Ahmed Timol Secondary

English Home Language

Poetry Pack
2021

Compiled and Edited by: Mr S. Karim

Name: _________________________________________________
Grade: ___________

Educator: ___________________________________

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 Ahmed Timol Secondary

English – Poetry
Table of Contents
Grade 11 - 2021

Poem Title: Date

Completed:
• Sonnet 130 (1609) - William Shakespeare

• London, 1802 – William Wordsworth

• Anthem for Doomed Youth - Wilfred Owen

• Mid-Term Break - Seamus Heaney

• Eating Poetry – Mark Strand

• A Far Cry From Africa - Derek Walcott

• In Detention – Chris Van Wyk

• We Wear The Mask - Paul Lawrence Dunbar

• Random Notes to my Son - Keorapetse Kgositsile

• Those Winter Sundays – Robert Hayden
• Poem for my Mother – Jennifer Davids

Acknowledgement:
Various educators/writers/poets/learners and all
contributors from English HL/FAL FET Teachers

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 SONNET 130 (1609) - William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral! is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 5
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; 10
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
__________________________________________________________________________________
____
1 coral - hard, stony red, pink or white formations produced by certain tiny sea creatures
as an external skeleton; in Shakespearean times only the red variety found in the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean would have been available
2 dun - dull grey-brown
3 wires - hair was often compared to golden thread or wire used in lavish embroidery or
jewellery
4 damasked - pinkish in colour (in Shakespearean times only three varieties of roses were
known - red, white and damasked)
5 reeks - smells unpleasant
6 rare - something wonderful, precious (rather than the more modern meaning of -
"occurring infrequently")
7 she - woman
8 belied - showed that something was untrue

William Shakespeare (1564-1616, England)

As much as we know of Shakespeare's writing, we know little about his life. He is
considered the foremost playwright the English language has known. And even if we
might not know all 36 of the plays he wrote, we might know something about some
of his plays: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, to
name a few. He is also well known for his sonnets (he wrote 154) and the English or
Shakespearean sonnet is named after him.

Introduction
"Sonnet 130" is a Shakespearean sonnet that develops an argument through three
quatrains. The conclusion to the argument is in the rhyming couplet at the end.
Shakespeare parodies the sonnet conventions of his time: instead of idealising his
mistress, he describes her in sincere terms. Ultimately, though, he proclaims a devoted
love for her.

Metaphors about love had become clichés in Shakespeare's time. In this sonnet, he
mocks these clichés by telling the truth about the appearance of his mistress. The
typical English rose would not have a "dun" complexion or have "wires" for hair.
Shakespeare uses the sonnet's rigid rhythm and rhyme structure to build to his
conclusion. The final couplet insists that real love does not need false tributes or
conceits and any woman can be beautiful.

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 Before reading (discussion)
Chat-up lines are often silly and rely on simple images. For example: ‘May I follow
you home because my parents always told me to follow my dreams'. Try to recall
any lines that you may have heard or even used yourself to approach a potential
love-interest.

Simile
Traditionally love sonnets would have compared a mistress to objects of beauty.
The use of the negative "nothing" shows an insight into the speaker's attitude.

Summary

This sonnet is part of a group of poems by William Shakespeare that scholars

think was addressed to someone they call "The Dark Lady." We get little
glimpses of her in this poem. Shakespeare talks about her hair, the colour of
her skin, etc. Mostly, though, this poem is a gentle parody of traditional love
poetry. Shakespeare uses this sonnet to poke fun at the kinds of exaggerated
comparisons some poets of his day made when talking about their lovers. He
makes fun of clichéd images that were worn out even then, like "eyes like the
sun," and "skin as white as snow." These kinds of over-the-top compliments
appear everywhere in poems by writers like Petrarch, who wrote famous Italian
sonnets in the 14th century. Although no one is sure whether the woman
Shakespeare is talking about really existed, readers can see how well he uses
this sonnet to mock lame poetic clichés.

Relevance

So, when we say the words "love poem," what pops into your head? Maybe
you've always thought that a love poem had to be sappy, like something you'd
find in a Valentine's Day card. If we told you that the love poem we had in
mind was over 400 years old, that might make it even worse, right? Old love
poems bring to mind flowery language and the kind of unrealistic nonsense
that you could never bring yourself to say with a straight face.

But, if you think sentimental love poems are ridiculous, you're not alone – that's
pretty much how Shakespeare felt too, and he spends these fourteen lines
ripping that kind of poem apart. Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 is a parody of the
kind of insincere, sickly sweet love poems that authors have been writing (and
a lot of people have been hating) for centuries. Now, don't get us wrong, we're
not anti-love poetry and we can get into the sentimental stuff sometimes too.
But we're not fans of lame clichés, and we think it's pretty fun to watch
Shakespeare go to town on them in this sonnet.

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Line-By-Line Analysis

Line 1
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

• Here we are introduced for the first time to the main character in this poem,
the speaker's "mistress."
• Today, when we use the word "mistress," it's usually to refer to a woman who is
dating a married man. In Shakespeare’s time, though, it was more general,
like "my love" or "my darling."
• The speaker jumps right into his anti-love poem, letting us know that this lady's
eyes aren't like the sun. Well, so what? We wouldn't really expect them to be,
would we?
• As we read the next few lines though, we see that the comparison is a
standard way of praising a beautiful woman in a poem. It's like saying, "her
eyes are like sapphires."
• Our speaker is refusing to fall back on clichés though, instead telling us that
this simile doesn't apply at all.

Line 2
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

• If you imagined a stereotypically beautiful woman, like a model in a

magazine, she'd probably have red lips, right?
• Certain kinds of very red coral are polished and used to make jewellery so if
you compared lips to coral, you'd be thinking of the most beautiful, shiny red
thing you could imagine.
• Nope, says the speaker, that doesn't sound like my girlfriend's lips at all.

Line 3
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

• Next come the mistress's breasts.

• They get pretty much the same treatment as her lips.
• If the reddest red is like coral, then the whitest white is the colour of snow. A
poet could praise a woman for having skin as white as snow.
• Not here, though. This woman's skin isn't white, or even cream coloured.
Instead, the speaker calls it "dun," a sort of grayish-brown colour.
• Be sure to notice the little changes here. In the first two lines, we hear only
that the woman isn't like these other things (the sun, coral).
• Now we get an actual description, an adjective ("dun") that applies to her.
Unfortunately, it just makes her sound uglier. Dun is a word often used to
describe the colour of a horse, and definitely not the kind of thing a woman
would be thrilled to hear about her breasts.

Line 4
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

• Now things just get worse.

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 • If a poet wanted to be sentimental and sweet, he might compare his lover's
hair to something soft, smooth, and shiny, like silk. Here though, the mistress's
hair is compared to black wires sticking out of the top of her head.
• Keep in mind that the whole point of this poem is to push back against
standard ways of talking about women in poems. So it's not necessarily bad
that she has frizzy black hair.

Lines 5-6
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

• There's a tricky word here: damasked. Basically it just means a pattern of

mixed colours woven into expensive fabric.
• So imagine a rose with a white and red pattern on it, or maybe a bouquet of
red and white roses. Our speaker has seen beautiful roses like that, but his
mistress's cheeks don't remind him of them at all.
• Maybe some perfectly beautiful woman has cheeks that are white with just a
little blush of red, but that's not the woman he's talking about.

Lines 7-8
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

• By now we've got the idea, right?

• The speaker tells us that some perfumes smell better (give more "delight") than
this woman's lover's breath.
• Apparently she stinks, too.
• Let's recap quickly: so far the speaker said that his mistress's eyes aren't that
great, that her lips aren't that red, that her skin is yellowish, that her hair is like
wires, that her cheeks are nothing like roses, and that her breath reeks.
• What a way to start a love poem.

Lines 9-10
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

• Now, after all of that criticism, the speaker starts to get a little bit nicer.
• He admits that he really does "love to hear her speak." Seems like she was due
for a compliment, doesn't it?
• The speaker can't just let it go at that, though, and immediately he starts to
back up a little.
• Basically, that "yet" in the middle of line 9 gets us ready for a negative
comparison. It's like saying, "You're really great, but…"
• Then, in line 10, we get the negative half of that thought: he thinks that music
is "more pleasing" than the sound of her voice.
• Well, maybe that's not so bad after all. If your boyfriend or girlfriend said, "I like
music more than the sound of your voice," you might not exactly be thrilled,
but it sure beats having him or her tell you that your breath stinks.
• Maybe the speaker is softening up a little bit.

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Line 11-12
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

• Here's another thought that is split over two lines. In line 11, the speaker
essentially tells us that he's willing to admit that he's never seen a goddess
move. (See why Shakespeare's the poet and not us? Listen to how smoothly
those words flow together: grant…goddess…go. Nice, huh?)
• Now, when the speaker finishes his thought on line 12, he's not actually being
mean at all, just stating the facts. His mistress isn't a goddess, she doesn't fly or
soar or float along. She just walks (treads) like a normal person, on the ground.
• A pretentious poet might say: "My love walks like a goddess," but we would
know that it isn't true. Has he ever seen a goddess? Maybe the best way to
tell someone you love him or her in a poem is to be simple, honest and
straightforward.

Lines 13-14
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false
compare.

• Now, at long last, we get to the sweet part, but it might take a little bit of
translating.
• Here are two lines in plain English: the speaker thinks that his lover is as
wonderful ("rare") as any woman ("any she") who was ever misrepresented
("belied") by an exaggerated comparison ("false compare").
• These last two lines are the payoff for the whole poem. They serve as the
punch-line for the joke. They drive home the speaker's main point, that unlike
other people who write sonnets, he doesn't need flowery terms or fancy
comparisons. He can just tell his mistress, plainly and simply, that he loves her
for who she is. Awww…

The Mistress - Symbol Analysis

She's definitely the star of this show. Every line refers to her, whether it's
describing her appearance or her smell or the way she walks. We learn a few
things about her, like the colour of her hair and her skin. In general, though,
she's a little more like an idea than a real person. Instead of being a fully drawn
character like Hamlet or Juliet, she is mostly here to give the poet a chance to
poke fun at exaggerated love poetry. We hear a lot about her, but for the most
part, the information is rather vague and negative. Since all the images and
symbols in this poem concern her in one way or another, we're going to put
the different parts of her under the microscope, just like Shakespeare does.

Her Eyes - Symbol Analysis

Eyes are something we focus on in other people, so it's no surprise that they are
always cropping up in love poetry. You know the old saying, "The eyes are the
windows of the soul"? Well, that's just the kind of frequently used phrase that
our speaker doesn't have much time for.

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 • Line 1: We start out with the speaker refusing to compare his lover's eyes to
the sun. He picks a really out-there, exaggerated simile so that we can see
just how silly this kind of comparison can be. So really, this is a negative simile:
"x is not like y."

Her Lips - Symbol Analysis

Lips seem to be among the standard list of things you're supposed to notice in
a beautiful woman. Think about a gorgeous movie star, for example. When she
has a close-up in a particular scene, the camera tends to focus on her skin, her
hair, her eyes, her breasts – all the things that Shakespeare includes here. The
idea of breaking a woman into parts in order to praise her beauty has a really
long history

• Line 2: Comparing lips to red coral gives us another slightly ridiculous over-the-
top simile. Lips that red would have to be painted, and that's the kind of fake
beauty that this poem is pushing back against.

Her Breasts - Symbol Analysis

For obvious reasons, breasts are a classic symbol of female beauty. We'll keep
this G-rated, but you can see why talking about this woman's breasts forces us
to think about how we define an ideal woman, and what seems beautiful
about her.

• Line 3: Here the speaker avoids a direct simile. He just gives us the strong
image of sparkling white snow, and lays it next to the equally strong image of
dun (grayish-brown) breasts. He's playing with our associations with these
colours. White is a long-standing symbol of purity, cleanliness, virginity, and all
that next to that squeaky clean image, the mistress's breasts seem dirty and
polluted. But the speaker will go on to show us that these old stereotypes
might not really mean much at all.

Her Hair - Symbol Analysis

Another major cliché about women's beauty is that their hair should be silky
smooth and shiny. Shakespeare turns this assumption on its head in a big way
in this poem. Readers in Shakespeare's time would have recognized all these
worn-out comparisons as allusions to images in other love poems. Famous
examples of traditional love sonnets include the poems of Petrarch, an Italian
poet from the 14th century.

• Line 4: We think this image of hair as black wires sprouting out of her head is
meant to gross you out a little bit. Sounds like a creepy doll, like Shakespeare
meets the Bride of Chucky.

