clean,
cupboards scoured, shelves ransacked and bate.
High the heap grew;
I struck the match and blew
while the flame sulked against the idle air

 

Sheltered, coaxed and fed,
slowly it caught and spread
till I could stand and watch its upward stream—
the gesture, the intent
spiralling, violent
dance that began around the core of flame.

 

Humble and worn-out things
put up their scarlet wings.
To new and pure sprang up the grey and old;
until a self-made wind
eddied within my mind
and it upward in a heat of gold.

What does the phrase “put up their scarlet wings” in the final stanza symbolise?