Her Cheeks - Symbol Analysis

If the ideal woman in Shakespeare's time was supposed to have skin as white
as snow and smooth and blond hair, then her cheeks are probably going to
have to be pink and rosy too. You've probably picked up the pattern by now.

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The more clichés the speaker piles on, the more we see what a silly way this is
to compliment someone.

• Line 6: The speaker takes the standard image of rosy cheeks a step further
here, pretending to be surprised that there aren't actually red and white roses
in this woman's cheeks. When you put it like that, it makes the whole
metaphor (i.e. "her cheeks are roses") sound pretty dumb.

Her Breath - Symbol Analysis

Faults such as your hair not being just right, or your eyes being the wrong colour,
might be easy to overlook; but bad breath, that's something else altogether.
Shakespeare seems to be having fun here, pushing his gross-out portrait as far
as it will go.

• Line 8: The word "reeks" brings up a really strong image of just how far from
perfect this woman is. By hitting us over the head with her very human flaws,
the speaker forces us to take a look at our definitions of female beauty. Just
like the "black wires" (line 4), this line pushes our boundaries a little, turning the
love poem into a criticism, but a pretty fun one.

Her Voice - Symbol Analysis

Just a couple more things to round out the list. She should of course have a
beautiful voice to go with all the rest of it. Or maybe not…

• Lines 9-10: As always, the speaker rejects the obvious simile ("her voice is like
music"), but this time he's being a little nicer. He doesn't say, "She sounds like a
frog with laryngitis." In fact, he goes out of his way to say that he loves the
sound of her voice. He just thinks that comparing her voice to music is going
too far.

The Way She Moves - Symbol Analysis

Of course this perfect woman that the speaker is taking apart would have to
be as graceful as an angel too. Throughout the poem he's been setting up two
portraits, side by side. One is of an ideal fantasy woman that he can't begin to
believe in, and the other is of the real, imperfect woman he loves. In these last
lines the speaker chooses the real woman over the goddess that he has never
even seen.

• Line 11: We want to take a second look at the alliteration in this line. Check
out the way those three "g" words: "grant…goddess…go" make the line float
along as gracefully as a goddess. Fun, huh? Plus, comparing a normal
woman to a goddess is a complete exaggeration (or hyperbole as we English
literature folks like to say), and that's exactly what this poem is trying to get us
away from.

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Analysis: Form and Meter - Shakespearean Sonnet
There are lots of different ways to write a sonnet, which is basically a kind of
short poem. Shakespeare's sonnets have a very specific form, though, and
scholars have named that form the "Shakespearean sonnet" after the great
bard. These kinds of sonnets have several things in common:

1. They are 14 lines long.

2. They are written in iambic pentameter.
3. Usually, they include a feature called a "turn." This is a moment in the poem
where the theme or the tone changes in a surprising way. This particular
sonnet gives a really nice example of the turn. It comes in the last two lines,
where the speaker switches his strategy completely. He has been criticizing his
mistress, and then, all of a sudden, he starts telling us how much he loves her.
4. The first twelve lines rhyme in alternating pairs. To show how this works, we can
assign a letter to each rhyme: We'll show you how it works:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; A

Coral is far more red than her lips' red; B
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; A
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. B

So, for the whole poem, the rhyme scheme would be ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
5. See those last two letters at the end? This is the last important thing to know
about the form of a Shakespearean sonnet: the poem always ends with two
rhyming lines, one right after the other. We call this a couplet. Here's the one
from the end of this poem: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare G
As any she belied with false compare. G
6. Shakespearian sonnets are written in iambic pentameter ;

Iambic Pentameter

• Quite simply, it sounds like a heartbeat: dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM,
dee DUM, dee DUM.
• It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten syllables, with 5 unstressed
and 5 stressed syllables.
• It is the first and the last sound we ever hear; it is the human heartbeat.
• Iambic Pentameter? ( Iambic penta meter)
• An “iamb” is “ dee DUM” – it sounds like a heartbeat.
• Penta is the Greek word for five.
• Meter is really the pattern.
• So there are five iambs per line!

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Analysis: Speaker
This speaker sounds like the guy at the back of your class who is always
cracking jokes. He can't stand to do anything the way other people do, and
even when he's supposed to be serious, he has to find a way to poke fun. In
this case, it feels like his teacher has told him to write a love poem. He's finally
done it, but not without making fun of the whole idea of love poems. So, yeah,
he might drive people around him crazy. On the other hand, his sarcastic tone
keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously, and he has a way of turning things
on their head and making us see them in a new way. Finally, even though the
speaker can't be serious for more than two lines, he still shows, at the end, that
he has a sincere and thoughtful side, and that he can let his guard down long
enough to let people see that side.

Analysis: Setting - Where It All Goes Down

Though no setting is explicitly stated, we're imagining this poem set in a
courtroom. We know it's a love poem and all, but listen to the way it's
presented. The speaker gives us this list of evidence, and really digs into the
details. He runs down the charges against his mistress as if he were an attorney,
and then, at the last moment, he makes a sudden appeal for her.

Think about the places you would usually set such a poem. It's too mean to be
set in the mistress's bedroom, with the speaker whispering in her ear. He's
having too much fun to imagine him sitting alone in his room dreaming about
her. Instead we see him pacing up and down in front of the jury, admitting that
his client does indeed have bad breath, but then asking them to let her off
anyway. Maybe he turns to the judge to deliver a dramatic point here and
there, like that one about the goddess (line 11). Then at last, we can almost
hear him bang on the table and say, "Ladies and gentleman of the jury, even
though my client is unattractive and reeks, she still deserves to be loved!"

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LONDON, 1802 – William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was born in England on April 7th, 1770. His
mother died when he was 8. A deep mystical love of nature
permeated all his ideas and works, and his poems are
generally written in a simple undecorated style. Leaving
Cambridge University in 1790, he went with a friend on a
walking tour through France. He had a love affair with a
French girl, Annette Valon, who later bore him a daughter. He
returned to England depressed when England declared war
on France. Here he wrote some of the earliest Romantic
poetry. Romantic poetry celebrates nature as a source of
comfort and moral guidance. He died on April 23 in 1850.

Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour;

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: 10

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

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EDUCATOR’S NOTES

❖ The poem begins with a plaintive call to John Milton, a much-loved and
respected English poet, and one of Wordsworth's great influences.
❖ The speaker laments the fact that Milton isn't around anymore, since, as
he sees it, England needs a guiding voice.
❖ The speaker flat-out condemns the state of the nation, saying that it's a
stagnant swamp (gross!), and that the English people have forgotten all
the things that used to make them so glorious, including religion, military
might, and literature.
❖ The speaker worries that the Englishmen of his day are too selfish and
debased, and wishes Milton could return and give the nation a good old-
fashioned pep talk. The poet is certain that Milton could inspire England to
greatness once again, and mould its inhabitants into more noble
creatures.
❖ The second half of the poem dwells on Milton's high points; the speaker
gets all swoony about Milton's writing, and uses celestial imagery to show
us just how divine it is. Not only is Milton's writing admirable, apparently, so
was his character. The man could do no wrong.
❖ The speaker goes gaga over the all-around loveliness that was Milton, and
ends the poem by praising the deceased poet's humility.
❖ "London, 1802" works on so many levels. First of all, it's an obvious call for
help; the poet, William Wordsworth, laments the state of England, and
expresses his fears about the health of the national character.
❖ Second, it's an elegy for John Milton, a great English poet of the 17th
century (famous for the super-long and spectacular epic, Paradise Lost).
❖ Finally, it's just a gosh darned good old-fashioned sonnet. In just fourteen
lines, Wordsworth manages to invoke his poetic forefather, sketch out his
view of England's character and inhabitants, and demonstrate to us just
how skilled he is with rhyme and meter by crafting a gorgeous Petrarchan
sonnet. Wow. What more could you ask for?
❖ Not only is the sonnet an accomplished and polished example of its form,
it's also a bold condemnation of the poet's nation and fellow countrymen.
❖ This, you might think, must have taken some real guts. Well, guts and
confidence. "London, 1802" wasn't actually published until 1807, despite its
misleading title.
❖ By that time, Wordsworth was an established poet; along with Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, he had basically created what would come to be
known as Romantic poetry, which burst onto the scene in 1798 with a
collaboration between the two poets, simply titled Lyrical Ballads.
❖ These poets and their contemporaries attempted to use poetry as a
mediator between humanity and nature; they saw verse as a way to
directly express the emotional experience of human life, ideally in
spontaneous, clear language.

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❖ Wordsworth knew he was living in a flawed country, and he perceived
England as a nation that had lost sight of its past glories. In this poem, he
longs to remind his countrymen of what England used to represent.

Line 1
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour;

The poet calls out to Milton, and wishes that he was still alive in the present
day.

Lines 2-3
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Apparently, the speaker thinks that Milton could help England on the whole
out; he sees the country as a "fen" (2) – a kind of swamp – full of gross standing
water. You know, the kind of gross marshy pond that's covered in algae and
slime and warty toads…nice.

Lines 3-6
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness.

OK, this is a big hunk jam-packed with symbols, so bear with us. The speaker is
distressed by the fact that certain elements of traditional English life have lost
their magic.

To go piece by piece, he's worried about religion ("altar"), war/military

concerns ("sword"), literature ("pen"), the home ("fireside"), and the economy
("the heroic wealth of hall and bower"). So… basically everything.

He's concerned with his perception that these things are no longer tied to the
"inner happiness" of the English people; in former days, they were
fundamentally linked to the rightful success of the nation – this is the "dower" (a
kind of gift) that the speaker refers to – but now these institutions have lost their
meaning.

Lines 6-7
We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

These lines are pretty clear; the speaker declares that "we" (the English people
of his time) are selfish and debased, and he begs Milton to help them get out
of their slump.

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Line 8
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

The speaker thinks that Milton could inspire the English to be better all around
– nicer, more virtuous, and more powerful.

Line 9
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Milton was a very special guy (according to the speaker, at least). The poet
compares the older writer to a star, something removed from the mass of
humanity, and superior to the rest of us.

Line 10-11
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
Here, the speaker's not actually talking about Milton's speaking voice – instead,
he's referring to his poetic voice. Basically, he claims that Milton's poetry was
as powerful and amazing as the forces of the natural world, like the sea and
the sky.

Line 12-13
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness;

Whoa there – let's take it back a step.

Instead of continuing to rave about Milton's hyperbolic virtues as a poet, the
speaker takes the last few lines to let us know that Milton was a good guy, too.
Instead of getting all up on himself, he followed "life's common way" (12) just
like the rest of us, and lived his life happily and virtuously.

Line 13-14
and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Milton, according to the speaker, didn't just rest upon his laurels and get all
arrogant about how awesome he was; the closing lines of the poem
emphasize his humble nature.

Instead of taking it easy, Milton took on "the lowliest duties" (14) – that is, he
didn't avoid unglamorous tasks.

We wonder what exactly the speaker is thinking of here. Perhaps he's referring
to Milton's intense and unflinching observations of human nature.

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Summary
❖ The speaker addresses the soul of the dead poet John Milton, saying that
he should be alive at this moment in history, for England needs him.
England, the speaker says, is stagnant and selfish, and Milton could raise
her up again.
❖ The speaker says that Milton could give England “manners, virtue,
freedom, power,” for his soul was like a star, his voice had a sound as pure
as the sea, and he moved through the world with “cheerful godliness,”
laying upon himself the “lowest duties.”
Form
❖ This poem is one of the many excellent sonnets Wordsworth wrote in the
early 1800s. Sonnets are fourteen-line poetic inventions written in iambic
pentameter.

Commentary
❖ The speaker of this poem, which takes the form of a dramatic outburst,
literally cries out to the soul of John Milton in anger and frustration. (The
poem begins with the cry: “Milton!”)
❖ In the octave, the speaker articulates his wish that Milton would return to
earth, and lists the vices ruining the current era.
❖ Every venerable institution – the altar (representing religion), the sword
(representing the military), the pen (representing literature), and the
fireside (representing the home) – has lost touch with “inward happiness,”
which the speaker identifies as a specifically English birthright, just as Milton
is a specifically English poet. (This is one of Wordsworth’s few explicitly
nationalistic verses – shades, perhaps, of the conservatism that took hold
in his old age.)
❖ In the sestet, the speaker describes Milton’s character, explaining why he
thinks Milton would be well suited to correct England’s current
waywardness. His soul was as bright as a star, and stood apart from the
crowd: he did not need the approval or company of others in order to live
his life as he pleased.
❖ His voice was as powerful and influential as the sea itself, and though he
possessed a kind of moral perfection, he never ceased to act humbly.
These virtues are precisely what Wordsworth saw as lacking in the English
men and women of his day.
❖ It is important to remember that for all its emphasis on feeling and passion,
Wordsworth’s poetry is equally concerned with goodness and morality.
❖ Unlike later Romantic rebels and sensualists, Wordsworth was concerned
that his ideas communicate natural morality to his readers, and he did not
oppose his philosophy to society.
❖ Wordsworth’s ideal vision of life was such that he believed anyone could
participate in it, and that everyone would be happier for doing so. The
angry moral sonnets of 1802 come from this ethical impulse, and indicate
how frustrating it was for Wordsworth to see his poems exerting more
aesthetic influence than social or psychological influence.

Page | 16
ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH
– Wilfred Owen
Biography
Wilfred Owen was short, weak and often ill, but he
was sent to join the army in 1916. He fought in the
trenches and was trapped by enemy fire with 18
other soldiers in a tiny, flooded, collapsing trench
for 4 days. He was sent home suffering from shell-
shock (PTSD), but the next year he was sent to the
frontline again. He was killed by German gunfire
and his parents received a telegram informing them of his death on the day the war
ended.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells; 5
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes 10
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Vocabulary

Passing-bells: A custom in England dating back many centuries was to ring a

bell when a person was dying. Those who heard it were to pray that the
person's soul would pass on to the light of heaven when he or she died—
hence, the term passing bell. Today, churches traditionally toll bells at
funerals.

Page | 17
Cattle: The comparison of the soldiers to slaughtered cattle underscores the
inhumanity of war; it treats men as mere animals.
Orisons (OR ih zuns): Prayers.
Wailing shells: It is ironic that the killers, the shells, are also personified
mourners.
Candles: Held by altar boys, the candles represent to Owen ritualistic,
artificial funereal trappings. More appropriate to him is the sad glimmer in the
eyes of these boys.
Pall: The cloth covering the coffin at a funeral. To Owen, it is, like the candles,
an artificial funereal trapping. More appropriate as a pall is the pallor
(paleness) on the faces of girls.
Drawing-down of blinds: This simple phrase allows the reader to picture the
behind-the-scenes suffering of the loved ones after the burial of a soldier.

Summary
“Anthem for Doomed Youth” was written by a soldier, Wilfred Owen, who died
in the last week of the Great War. His poem clearly communicates the sorrow
and horror he experienced during that war. In the poem, the noise of battle
gives way to silent grief. Young men who should have lived died in the chaos
of battle. Those who lost loved ones were not present at the deaths or burials
of their young men. In place of the usual funeral rites, sounds of battle, distant
grief and nature’s close of day were what they had to mark their deaths.
Throughout the poem, Owen employed imagery to bring to life the sorrow and
horror of war – by describing the sounds and sights, by comparing a fitting
funeral to the reality of death in war and by questioning the sufficiency of
religion to provide solace in the face of such brutality.

Type of Work: Sonnet

.......“Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a lyric poem in the format of a sonnet.
Wilfred Owen wrote it in 1917 while under treatment for psychological trauma
and trench fever (as explained in the paragraph above) at a war hospital in
Craiglockhart, Scotland, then a suburb of Edinburgh and now part of the city.

The Sonnet Format: Petrarchan and Shakespearean

.......The Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374), a Roman Catholic priest, popularized
the sonnet format. Other famous Italian sonneteers were Dante Alighieri (1265-
1321), Italy's most esteemed writer, and Guido Cavalcante (1255-1300). A
Petrarchan sonnet consists of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza
(sestet). Generally, the first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza
develops it. The rhyme scheme is as follows: first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA;
second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE.
.......The sonnet form was introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-
1542) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547). They translated Italian
sonnets into English and wrote sonnets of their own. Wyatt and Surrey
sometimes replaced Petrarch's scheme of an eight-line stanza and a six-line
stanza with three four-line stanzas and a two-line conclusion known as a

Page | 18
couplet. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) adopted the latter scheme in his
sonnets. His rhyme scheme was ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. The meter of his lines
was iambic pentameter. After his sonnets were published in a 1609 collection,
the English sonnet became popularly known as the Shakespearean sonnet.

Owen's Poem: a Hybrid Sonnet

......."Anthem for Doomed Youth" is a hybrid sonnet—that is, it combines the
structure of the Petrarchan sonnet with the rhyme scheme of
a Shakespearean sonnet except for lines 11 and 12. (The rhyme scheme of
Shakespeare's sonnets isABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG; the rhyme scheme of Owen's
poem is ABAB, CDCD, EFFE, GG.

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Line 1
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

People are dying and our speaker asks us, what sound is there to mark their
deaths?
Those "passing-bells"? They're church bells, which are rung to mark someone's
death (when they have passed away).
Already this phrase has introduced religious imagery to the poem, but it's
contrasted with the horrific experience on the front lines of war, where men die
like cattle. And where we can't imagine any church bells are ringing.
Did you notice that our speaker says "these" instead of "those"? Why do you
think that might be?
"Those" gives a sense of distance to the poem. You might use that word to talk
about people who are far away, or whom you feel separate from. If you use
"these," it's as though you're talking about someone who's right there in the
room with you.
So with this very slight matter of word choice, our speaker has deliberately
brought the soldiers that much closer to us. It's as if we're on the battlefield,
seeing those soldiers falling right and left.
And what are these soldiers compared to? Cattle. It's not exactly the
nicest simile we've ever heard. But it does pack a big punch.
The phrase "die as cattle" suggests slaughter. He's saying that something
about these deaths is especially terrible—it's inhuman, it's treating soldiers like
animals.
Cattle come in herds, right? It seems a lot of these men are dying all at once.
All in all we've got a pretty bleak start to what will probably be a pretty bleak
poem.
One last thing, Shmoopers. Read this line aloud to yourself. Do you notice
anything about the way it sounds? A rhythm? A meter? "Whatpassing-
bells for these who die as cattle."
There's a little da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM action, with an extra
"da" at the end of the line.

Page | 19
When we see this rhythm in poetry (five da-DUMs in a row), we call itiambic
pentameter. In this case, it's got an extra syllable at the end, just for fun. If you're
curious about meter in this poem, be sure to check out our "Form and Meter"
section, and keep a weather eye out for more da-DUMs as you continue
reading. There will be a lot.

Line 2
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

It's nice of our speaker to answer his own question for us.
The only thing that marks their deaths is the angry sound of more guns. Gunfire
is just about the opposite of pleasant church bells.
That word "monstrous" is a pretty big and heavy word, we'd say, especially to
load on top of "anger."
We mean, anger is already a pretty violent and scary thing. So "monstrous
anger" means that something about these guns is terrible enough to put
regular anger to shame.
And now we know for sure, if we hadn't already guessed, that this poem is
talking about war.
After all, where else would men die like cattle to the sound of monstrously angry
guns?
Finally, we've got ten syllables again, so we're thinking this is a continuation of
the first line's iambic pentameter. Albeit with a variation or two.

Lines 3-4
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.

Our speaker says that rifle fire is the only kind of prayer for the dying soldiers.
("Orison" is kind of a fancy word [from Latin] for prayer.)
We've got some anaphora action here, what with that repetition of "Only." It's
a nifty trick that Owen uses to build momentum and pacing.
That word "hasty" makes us aware of the suddenness of death on the war front,
and also underscores the haphazard and senseless nature of the killing that's
going on there.
These are not thoughtful deaths—they're quick, loud, and messy.
The word "stuttering" helps bridge the gap between the rifles and the people
back home who are saying prayers for these boys. By personifying the rifles, it
gives us a weird opposite of what happened when the soldiers were first
compared to cattle.
The soldiers become like animals, while the guns become like people. That
does not sound like a good combo.
In any case, there are some strange connections being made—between guns
and prayer, between people and animals.
Bonus: did you notice the rhyming action? Yep, rattle rhymes with cattle and
orisons rhymes (sort of) with guns. Neat, huh?

Page | 20
Keep your eye out for more rhymes as you read, and see if you can spot a
scheme or pattern while you're at it. And be sure to check out the "Form and
Meter" section for more.

Line 5
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

There are no prayers and no bells on the front to mock the dying men.
Wait. What?
Here our speaker's not pulling any punches. He sets us up with the word
"mockeries" then, when we find out what those mockeries would be—prayers
and bells. Those don't sound like mockeries to Shmoop. So what's going on
here?
This line strips the holy, solemn mask off those rituals and casts them as an
outright sham. Those prayers? Those bells? They're a joke.
Now why might this be?
We're thinking the speaker feels this way because he thinks that those rituals
totally miss the point. They ignore what's really happening.
They glorify the deaths by pretending that the fighting is purposeful and noble,
when really it's akin to slaughtering cattle.

Lines 6-7
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,–
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

In fact, there's basically no mourning going on whatsoever on the battlefield,

except for the wailing of shells, which our speaker compares to the sound of
choirs.
Once again, we've got a traditionally religious image (choirs) being used as
a metaphor for the rather unlovely reality of war (in this case, the sound of
shelling). Now that's a terrifying contrast.
This is a freaky sort of choir. It's "shrill" and "demented." Something is twisted here.
This is not a choir you want singing at your funeral, or even your average
Sunday mass.
The use of these uncharacteristic adjectives could be another way for our
speaker to point out the huge difference between what life and death are
really like on the front, and the holy and noble way that those back home
present it.
Plus, this word choice also has a way of pointing out that all the holy and
patriotic civilians are absent at the front. There's no voice of mourning there for
the young men, no pomp and circumstance—just the sound of shells.
Our speaker is either lamenting this fact—wondering where all these mournful
patriots are in actual battle, or he's saying that if there isn't any fancy memorial
going on on the battlefield, then we shouldn't pretend by having them at
home. It just seems phony (at least, so says the speaker).

Page | 21
Line 8
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Our speaker now draws our attention to another sound of mourning for the
soldier—the sound of bugles playing in sad towns.
A "shire" is an English term for a county. (Just think of Frodo and all the hobbits
of the Shire.)
And of course the bugle is an instrument with military associations. In particular,
it's the instrument used to play "Taps" at soldiers' funerals.
This presumably is meant to call to mind all the towns left with half or more of
their young men dead.
There sure is a lot of sad music in this short poem, although the music of these
bugles is a bit more literal than those scary sounding choirs. There's no
metaphor here. That bugle music is all too real.

STANZA 2 SUMMARY
Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Line 9
What candles may be held to speed them all?

Now our speaker wants to know what candles all these mourners can hold in
honor of these fallen soldiers.
We might think of this as a more general question: what rituals can people
possible perform to help these soldiers pass on peacefully (to speed them)?
Rituals like, say, lighting candles in churches.
So then we might think of these candles as a metaphor for the larger
ceremonies we hold when attempting to honor those killed in action.
Given what the poem has shown us so far, we're pretty sure that there isn't
some special scented candle that we can light back home that will help the
soldier in any real way.
We can also expect, since he did it in the first stanza, that our speaker might
be about to answer his own question.
So let's keep reading, shall we?

Lines 10-11
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

Sure enough, the answer to the question "What candles?" is exactly that—what
candles! There are no candles here.
Our speaker brushes off the idea of lighting candles. What's the point of that?
He instead turns our attention to tears, which, if you think about it, are also a
sort of ritual that marks the soldier's death, although less fancy (and probably
more sincere).

Page | 22
This reference to what's "in their eyes" could refer both to the tears of the
soldiers' sons, and to the tears of the soldiers themselves. We're not quite sure
yet to whom that pronoun refers, so we'll just have to roll with it.

We don't know about you, but those words "shine" and "glimmer" remind
Shmoop of the candles from line 9, even as we know we're now talking about
tears. Those two words make a sort of link, so that we know that the tears are
standing in for the candles.

Note that these lines employ words that we associate with holy things, rather
than human things. For example, instead of tears we have "holy glimmers," and
instead of deaths we have "goodbyes."

"Holy glimmers and goodbyes" certainly sound more lofty and noble than
tears and death, but when we think about it, we're still talking about human
pain and suffering.

Owen is emphasizing the emotional aspect of grief—the private mourning

that goes on. Holding a public vigil is nowhere near as poignant as actual
tears. They're what counts.

Line 12
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

The pale, drained faces of girls will stand in for the cover on the dead soldiers'
coffins. Lovely.
A pall is the cloth typically draped over a coffin, so in this case, the girls' pale
faces will be metaphorically draped over the soldiers' coffins, sending them off
in style.
The drained (sad, shocked) faces of girls probably refers to the significant
others and/or daughters of the soldiers—the women who are left behind by
war.
This line, like the lines before it, brings our attention to the suffering caused by
the death of the soldiers, not only to the soldiers themselves but also to their
towns and families. And it's mixing that suffering in with the language of funeral
rituals.
So what matters here is not the pall, but the pallor; the girls' grief is what really
counts.
In this way, our speaker is not letting the funeral ritual get away with seeming
somber and noble; he's forcing it to take on the weight of the real suffering that
surrounds it.

Line 13
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

"The tenderness of patient minds" will be like the flowers put on the soldiers'
graves.

Page | 23
This, for us at least, is one of the more mysterious lines in the poem.
It could be that our speaker is holding up tender, patient minds in contrast to
those who are all eager and excited about war.
In that way, this line could be telling us that the only positive tribute to the dead
soldiers comes from the tender thoughts and concerns of those who have
more patient, sensitive minds. Those who are really concerned about their
safety and the danger they're in, and mourn their losses.
On the other hand, it could be that this line's getting at something more critical
of those patient minds: perhaps they shouldn't be so patient with all the
jingoism and the eagerness to send boys off to die.
Maybe these minds should be a little less patient, and a little more eager to
bring the boys home.
How do you read this line, Shmoopers?

Line 14
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Our speaker ends with an image of blinds being drawn shortly before dark.
That word "slow" reflects the way the poem has been slowing down throughout
this second stanza, with this last line being the slowest and quietest of them all.
All that pacing is enhanced by the fact that this line, unlike many of the ones
that have come before, is written in perfect iambic pentameter. That meter
gives the line a somber cadence; it really lands. But a big part of its impact
comes from the image itself.The drawing of blinds certainly works on one hand
as an image of death. The families that have lost young men are the ones
closing the blinds, as a sort of matching image to the closing and ending of a
life.It also works as an image of civilians at home, with the drawing down of
blinds acting as a symbol for the way they're keeping out the realities of the
war. They don't want to be troubled by it. These folks will wave their flags by
day, and close their blinds at night, so they don't have to see the darkness, the
terrible realities of the war.

The grammar of this sentence also has a brilliant way of demonstrating the way
that people are unwilling to take responsibility for what's going on.
How, you ask? Well, check out the sentence. Who is doing the action, who's
drawing down the blinds? It kind of seems like… nobody! It's a passive
sentence, which makes it seem like the blinds are drawing themselves down.
Nobody's in charge here. No one's responsible.
This is like when you might say, "The cookies were eaten," or "there was an
eating of the cookies" when you don't want to admit, "I ate the cookies."
Of course this passive reading lends itself to a more negative reading of Line
13. Tender, patient minds might be more likely to draw down blinds and block
out the real horrors the fighting men are facing.
Or, then again, to cut these folks some slack, we might read this line as a simple,
tender, private moment of grief. What else is there to do when you've lost a
man in combat but to shun the rituals and shut out the world and mourn in your
own personal way?

Page | 24
MID-TERM BREAK by Seamus Heaney

I sat all morning in the college sick bay

Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o’clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying –

He had always taken funerals in his stride – 5
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble”, 10

Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.

At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. 15

Next morning I went up to the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. 20
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

ABOUT THE POET

Seamus Heaney (born 13 April 1939) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer from
County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He currently lives in Dublin. Heaney was
born the eldest of nine children at the family farmhouse called Mossbawn, near
Castledawson, thirty miles to the north-west of Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HEANEY’S WORK

Heaney's work often deals with the local — that is, his surroundings and
everything inclusive of them. Inevitably this means Ireland, and particularly
Northern Ireland. Hints of sectarian violence, which began just as his writing
career did, can be found in many of his poems, even in works that on the
surface appear to deal with something else.

Page | 25
Despite his many travels, much of his work appears to be set in rural
Londonderry, the county of his childhood. Like the Troubles themselves,
Heaney's work is deeply associated with the lessons of history, sometimes even
prehistory.
Many of his works concern his own family history and focus on characters in his
own family: they can be read as elegies (funeral speech or song) for those
family members.

CONTEXT OF THE POEM

In 1951, Seamus Heaney was 12 years of age and he went to St. Columb’s
College in Derry where he was a boarding pupil. Whilst attending the college,
Heaney’s younger brother Christopher was killed in a road accident and this
poem involves the poet recalling the events that happened to him after this
and how people (including himself) reacted to this. The poem is written from
the point of view of a young Heaney, summoned from school after his brother
died.

Sense of isolation /
immediate suggestion of
sickness and death.
Onomatopoeia – idea
I sat all morning in the college sick bay of funeral bells.
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o’clock our neighbours drove me home.

Long, drawn out event, lots of time to think.

The father had experienced the grief

His father is probably standing outside because the grief inside of death before, but certainly not in
the house has become too much for him. He is hiding his this way. Previously he accepted it
feelings from the other people inside. as part of life and mourned. This,
however, was something quite
different.
In the porch I met my father crying –
He had always taken funerals in his
stride–
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
Cruel (though not done out of
spite) pun.

Page | 26
Baby is an innocent, unaware of the events
that are taking place and is laughing and
moving around in the pram.
It is as if Heaney has
taken on the role of
an adult, yet he still
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the has the feelings of a
pram child. The men who
When I came in, and I was embarrassed have come to show
their sympathy treat
By old men standing up to shake my hand him just like they
would treat a grown
man.

And tell me they were “sorry for my Euphemism

Sense of secrecy trouble”,
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

Heaney attended a boarding school so he had been absent when his

brother was killed. One wonders if he might be feeling a little guilty.

Enjambment / Suggestion The family was probably

that she has been crying having a wake which explains
for a while. why the body was brought
home and not taken to the
morgue.

In hers and coughed out angry tearless

Idea of a long sighs.
day.
Ambulances At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
usually help With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
but in this
case it brings Removes the sense of humanity from the body – no
the body. longer his brother. One gets the idea that they had
tried very hard to save him. ‘stanch’ means to stop
blood (or tears).

Instead of saying ‘my brother’s room’

the poet uses the impersonal ‘the
room’ - perhaps to remove himself No longer a bedroom, now a place of
from the horrible tragedy. mourning. Calm and relaxing
compared to other room.

Next morning I went up to the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Page | 27
 Heaney has a memory of his brother prior to this.
He is filled with a sense of guilt because he realises
that things over which you have no control, happen
while you are away.

Poppy is a flower
The bruise which is a symbol
seems unreal, of Remembrance.
as if it could
be removed.
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, Simile - cot, for a child,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. is a place of safety.
Euphemism, does No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him
not mention a clear.
coffin.
He looks perfect / No sign of
A four foot box, a foot for every year. violence or horrible wounds.
Death was instantaneous.

Signifies the brevity (shortness) of

the child’s life. He was only four
years old!

Stanza Analysis

I sat all morning in the college sick bay Sense of isolation / immediate
Counting bells knelling classes to a suggestion of sickness and death.
close. Onomatopoeia – idea of funeral bells.
At two o’clock our neighbours drove Long, drawn out event, lots of time to
me home. think.
In the porch I met my father crying – Sense that the father is outwith the
He had always taken funerals in his grief of the house, hiding his feelings.
stride – Death had been experienced before,
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard although not in this way.
blow. Cruel (though not done out of spite)
pun.
The baby cooed and laughed and Baby is an innocent, unaware of the
rocked the pram events that are taking place.
When I came in, and I was Although Heaney has taken on the
embarrassed role of an adult, he still has the feelings
By old men standing up to shake my of a child.
hand
And tell me they were “sorry for my Euphemism
trouble”, Sense of secrecy
Whispers informed strangers I was the Heaney attended a boarding school
eldest so had been absent for the actual
Away at school, as my mother held event – guilt?
my hand

Page | 28
 In hers and coughed out angry Enjambment / Suggestion that she has
tearless sighs. been crying for a while
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived Idea of a long day / Ambulances
With the corpse, stanched and usually help
bandaged by the nurse. Removes the sense of humanity from
the body – no longer his brother / Idea
that they tried to save him / ‘stanch’
to stop blood (or tears)
Next morning I went up to the room. No longer a bedroom, now a place of
Snowdrops mourning.
And candles soothed the bedside; I Transferred epithet
saw him Sense of guilt / Realisation that things
For the first time in six weeks. Paler happen while you are away / Heaney
now, has a memory of his brother prior to
this.
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left Seems unreal, as if it could be
temple, removed / Poppy signifies
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. Remembrance.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked Euphemism, does not mention a coffin
him clear. / Simile - cot, for a child, is a place of
safety.
He looks perfect / No sign of violence
/ Sudden death.
A four foot box, a foot for every year. Signifies the brevity of the child’s life.

STRUCTURE
• Lyric poem
• 7 stanzas of 3 lines each (represent a sense of order) & 1 loose-standing last
line.
• Occasional rhyme
• 3 parts:
o The boy waits in the sick bay to be picked up by the neighbours
o In family hoe where he meets grieving parents, family friends and
neighbours.
o The following morning when the boy sees his little brother's body laid
out surrounded by flowers and candles.

THEMES
• Dealing with a traumatic experience.
• The pointlessness of death.
• Facing death for the first time.
• Tragedy comes unexpectedly.
• The memories of our childhood are forever engraved into our memory. We
carry them to adulthood.

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 ANALYSIS

WORD/POETIC
LINE EXPLANATION
DEVICE

Irony - The connotation with school break is holidays and fun,

but this is about death

Title "break" - fractured family unit

- cutting off ties between speaker and his younger
brother
- could refer to the end of a life

STANZA 1
1. I sat all morning in the college sick bay
2. Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
3. At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.

"I" - First person

- Sense of isolation from his family
1
"sick bay" - room at school where learners go who are too ill to
attend classes

"counting" - has nothing better to do; he is bored so he counts the

bells
- as if he doesn't understand what is going on and would
rather be in class.

Onomatopoeia - "knelling" – instead of ringing

- Reminds of the "dong, dong, dong" of funeral bells.
- Normally joy is associated with classes that end, in this
case there is a sense of sadness
2 - He is thinking about death to such an extent that all
bells sound like funeral bells
- The word choice creates ominous tone

Assonance - "bells knelling"

- Repeated sounds suggest repeatedly ringing bell

Alliteration - "Counting bells knelling classes to a close"

- repeated sounds suggest repeatedly ringing bell

"to a close" - the end of class

"two o'clock" - long, drawn-out event, lots of time to think

- We all tend to remember precise timings when recalling
3 traumatic, life-changing events.

"neighbours" - Not parents; may indicate that something is wrong

which is why his parents did not pick him up themselves.

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STANZA 2
4. In the porch I met my father crying –
5. He had always taken funerals in his stride –
6. And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

"in the porch" - Maybe because he does not want to weep in front of
the family

"my father crying" - The typical father-figure of the 1950s is torn down
4 - Something terrible has happened
- This creates pathos (feeling of sadness, pity in the
reader) as it signifies the child's realisation that adults
too have flaws and emotions.

"in his stride" - To cope with something easily

- The father had experienced death before but not in this
5 way.
- The crying was out of character for the father, as he
always seemed strong at funerals

"Big Jim Evans" - Neighbour or family friend

Pun - "hard blow"

6 - Literally: the car hit the child quite hard
- Figuratively: the death of a child is an extremely tragic
experience for the family and neighbours; devastating

STANZA 3
7. The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
8. When I came in, and I was embarrassed
9. By old men standing up to shake my hand

"baby" - Innocent and unaware of the events taking place

"cooing and - too young to understand what has happened

laughing" - the only one in the house that is happy
7
Onomatopoeia - "cooing"
- The sound made by the baby imitated the coo sound
of a dove

"I was embarrassed" - As eldest child he has taken the role of an adult, but he
still has feelings of a child
- They treat him as a mature member of the family and
that makes him feel embarrassed as he is unsure how to
8–9 react to such formality
- He is not used to the idea of being taken seriously by
old men, because children are normally ignored

"old men… to shake - He is a child and shaking hands is adult men's way of
my hand" communicating

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STANZA 4
10. And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'.
11. Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
12. Away at school, as my mother held my hand

Euphemism - "sorry for your trouble"

- Trouble refers to death
- It suggests that people are almost afraid to mention the
10 real truth.
- It seems clichéd and provides little comfort.
- There is a suggestion that "trouble" will pass, yet the grief
is always there.

"whispers" - sense of secrecy

- Whispers from neighbours and friends to strangers

Sibilance - "Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest"

- captures the hushed, muted atmosphere in the house
11
"I was the eldest" - Does he now have some kind of responsibility or even
some expectations that the other people now have of
him
- The neighbours may view him as a solution to the
problem since the parents are severely grief-stricken

"away at school" - He was in boarding school, so he was absent when the

accident happened
12 "my mother held my - Despite losing a child, the mother is not blind to the fact
hand" that the speaker is still a child and needs to be
comforted.

STANZA 5
13. In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
14. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
15. With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

"coughed out angry, - The mother is too upset to cry

tearless sighs" - Her grief manifests itself through anger
13 - It is also suggested that she has been crying for a while
- It creates pathos in the reader as it signifies pure grief of
the mother

"ten o'clock" - The idea of a long day

- He remembers the exact time of the ambulance's
arrival as it is something that he will never forget.
14 "ambulance arrived" - The ambulance arrived with the bandaged body of the
speaker's four-year-old brother who was killed by a car
- Historically and culturally in many places around the
world is customary to display a body in the home

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 before burial so that friends and family can say a last
"good-bye".

"corpse" - The word removes the sense of humanity from the body
– it is no longer his brother
- The word symbolises the speaker's detachment and
refusal to accept the situation – he is in a state of denial
15 and disbelief.

"stanched" - cleaned to stop the blood

"stanched and - This refers also to the failed attempts to save the child
bandaged"

Assonance - "At ten… the ambulance arrived…stanched and

bandaged"
14 – 15
- Short sound could suggest the abrupt end to his
brother's life.

STANZA 6
16. Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
17. And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
18. For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

"into the room" - Where his brother's body was laid out

Mood - The speaker appears to be calmer; the speaker has a

private moment with his dead brother
- Note that the poet never expresses his own emotions
16 even though there is a sense of grief and loss

"snowdrops" - Snowdrops: small white early spring flowers with

drooping heads
- In this case they symbolise life after death
- Also represents purity of the young child who died
- Flowers are small and pale – just like the little child

"snowdrops and - Mood: calm and relaxing (in contrast with the previous
candles soothed the scene)
bedside" - The room is no longer a bedroom, but a place of
mourning
- flowers and candles are symbolic of life
- Candles provide soft light that helps ease the
16 – 17 experience of viewing of the dead child
- Candles also traditionally lit for religious reasons when
death occurs

"I saw him" - He no longer refers to his brother as a "corpse"

- The imagery shows a state of transition from being
numb to being at peace with his brother's death.

"first time in six weeks" - There is a sense of guilt as he realises that things happen
18
while you are away

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 "Paler now" - At the end of this stanza it creates a sad pause before
the sentence continues

STANZA 7
19. Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
20. He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.
21. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

Metaphor - "wearing a poppy bruise"

- The bruise on his temple looks like a poppy flower that
can be removed
- The shape and colour of the bruise are like the petals of
a poppy
19 "poppy" - Red flower
- Signifies remembrance
- (British emblem of remembrance worn for those who fell
in World War 1)
- Red flower also reflecting the colour of blood and a
bruise

Euphemism - "four-foot box" refers to a coffin

20 Simile - "He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot"

- Cot for a child is a place of safety where he sleeps. As
he is lying in the coffin it looks like he is just asleep.

"no gaudy scars" - He looks perfect, he was not disfigured by the accident
21 "bumper knocked - It was a sudden, unexpected death
him clear" - The car's bumper knocked the child on the temple

STANZA 8
22. A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

Alliteration - "A four-foot box, a foot for…"

- indicates that the speaker is angry and bitter at the
waste of life

"foot" - Approximately 30cm

"a foot for every - The speaker compares the small size of the coffin with
22 year." the shortness of life.
- The coffin is a measure for his life.

- The shortness of the last line signifies that the brother's

life was also cut short.
- Isolation of the line is to focus on the tragedy of the
child's death

Poem Enjambment - Suggests that the speaker was feeling confused and
as a unsure at the time
whole

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EATING POETRY – Mark Strand
Biography

Mark Strand was an accomplished editor, translator

and prose writer. The hallmarks of his style are precise
language, surreal imagery and the recurring theme
of absence. Many poems in his first book show a
focus on how an individual struggles to find his/her
place in the world. He also writes a lot about the
“fight” between light and dark and what each
symbolises.

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.

Her eyes are sad 5
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.

The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll, 10

their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.

When I get on my knees and lick her hand.
She screams. 15

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

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EDUCATOR’S NOTES

The poem opens with the speaker eating poetry while ink runs from the corners of
his mouth. A librarian spots him and doesn't understand what she's seeing. After
all the poems are eaten, a bunch of dogs start coming up the stairs while their
eyeballs roll and their legs "burn like brush." The librarian starts to stamp her feet
and weep because she doesn't understand. The speaker licks her hand and she
screams. He snarls and barks at her. Then he romps with joy in the "bookish dark."

Lines 1-2
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.

The speaker has just eaten something with ink in it. Whatever it is, he's pretty
happy about it. In fact, he's as happy as can be since he says in line 2, "there
is no happiness like mine."

Notice that we're getting this poem directly from the source, since it's in first-
person. That means it's getting personal here with lots of "I," "me," and "my."
We're seeing things from the speaker's own weird perspective that allows us to
feel and see things like he does.

The speaker also has an active voice, which means we're present in the
moment as this is all happening, adding a sense of immediacy to the
experience of such weird goings-on.

Notice too that both lines end with a period. That means we should stop and
take a moment to consider each line by itself before putting the pieces
together. In a way, each line is kind of its own unique thought and deserves its
space. And it's a good thing line 1 ends with a period because we may have
to stop and let that weird image settle for a minute before moving on. We have
to first wrap our minds around this ink-eating man.

Line 3
I have been eating poetry.

Aha! By line 3 we get where the ink is coming from: poetry. So, by the end of
the first stanza, Strand has succinctly set up the subject and his action in only
three short lines—very precise.
And just like the first two lines, we need to allow this additional surreal image to
sink in before moving on, hence the period.

Notice the slightly confessional element of line 3, as if the speaker is letting us

in on this embarrassing yet totally delightful activity of "eating poetry." It's as if
we the readers have just caught him in the act and he knows it.

That dryly humorous tone (meaning that it's understated, quiet, without bells or
whistles) is one of Strand's calling cards. Adding to that dry tone is the fact that
this line comes to us in such a matter-of-fact way. The speaker isn't trying to

Page | 36
suggest that he's using figurative language here. On the contrary, this is the real
deal. He is literally "eating poetry," so no need for any fancy devices.

Line 4
The librarian does not believe what she sees.

At this point, we know for sure that there isn't any figurative language going on
here. The librarian's disbelief proves that this is really happening—at least in
terms of the poetry's logic.

Instead there seems to be a kind of allegory going on here in which the

"eating" of poetry is symbolic of the personal enjoyment of anything, be it
poetry or popcorn. So, the librarian here looks to be representative of those
outside parties that witness such ecstatic enjoyment and just can't understand
it for themselves. And they can't understand it because they're not the ones
experiencing it.

Lines 5-6
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

It doesn't look like the librarian is romping with joy here. Maybe after seeing the
joyous speaker with ink dripping from his mouth, she's wishing she could feel the
same about something.
But instead her "eyes are sad," which tells us she can't hide those disappointed
or unfulfilled feelings that she's got. She also "walks with her hands in her dress,"
which gives the impression that she's withdrawn and not looking to talk it up
with anyone.

Notice the enjambment we have here, which is different from all the periods
we saw in the first stanza. Maybe we're meant to see the librarian's sad eyes
and pocketed hands as part of her character. There's no need to separate the
two because together they fully capture how the librarian is feeling.

Lines 7-8
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.

So the speaker's gone and eaten all the poems. There's nothing left for the
librarian now.
But why are the lights dim? In this case we might have some more symbolism.
The "light" in line 8 might literally refer to the lights in the library, sure. But
symbolically they might refer to inspiration and that joyous moment the
speaker just had while eating poetry. After all, as much as we'd like to we can't
make those joyous moments last forever and, once they're over, the lights go
"dim" again.

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And just like we saw in the first stanza, each line here is separated by a period
that makes us stop and think. But it may also at this point function in a way that
maintains Strand's very succinct and precise use of language. He's not the type
to needlessly elaborate on things that don't need it.

As far as what this does to the poem's sound and meaning, we get the sense
that the speaker is feeling a bit disappointed at this moment after eating all
the poems. So the lines purposely sound a bit deflated and boring with those
repetitive clauses in order to reflect how he's feeling.

Line 9
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

If we think about what the speaker was just doing and how he felt, we can
assume that these dogs are symbolic of what happens after all the joyous
inspiration is gone. And since they're in the "basement" we have even more
reason to suspect that this line is getting at some of the speaker's darker
thoughts and feelings.

Also, we get the sense that these aren't your typical fluffy best friends, since
they're in the basement. Dogs trapped in basements aren't all that happy, as
a general rule. So again there's something ominous about the mood in this line,
as if those dogs are about to bring some bad mojo up with them. Strand likes
to write a lot about individuals struggling in this metaphorical "darkness," in their
attempt to understand themselves. So we may have a similar sort of thing
happening here too with the dogs in the basement.

And since this line is pretty different from its preceding lines in terms of its
subject, we can also assume that we have a shift in the speaker's thought
process happening here. We're not in that joyous moment anymore. But that's
not to say we won't be there again.

Lines 10-11
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.

So yeah, these dogs don't look too friendly with their rolling eyeballs and
burning legs. They sound pretty hellish in fact. And just like we saw in the
previous lines about the librarian, Strand is keeping this image together without
any periods between them. So we see these hellish dogs in one relatively fluid
moment with only a comma to make us pause for a second. But why are things
suddenly looking so hellish? We thought the speaker was as happy as can be.

Like we saw before, joyous moments can't last forever, and sometimes we
might go from feeling really happy to really sad or even frightened. Our
emotions can feel like a rollercoaster sometimes. So the same thing seems to
be happening here. While the speaker was eating poetry, he was super-

Page | 38
happy. And now that he's eaten all the poems, there's nothing left, so now
those hellish dogs are on their way up ready to wreak havoc on the speaker's
mind.

We don't get any specifics as to how these dogs will influence the speaker, but
we do know that there's some darkness there nonetheless. So
the ambiguity here allows us to fill in the blanks based on our own associations
with hellish dogs.

Also we see some alliteration here with "blond" "burn" and "brush." So our
attention is really drawn to the appearance of those burning legs, which helps
to accent surrealistic imagery.
"Brush" here is not the thing you comb your hair with, though. It's the stuff you
see out in the woods that burns pretty easily, like weeds and small sticks. Those
dogs seem to be literally on fire here, which adds to their rather hellish
appearance and powerful influence.

Line 12
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

We can't be too sure if the librarian is weeping because she sees the same
burning dogs that the speaker does. But we know she was sad to begin with,
so now it looks like she's feeling even worse. More importantly, this line really
accents the shift in mood that's occurred. Things have escalated in a way
that's gone from joyous to surrealistically dark and chaotic even.

We get the sense that neither joy nor darkness can exist by themselves in this
poem. They're mingling with one another and transitioning from one to the
other right before our eyes.
Meanwhile, the librarian just doesn't get any of it, so she stamps her feet and
weeps. The speaker though seems to have a better understanding of what's
going on even if we don't. In a way, we're also like the librarian seeing all this
weird stuff and trying to figure it out.

Notice too the assonance we hear in "feet" and "weep," accenting that long E
sound. So the stamping and weeping kind of blend into one another like the
other characteristics used to describe the librarian in the second stanza.

Line 13
She does not understand.

Line 13 seems to be the takeaway point of all the weird stuff we've just seen.
The librarian just doesn't get any of it. Maybe besides being an outsider, the
librarian is also symbol of the types of bookish people who study things, but
who don't really get the lived experience of the real world that's around them.
Likewise, they don't get the weird people that live in the real world.

Page | 39
And again, when we think of anyone's personal experience of joy, darkness, or
anything else, we understand that those outside parties will never fully grasp
that individual's experience.
So the only thing left to say is "she does not understand." Period.

Lines 14-15
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

One thing we can say for sure is that a transformation has occurred in
conjunction with the shifting mood we just saw. So the speaker is licking the
librarian's hand like a dog and, of course, the librarian doesn't get that either.
So she screams. That seems natural, right?
On top of not understanding, the librarian is also a little frightened of the poetry
eating and now our dog-man speaker. And we think she's got good reason to
be frightened.

But what's really going on here? There are a number of things to consider. First,
let's take into consideration the fact that joy and darkness are being portrayed
here in a constant state of flux with one transitioning into the other. And those
who aren't part of the immediate experience, like the librarian, are unable to
understand and also a little frightened by what they see from an outsider's
perspective.

Alternatively, if we think more specifically about the experience of reading

poetry, we understand that readers will have different experiences and
reactions to particular poems. There's no static way of reading anything. For
our purposes, the poetry eating dog-man speaker may represent the
transformations that can occur for the individual reading poetry. Only here the
effect is magnified in the matter-of-fact, physical, doggy transformation that
we see.

Lines 16-17
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.

By line 16, we get that a transformation has indeed occurred: "I am a new
man."
But we're also given some assurance that the speaker is still a "man" even if he's
barking, licking, and snarling at the librarian. And it doesn't look like the speaker
is too bothered by this sudden transformation, either. In fact, he seems right at
home with his snarling and barking, as if all the doggy behaviour is now part of
his nature.

If we think about personal experiences in a more general sense, we

understand what Strand is getting at here with all the transforming weirdness
that we've seen. For the person experiencing these things, those changes
inevitably become part of who he is. But for those outside of the experience,

Page | 40
those changes often don't make sense and can be a bit frightening even. Still,
since the speaker seems to feel right at home with these changes, he doesn't
want anyone spoiling it for him, so he "snarl[s]" and "bark[s]."

Line 18
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

After all is said and done, the poem has a happy ending with the speaker
romping with joy in the "bookish dark." Notice the couplet here. Strand ends his
poem with the end rhyme of "bark" and "dark." That perfect rhyme really
annunciates the joy the speaker is feeling, despite all the barking and "dark."
By the very end, we see even more this mingling of "joy" with the "dark" in a way
that suggests that the two get along just fine.
In fact, all the burning dogs and darkness that we saw earlier seem to be less
scary by line 18. The dog-man now "romp[s]" around like a puppy at a park.
Here, too, the dark is "bookish," which gives it an intellectual flair, rather than the
hellish one we saw earlier with the basement and burning dogs.
By the end of the poem, all of the transitions between joy, darkness, and
burning dogs seem to suggest that it is part of the speaker's delightful activity
of "eating poetry." Although outside folks like the librarian just don't get it, our
speaker is "a new man" because of his steady diet of poetry—deliciously
transformative.

Page | 41
A FAR CRY FROM AFRICA
(Derek Walcott, 1930 - -, St Lucia, Caribbean)
1 A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
2 Of Africa. Kikuyu, quick as flies,
3 Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
4 Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
5 Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
6 “Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
7 Statistics justify and scholars seize
8 The salients of colonial policy.
9 What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
10 To savages, expendable as Jews?

11 Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

12 In a white dust of ibises whose cries
13 Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
14 From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
15 The violence of beast on beast is read
16 As natural law, but upright man
17 Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
18 Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
19 Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
20 While he calls courage still that native dread
21 Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

22 Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

23 Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
24 A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
25 The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
26 I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
27 Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
28 I who have cursed
29 The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
30 Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
31 Betray them both, or give back what they give?
32 How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
33 How can I turn from Africa and live?

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Line 3: batten – going well at the expense of.
Line8: salients - most important things.
Line 10: expendable - able to be sacrificed
Line11: threshed – beaten out, as in threshing wheat.
Line 12: ibises – long-legged, long-necked wading birds, considered sacred
by some native tribes.
Line 18: delirious – in a confused state as a result of fever or intoxication.
Line 24: Spain – reference to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) during which
General Franco overthrew a democratically elected government and
established a right-wing dictatorship.

Discussion: How does one define one’s identity? What is it that makes you
who you are? How does your cultural background play a role in determining
your identity?

Walcott was born on St Lucia, a very small island in the Caribbean. With money
borrowed from his mother, he published his first book of poetry himself when he
was only 18. Over the years he has distinguish himself as a playwright and a
poet, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

Analysis

A Far Cry from Africa explores the theme of Walcott’s struggle with identity. He
reflects on his mixed ancestry and the violence associated with both the British
(the colonisers) and the Africans (the colonised). He experiences divided
loyalties and questions whether he can adopt one culture over the other.

Walcott makes use of powerful imagery in this poem. While he recognises that
nature allows for animals to kill each other for survival, the violence of human
beings is senseless and unnatural. Walcott condemns the murder of innocent
victims in a war caused by political policy. The image of an isolated speaker
“poisoned with the blood of both” cultures at the end of the poem is also
striking. The speaker remains torn and has no escape from his pain.
He has been given the English language which he loves on the one hand, and
on the other, he cannot tolerate the brutal slaughter of Africans with whom he
shares blood and some traditions. His conscience cannot accept the injustice.
He is troubled, wishing to see peace and harmony in the region. The poem
opens with a horrible scene of bloodshed in African territory. ‘Bloodstreams’,
‘scattered corpses,’ ‘worm’ show ghastly scenes of battle. Native blacks are
being exterminated like Jews following the killing of a white child in its bed by
blacks.

The title of the poem involves an idiom: “a far cry” means an impossible thing.
But the poet seems to use the words in other senses also; the title suggests in
one sense that the poet is writing about an African subject from a distance.
Writing from the island of St. Lucia, he feels that he is at a vast distance - both
literally and metaphorically from Africa. “A Far Cry” may also have another

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meaning - that the real state of the African ‘paradise’ is a far cry from the
Africa that we have read about in descriptions. And a third level of meaning
to the title is the idea of Walcott hearing the poem as a far cry coming all the
way across thousands of miles of ocean. He hears the cry coming to him on
the wind.

The animal imagery is another important feature of the poem. Walcott regards
as acceptable violence the nature or “natural law” of animals killing each
other to eat and survive; but human beings killing others in war is meaningless
violence. Animals come out better than “upright man” since animals do what
they must do. Walcott believes that humans, unlike animals, have no excuse
for murdering innocent civilians in the Kenyan war. Walcott is angry at all the
killing in the name of politics.

“I who am poisoned with the blood of both, where shall I turn, divided to the
vein?” This sad ending illustrates isolation. Walcott feels foreign in both cultures
due to his mixed blood. An individual sense of identity comes from cultural
influences, which define one’s character according to a particular society’s
standards; the poet’s dual heritage (black mother and white father) prevents
him from identifying directly with one culture.

“Only the worm, colonel of carrion cries/ ‘waste no compassion on their

separated dead'.” The word ‘colonel’ is a punning on ‘colonial’ also. The
Africans associate with a primitive natural strength and the British is portrayed
as an artificially enhanced power. Walcott’s divided loyalties create a sense
of guilt as he wants to adopt the “civilized” culture of the British but cannot
excuse their immoral treatment of the Africans. The poem reveals the extent of
Walcott’s problem through the poet’s inability to resolve the paradox
(opposing sides) of his hybrid (dual) inheritance.

Despite the fact that he writes in English, the language of the colonizers, he is
defending the culture of colonised countries such as Caribbean and Africa
and also, its people, who since ancient years have suffered from lot of types of
discrimination and violence, such as racism, slavery, wars…

In “A far Cry from Africa” we can find a strong description of a massacre which
took place in Africa. In fact, Walcott, in this poem, is denouncing English
imperialism in Africa.

To begin with, the title “A far Cry from Africa”, includes a criticism, the use of
“far”, it means that Africa is a place which is so far from England, that it is true,
and that´s why English people and other countries do not worry so much about
some events that are happening in Africa, in other words, these events are not
so important and relevant because of the long distance.

In this poem we can see some consequences of an English attack. The first
stanza describes a terrible image; “corpses are scattered through a paradise”

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(line 4) and the worms are going to eat them (line 5). Walcott uses this
description in that strong way to ask the reader freely what this fact means to
children who live in England and to African people. Then, the author
recognises and criticizes that these brutal acts are happening since
civilization’s dawn (line 13) and all of this is captures in many books and they
are read by thousands of people as something usual, as an invented story.
Therefore, the vast majority of readers of these books do not take into account
the seriousness of this matter.

In the second stanza, this author names this fact “a brutish necessity of a dirty
cause” (lines 22 - 23). And in line 25, “the gorilla wrestles with the superman”,
here Walcott stated ironically that African people, “the savages (gorilla)” (line
10) are fighting with “high qualified British people”, the heroes (superman, line
25). Surprisingly, in line 26, he admits that he belongs to both cultures, “I who
am poisoned with the blood of both”. However he declares that he is
incapable of choosing only one culture, only one identity, because if he did
this, he would be betraying both cultures.

“A far Cry from Africa” is a powerful poem that shows really the oppression of
England to other countries or colonies, such as Africa and the Caribbean too.
The poem is divided into two stanzas; the first one describes African pain and
destruction caused by England. Walcott uses powerful vocabulary, such as
“bloodstreams” (line 3); “corpses” (line 4); “carrion” (line 5); “no compassion”
(line 6); “savages” (line 10); “violence of beast” (line 15).

Moreover, the second stanza has a moving tone and a personal implication.
Here the author talks in the first person “I who am” (line 26) and expresses his
concerns about cultural heritage. Furthermore, he asks himself and also the
reader which culture he should choose. In fact, he shows his insecurity and tries
to be understood about this fact, why he is writing in English, the colonizers´
language; “how choose between this Africa and the English tongue I love?”
(Lines 29 - 30); “Betray them both, or give back what they give?” (line 31).

As far as I am concerned, I have been deeply moved while I have been

reading it, imaging all those corpses scattered, which could be people I love
and which have been brutally assassinated. Nobody should be killed only for
a question of imperialism, for political motives.

Furthermore, I think that the fact of many countries being oppressed by other
countries is cruel and unfair. In fact, all countries should try to help each other
and not fight between them. In my opinion, there should be interesting to
organise a cultural interaction between all different cultures of the world, so I
think that everybody could understand all different beliefs and behaviours,
and specially, respect all of them. Because the fact is that English culture is as
important and rich as African culture.

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IN DETENTION - Chris van Wyk
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing 5
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing 10
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.

Background
Author biography and socio-political setting Van Wyk was born in 1957 and
lived for a few years in Johannesburg’s Newclare area (adjacent to
Sophiatown) before his family relocated to Riverlea, a mainly working-class
‘coloured’ suburb. He published poems in the literary magazine Staffrider (an
outlet for many black writers after 1976), and his collection of poetry It’s Time
to Go Home (1979) won the Olive Schreiner award in 1980. Since then he has
widened the scope of his writing to include children’s books, short stories and,
more recently, two very well-received memoirs (autobiographies) — the best-
selling Shirley, Goodness and Mercy(2005), and Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch
(2010). He was strongly influenced by political events (particularly the Soweto
uprising of 1976), and this is reflected in his writing. Content The title
immediately places the poem in apartheid South Africa, and comments
indirectly on the number of deaths in detention of political activists during
these years (at least 67 people died in detention). The poet’s intention In order
to expose and attack a horrifying practice, Van Wyk uses the kind of
explanations typically offered by the security police for deaths in detention in
South Africa. During the apartheid era, laws were passed which allowed the
security police to detain people indefinitely without having to give any reason.

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Structure
The basic technique used in this poem is repetition and variation. By taking this
to ridiculous extremes, the poet pours scorn on the shallow ‘explanations’
offered by the security police for deaths in detention. One of these was the
claim that the detainee ‘fell’ out of a high window. The poem explores the
likelihood of the three standard explanations of that time being true: (1) the
detainee ‘fell’ from a ninth-floor window; (2) the detainee ‘slipped on a bar of
soap while washing’ (in the shower); and (3) the detainee ‘hanged himself’. All
these ‘explanations’ point to a grim reality: at least 67 detainees died while in
the custody of the security police — and the explanations offered often
bordered on the ridiculous. How could someone accidentally ‘fall’ from a
ninth-story window? How could someone ‘slip’ on a bar of soap while washing,
and die as a result? How likely is it that someone would ‘hang himself’? Lines 1,
2 and 13 Throughout the poem the poet experiments or ‘plays around’ with
these standard ‘explanations’, in order to reveal how absurd (senseless) they
were. Look, for example, at what happens to the opening statement (line 1),
and at the way this becomes mixed up with the other explanations, until we
have the ridiculous and impossible ‘He washed from the ninth floor while
slipping’ (line 13). In the last line, ‘he hanged himself’ (line 2) becomes ‘He hung
from a piece of soap while washing’! The writer’s comments are indirect,
because he never actually tells us what he thinks of detention without trial. It is
left to the reader to conclude that it was a cruel and inhuman practice, and
that the explanations offered by the security police were often cynical (in
someone’s own selfish interest) in the extreme. In this way the poem makes a
very powerful protest at this gross violation of human rights. Because the poet
bases the poem on the words used by the security police themselves, it is also
an example of satire. (Satire is defined in your glossary as ‘harsh or critical
mockery’ which is intended to ‘show up an evil or a vice’.)

Summary
The poem is satire which aims to expose the behaviour of the South African
police during the apartheid regime. It comments indirectly on the number of
deaths that happened during the detention of political activists by not
mentioning any names (green). The speaker uses the explanations typically
offered by the security police for these deaths. Repetition and variation is
taken to ridiculous extremes in order to attack and expose how absurd and
senseless these explanations were. With each repetition the statement
becomes increasingly strange and incredible and the variations create the
effect of distorting/twisting facts. That the police expect the public to believe
such obvious lies shows that they are arrogant and feel secure in their position
as officials.

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WE WEAR THE MASK - Paul Lawrence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Introduction
Times were tough in America during the turn of the century. Lots of changes
were occurring, and many folks had a difficult time coming to terms with them.
Black Americans in particular found themselves caught in a culture that
appeared somewhat better than it had been before and during the Civil War.
But the fact of the matter was: things just weren't so peachy.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem, first published in Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), is a
reaction to the racial climate of the late nineteenth century. He talks about
hypocrisy, deception, and the fact that black Americans often resorted to
seeming content with their social circumstances. But behind all that seeming,
though, is just a bunch of lies trying to cover up the fact that they were feeling
pretty rotten and unable to talk about their feelings in an honest way.

So what we get in "We Wear the Mask" is a lyrical exploration of all that
pretending and the truth that hides behind it. And since the truth is a rather
painful one, we get the sense that all of those masks aren't doing such a great
job of covering things up.

By now you're probably thinking that Dunbar's work is going to leave you
feeling really angry or really sad. But there's a silver lining to this poem, as

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difficult as it may be to find. Dunbar was one of the first to create a more
objective perspective of what was going on in American culture. In other
words, he kind of took a step back and looked at things in a less personal, less
emotional way, making "We Wear the Mask" applicable to all sorts of people
and circumstances. By doing that, he opened up the world of poetic
interpretation in a much more universal way.

Relevance

Paul Lawrence Dunbar is considered to be the first major black poet in

America. He helped pave the way for the artists of the Harlem Renaissance
that came later in the 1920s. And more importantly, he was one of the few
African Americans of his time speaking honestly about the hypocrisy he saw
around him.

All of that took a lot of guts, since it was pretty dangerous back then for black
Americans to speak out about white supremacy and social injustices. Those
guts became a major inspiration, not just for the artists that came after him, but
also for folks in America (both black and white) who needed a good dose of
reality.

So, as you read "We Wear the Mask," consider not only the courage that came
with writing it but also the message that we can still apply to today's culture.
After all, it's not like somebody suddenly waved a magic wand and made all
of the prejudices and hypocrisies of the world disappeared. These kinds of
problems are still around today, and if folks don't speak up about them, none
of us can really expect to see them change, right?

We Wear the Mask – Summary

The speaker opens the poem with the declaration that we wear masks that
hide our true feelings. He goes on to emphasize the severity of the pain and
suffering that these masks try to cover up. By the end we understand that all of
the politeness and subdued emotions are just phony disguises of the painful
truths that hide behind them. And those masks certainly aren't doing anyone
any favours.

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Line-By-Line Analysis

Lines 1-2
We wear the mask that grins and lies
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,

• The speaker opens with the title of the poem, so we know this idea of
wearing masks is very important since we've heard it twice already
(once in the title and now in line 1).
• We notice that he's getting right to the point instead of building up to it,
so there's no question as to what this poem is driving at: we wear
disguises that look nice ("grins"), but which are actually nothing but lies.
• Notice too, the use of "we," which invites the reader to imagine himself
as part of the poem's subject, making the meaning more universal.
• But, since we're not sure who exactly that "we" is referring to, we can
assume it more specifically refers to black Americans of the time, since
Dunbar was an early pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance that came
later in the 1920s.
• By the way, these lines rhyme, right? And they kind of have a dee DUM
dee DUM thing going on, too.
• So you know what that means: it's a metered poem. In this case we're
looking at iambic tetrameter, which means we have unstressed and
then stressed syllables occurring four times in each line.
• The poem is composed as a rondeau, meaning it's got 15 lines with
only two repeating rhymes and a refrain (repeating line, or lines, of
verse - like a chorus). The couplet we get here gives us our first rhyme:
"lies" and "eyes."
• We know that masks are often used as symbols for disguises and
deception. We hide behind them for different reasons, but here we
notice that these masks aren't just for dress-up. What else could they
represent? Check out our "Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay" section for
some ideas.
• In line 2 the people wearing them are "shad[ing] [their] eyes" (some
figurative language here), which suggests they can't even "see" clearly
and likewise can't be seen by others.
• There's some symbolism then in line 2 that's getting at the essence of
our humanity and the way we express (or don't express) our true
feelings. "Cheeks" often indicate how we're feeling (think of blushing)
and "eyes" are thought to be the windows to our soul.
• So if both of these are "hidden," then we know we're not showing how
we really feel.

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Lines 3 and 4
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

• Line 3 tells us that the people wearing these masks owe it all to "human
guile." Fancy word check: "guile" simply means a sort of deceitfulness,
not being real.
• But notice the speaker says "human guile," which again suggests that
the poem can be applied to not just the black American struggle but
also the general human struggle. After all, telling lies and being
someone we're not is just a common part of daily life.
• As we saw in lines 1 and 2, these lines also have a lot of figurative
language that's building upon the extended metaphor of masks
representing human deception: "torn and bleeding hearts we smile."
• Line 4 begins to develop the truths behind those masks and we get the
sense that there's a lot of pain there.
• Those hearts are not just "torn" but also "bleeding" which really
emphasizes the struggle and duality that the speaker is addressing.
• If someone is "torn," that usually means that there are two sides pulling
at the same time. And if someone is "bleeding," we can assume that
that person is injured - figuratively of course.
• And we understand the metaphor even more when we consider the
imagery of a mask. On one side there's the disguise, and on the other -
there's the truth.
• That "smile" also builds upon that original description of the mask
grinning and lying. Also it accents the duality in line 4 that starts with
torn hearts and ends with a smile.
• But here's a question: do we know for sure who the "we" is referring to
by the end of line 4? We know the historical background of the poem
and the poet but the speaker isn't listing any specifics.

Line 5

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

• More fancy words: "myriad" means having lots of something, too many
to count even. And "subtleties" simply refer to things that come across
as subtle, gentle, less obvious.
• The word "mouth" is not the thing you eat with, but rather is being used
here as a verb, like talk.
• But what does it all mean? It looks like the speaker is getting at all of the
polite formalities that were common in the nineteenth century for black
Americans, especially those used to address white people in
conversation.
• Remember, this poem was written way before the Civil Rights
movement in the 1960s, so things were pretty racist back then and
dangerous for black Americans if they didn't use these "subtleties."

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 • Also, by using the word "mouth" instead of "talk," the speaker conveys
the feeling that there's something mechanical about these "subtleties,"
maybe even less than human.
• What about the mood behind line 5? Is there something vacant, dull,
even lifeless about it? If so, how does this line in particular contribute to
the overall feeling and themes of the poem?
• We have some alliteration here, too. "Mouth" and "myriad" both begin
with the same M sound, which helps emphasize and maintain that
swinging iambic pattern we hear so distinctly. (Check out "Sound
Check" for more on that.)

Lines 6-7
Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?

• The second stanza starts with a rhetorical question (a question in which

we don't expect someone to give us a real answer, like Who does
that?). And rhetorical questions are usually used to prove a point, so
we know the speaker is trying to emphasize what we've seen so far in
terms of masks, suffering, hypocrisies, etc.
• Notice that this question has a slightly sarcastic tone to it, as if the
speaker is suggesting that there's nothing "over-wise" about knowing
the truth that's plain to see, with or without the masks. In other words, if
something is pretty much staring you in the face (segregation, lack of
civil rights, violence), then taking notice of it doesn't take all that much
"wisdom."
• By line 6, we also get more of the universal themes behind the poem
when the speaker includes the word "world." The problems he's referring
to involve everyone, even if some people choose to ignore them.
• We have more figurative language in line 7 too ("counting all our tears
and sighs") that emphasizes the severity of the truth behind those
masks. The words "all our" tell us that there are many tears and many
sighs to "count" and they don't just belong to the speaker.
• So, by the second stanza we begin to more fully understand that the
speaker represents a much larger group beyond himself, even if he
doesn't provide specifics.
• What about the connotations of the word "counting"? Is there
something tiresome about this word, as if there are too many to
count?
• Maybe there's even something statistical about it, as if those tears and
sighs are just numbers rather than real evidence of human suffering.
• Whichever way we choose to read lines 6 and 7, we understand that
there is real pain being felt by many people and that the world has a
responsibility to recognize it. Perhaps the people wearing the masks
also have a responsibility to themselves and each other to be honest
about their suffering.

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Lines 8-9
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

• In lines 6 and 7 we saw the rhetorical question that emphasized the

truth behind the masks, while here in lines 8 and 9 we see just the mask
and the people wearing them.
• So the speaker is saying here that, instead of the world seeing the truth,
they see only the masks and the lies.
• And again the tone here in "let them" suggests that the world is being
spared the truth, via ignorance, perhaps because the truth is harder to
accept than the mask.
• But the speaker is reminding us that the people wearing the mask need
to be more honest about their situation too. So all the sarcasm that we
hear is stressing the problem that exists on both sides: the world that
ignores the problem and the people suffering who aren't being honest.
• We have our first instance of enjambment here too, that takes us from
one line to the next without any pauses that come with punctuation.
So we're eased right into the refrain "we wear the mask," which makes it
stand out in comparison to the rest of the poem.

Lines 10-11
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.

• Line 10 begins with the repetition of that "smile" that covers everything
up, reminding us that those phony masks are the real problem.
• The speaker then looks to be reaching for spiritual guidance ("O great
Christ") and the chance for salvation ("souls arise").
• The allusion to Christ emphasizes the speaker's need for help that the
world will not provide.
• Additionally, "O great Christ" is an example of an apostrophe
(addressing someone who's not really there), which makes the
speaker's emotional conflict feel all the more daunting.
• Also we see more duality in line 10 that begins with "smile" and ends
with "cries." The speaker seems to be emphasizing that "torn" metaphor
that we saw earlier in lines 3 and 4 with all of these opposing forces.
• So by the third stanza we start to see more of the truth behind the
masks. And as we see the truth, we begin to notice that the speaker's
language is becoming more emotional and distraught: "O great Christ,"
"cries," "tortured."
• And the plain truth of the matter is that these are "tortured souls" that
are crying for help even if they appear to "smile."
• We have more enjambment here too that keeps the ideas in lines 10
and 11 connected without interruption. So we get the sense that the

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 speaker is meditating here on his people's plight and need for spiritual
guidance without any punctuation getting in the way.
• And just like we saw earlier, this couplet ("cries" and "arise") fits with that
first end rhyme we've already seen repeated: "lies" and "eyes," "wise"
and "sighs."
• Don't forget about "Form and Meter."

Lines 12-13
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

• So not only are these folks smiling through their pain but they're also
singing. Again, here's more of an indication of something that appears
to be content but isn't. Think of blues music, for example. What
musicians sing about is awfully sad, even if it still sounds nice.
• All that "singing" might also be an allusion to the common stereotypes
associated with black Americans who all supposedly love to sing and
entertain, though we know of course that's not true.
• The second half of line 12 works more with some of the biblical allusions
we saw in the previous lines. The "clay" here is the earth but it may also
be a reference to the origins of man: "Remember that you have made
me like clay" (Job 10:8-12).
• So the speaker is saying that they're singing through the pain while
standing above the earth that's "vile" (wicked) because it provides only
pain and suffering for these folks. And yet that vile earth is still their
home/origins, which makes things even worse.
• Notice too that the language here has that same sort of emotional
distress ("oh the clay is vile") that we saw in lines 10 and 11 ("O great
Christ"). So at this point we're seeing behind the mask more fully and
things are awfully sad back there.
• And yet those "feet" and the imagery of walking that long mile indicate
that there's hope. Perhaps this is all part of the journey, as difficult as it
may be.
• But since that mile is "long," we understand that there's still quite a way
to go before any salvation or redemption can be had.
• And finally we notice that we have another instance of the poem's
second rhyme: "vile" and "mile" match "guile/smile/while."

Lines 14-15
But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

• We notice that the speaker is reminding us of that worldly responsibility

that has yet to be acknowledged: "let the world dream otherwise."

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 • If the world is dreaming, it's safe to assume that people aren't savvy to
what's really going on, mostly because the world chooses not to be.
Again, perhaps it's easier to just accept the mask and avoid the truth.
• And we hear that word "let" again as if the world is being spared the
harsh reality, kind of similar to the way a child might experience things.
We "let" children do things. Meanwhile we're dealing with adults here,
so the tone is a bit patronizing on purpose.
• Bear in mind too that this dream that the world is having is more of a
nightmare to the speaker and those he represents than anything else.
• So by the very end we see the mask in the same sort of way it
appeared in the first stanza, only this time we get that extra
exclamation point to drive it all home. And by now we know what's
really behind the mask: lies, cries, and pain that folks aren't being
honest about.
• We also understand that the "masks" people wear, no matter what they
look like, are not to be completely trusted. What can be trusted is
honest discussion and the efforts people make to fix the hurtful and
destructive stuff they see around them.

The Mask - Symbol Analysis

Before the days of simply wearing them for Halloween, masks were often used
as a symbol for deception, hypocrisy, and lies. Dunbar's poem is no different.
The speaker refers to them, directly and indirectly, as the reason why black
Americans and people in general are unable to speak honestly about their
suffering. He's not talking about a real mask of course, but rather it's a symbolic
one that represents the things people say and do that aren't honest. But
Dunbar also reminds us that masks are sometimes a crucial part of self-
preservation, bearing in mind the dangers that black Americans often faced if
they chose the more honest route.

• Title: We know that mask is at the heart of the poem and the problems
the speaker addresses. Perhaps we can go even deeper to say that
the entire poem, therefore, wears a "mask" since a title defines a poem.
• Line 1: The opening words are not only the poem's refrain, but also get
right to the point about what Dunbar's poem is about. Those masks
may "grin," but they also "lie." So don't be fooled by that smile.
• Line 2: The mask hides everything, including "cheeks" and "eyes" which
symbolize the truer essence of humanity since we often express
ourselves best in those places.
• Lines 9, 15: The refrain reminds us just how pervasive that mask is. It's not
enough to just mention it in the title. The speaker strategically reminds
us throughout the poem that this is no small occurrence, and therefore
needs to be emphasized.

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Smile - Symbol Analysis
This is not the sort of smile you have after indulging in your favourite chocolate
bar. It's more like the kind of smile a person has when (s)he is upset, but doesn't
want to upset you, too. So that person may just grin and bear it and hide his
true feelings. But that kind of smile isn't helping matters in Dunbar's poem. In
fact, it's making things worse because that smile is hiding the full extent of the
emotional conflict he's referring to.

• Line 1: Although it's "grinning," it's also lying. This sort of smile doesn't get
much phonier. And by saying "grin" instead of "smile" here, the speaker
also hints at the sinister quality of it, when we consider the connotations
of the word "grin."
• Lines 4, 10: It's also used to emphasize the duality of the emotional
conflict the speaker is addressing. Notice that both lines have on one
side: the "smile," and on the other: words like "cries" and "torn hearts."
• Line 12: Although the speaker is talking about "singing" here, we get the
sense that he's referring to the same sort of smiling appearance.
Singing and smiling are usually happy things but here they are covering
up the painful truth.

Symbol Analysis – We
Who are "we"? That's a great question and we have a few possible answers
too. The "we" that we get in Dunbar's poem is primarily directed towards black
American people as a whole. However, we can also read it in a more general
sense that's focused on all people. If we read it both ways, we end up with a
perspective that's universal and specific all at the same time. But since that
"we" is so ambiguous, it also serves a literary purpose too in suggesting that
maybe the poem also wears a mask that hides its specific subject.

• Title: Having "we" in the title really adds to the literary purpose of
suggesting that the entire poem wears an ambiguous mask that's
hiding the truth. The speaker isn't omitting specifics because he forgot
about them. He's clearly doing it with a purpose.
• Line 1: It's in the title and in the refrain. It also invites the reader to
include himself in that "we." All in all we can apply the idea of wearing
masks to any person we choose.
• Lines 3: First we get more of the sense that the speaker is speaking to a
universal audience with the phrase "human guile." The "we" shares this
experience of "human guile," so it's not limited to just the black
American struggle.
• Line 4: The "we" is maybe getting a little more specific, since the
speaker talks about "torn and bleeding hearts" which suggests that
these wounds are fresh. And historically speaking, they were very fresh.
• Lines 9, 15: In the refrain we're allowed to be as universal or specific as
we want. The phrase "we wear the mask" stands alone in these lines so
the reader can draw as many connections as he chooses.
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 • Lines 10, 12: Just like that "smile," the "we" in these lines functions in a
similarly dualistic sort of way. On one side the "we" is "smiling" and
"singing," while on the other the "we" is "crying." In the end, that "we" is
torn and not being honest.

The World - Symbol Analysis

It's a big place—in real life and in Dunbar's poem. The world also has a
responsibility to recognize the suffering that occurs not just in a personal sense,
but a worldly one too. Unfortunately, the "world" often ignores the kind of
suffering that doesn't immediately affect it (specific people/places). But by
keeping things universal thematically and stylistically, the speaker is suggesting
that it's all connected. So ignoring problems doesn't keep them away.

• Lines 6-7: The rhetorical question we get here is directed at the "world."
And since it has a slightly sarcastic tone, we get the sense that the
world is acting mighty ignorant and cold towards the suffering of black
Americans.
• Line 14: The world is allowed to "dream otherwise," which just like the
previous lines suggests that the world is behaving kind of like a child. It's
dreaming instead of getting real. So the speaker is saying it's time to
wake up.

Analysis: Speaker
Our speaker is relatively understated, considering the subject matter he's
talking about. (And we're just assuming it's a "he" here, since we have no
evidence to the contrary.) He's not getting angry or yelling about social
injustices. Instead he has a more objective perspective, which also happens to
be one of Dunbar's calling card qualities. (Check out "Calling Card" for more
on that.)

So the speaker has a universal sort of voice that's not exclusively limited to any
one person or people. He kind of takes a step back and gives us a fuller
perspective of what's really going on with all these lies and hypocrisies. In doing
so, he seems to suggest that this is not the sort of problem that's limited to any
one culture, or person, or time.

Instead, this detached approach helps us to consider how masks are all over
the place, that sometimes they're also a matter of survival in cultures where
may react violently to people speaking honestly about social problems.
Perhaps this is also why Dunbar's poem is still widely read today. Thanks to our
detached speaker, it can be applied to all sorts of social circumstances and
places.

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Analysis: Setting - Where It All Goes Down
It's hard to say we're in a "place" per se. If we are in a place, it's a universal sort
of space that's working with some common archetypical ideas associated with
masks, deception, worldly responsibilities, and human suffering. However,
bearing in mind the political and historical subtexts that we know are part of
the poem, we can assume we're in late nineteenth-century America, where
things are pretty racist and dangerous for black Americans. In other words, this
is not the sort of place any of us would want to be - black, white or otherwise.

Analysis: Sound Check

This sort of poem is supposed to be lyrical and memorable (considering that
refrain) we can expect those devices to help amplify the sound even more.

Stanza 1 has quite a bit of consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) in

words like "grins," "lies," "cheeks," "shades," "eyes," "hearts," "smile," and
"subtleties." The repeated sound not only helps to accent the first rhyme of the
poem ("lies" and "eyes"), it also gives us an underlying sense of multitudes.

It's subtle, but think about it: most plural words end in S and most of these S-
sound words are indeed plural words. So, the poem is using sound to
underscore that the central phenomenon of mask-wearing is not just limited to
the speaker or even his friends. It's something to which nearly everyone in the
world can relate.

Also, in line 5, we get some alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds)

in the words "mouth" and "myriad." Just like before, the repetition of that M
sound helps to accent the words even more and gets us thinking about that
mechanical sound of "mouth[ing]" subtleties. Finally there is some more
alliteration in line 11 that repeats that T sound in "To thee" and "tortured" souls.
Here we really feel the connection the speaker is trying to make between
himself and Christ by using similar sounds to address his saviour and the tortured
souls that need his help.

Analysis: What's Up With the Title?

Since the title is also the poem's refrain, we know it's very important. It's also
pretty common for the title of a rondeau to match its refrain. Either way, there's
no mistaking that "we wear the mask" is the poem's main point and also the
biggest problem contextually. Dunbar is reminding us - with the title and the
repetition - that folks wear masks that may look nice with lots of smiles and
singing, but they're nothing more than a series of lies that cover up painful
truths.

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Analysis: Calling Card - Calm and Objective
There's no need to shout, and Dunbar does an excellent job of proving that
sometimes it's better to stay calm than get angry. In fact, his objective
perspective is one of his most notable qualities that established him as a new
American voice that was not to be taken lightly.

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RANDOM NOTES TO MY SON - Keorapetse Kgositsile
1 Beware, my son, words
2 that carry the loudness
3 of blind desire also carry
4 the slime of illusion

5 dripping like pus from the slave’s battered back

6 e.g. they speak of black power whose eyes
7 will not threaten the quick whitening of their own intent
8 what days will you inherit?
9 what shadows inhabit your silences?

10 I have aspired to expression, all these years,

11 elegant past the most eloquent word. But here now
12 our tongue dries into maggots as we continue our slimy
13 death and grin. Except today it is fashionable to scream
14 of pride and beauty as though it were not known that
15 ‘slaves and dead people have no beauty’

16 Confusion
17 in me and around me
18 confusion. This pain was
19 not from the past. This pain was
20 not because we had failed
21 to understand:
22 this land is mine
23 confusion and borrowed fears
24 it was. We stood like shrubs
25 shrivelled on this piece of earth
26 the ground parched and cracked

27 through the cracks my cry:

28 And what shapes

29 in assent and ascent
30 must people the eye of newborn
31 determined desire know
32 no frightened tear ever rolls on
33 to the elegance of fire. I have
34 fallen with all the names I am
35 but the newborn eye, old as
36 childbirth, must touch the day
37 that, speaking my language, will
38 say, today we move, we move ?

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Glossary
random: without definite aim, conscious decision or direction; haphazard
illusion: false or unreal idea, perception or belief
battered: injured by repeated blows or punishment
aspired: hoped to achieve
eloquent: fluent or persuasive in speaking or writing
shrivelled: wrinkled and shrunken, especially as a result of loss of moisture or old
age
assent: the expression of approval or agreement
ascent: an instance of rising or moving upward

The Poet:
Keorapetse William Kgositsile (19 September 1938 – 3 January 2018), also
known by his pen name Bra Willie, was a
South African Tswana poet and political activist. He was an influential member
of the African National Congress in the
1960s and 1970s, but left the country to continue his work in Tanzania and then
the United States from 1962 until 1975. During the 1970s he was a central figure
among African-American poets. Kgositsile was one of the first to bridge the
gap between African poetry and Black poetry in the United States.
Near the end of Apartheid, Kgositsile returned to South Africa in the 1990s. He
resumed his political activism, stating that even though Apartheid was
officially over, not much had changed. He constantly criticised Black leaders
and the ANC government. He continued to publish poetry, and was
inaugurated as South Africa's National Poet Laureate.
About the poem:
In 2002, the euphoria of the “New South Africa/ rainbow nation” was wearing
off. More and more people were being faced with the reality of all the
problems still facing South Africa, and the fact that black power did not
necessarily mean that everyone in power was aiming to improve the lives of
the most vulnerable members of society. This was the beginning of a trend in
South African literature that was characterised by disillusionment with post-
Apartheid South Africa and preoccupied with the figure of the traitor. This
poem was published in 2002 when the poet’s eldest son was 8 years old.

Analysis

The title:
“Random Notes to my Son”
The title creates an expectation that the poem will be a personal, informal
message to the speaker’s son. This expectation is subverted in the rest of the

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poem, as the content of the poem addresses concerns for the future of South
Africa as a whole.
The speaker:
In stanza one, the speaker seems to be a father speaking to his son. After the
first stanza, the voice shifts from the speaker addressing the son directly to the
speaker talking about himself and broader observations. The father’s words
should be read as a message not only to his son, but also to all young South
Africans.

Stanza 1
Line 1-5:
1 Beware, my son, words
2 that carry the loudness
3 of blind desire also carry
4 the slime of illusion
5 dripping like pus from the slave’s battered back
The speaker warns his son against words that “carry the loudness of blind
desire”. Because they also carry the “slime of illusion”. “Blind” desire is later
contrasted with “determined” desire (line 30). A powerful metaphor
compares the illusion in these loud words of “blind desire” to “pus from a slaves
battered back”. Pus is associated with infection, implying that the illusion that
these words carry is a sign of infection in society that is not truly free.
Who is speaking these slimy, infected words of “blind desire”? The next two
lines will explain:

Line 6-7:
6 e.g. they speak of black power whose eyes
7 will not threaten the quick whitening of their own intent
“They speak of” – indicates that something is rumoured in society. There is a
rumour of black power (literally, black people in power) “whose eyes will not
threaten the quick whitening of their own intent.”
The colour white has often been used as a positive symbol – for peace, for
purity, etc. However, Kgositsile subverts this association. Here, “whitening” is
used negatively to imply corruption and blindness.
The speaker’s warning against those speaking with “blind desire” (line 3) is
elaborated. When “black power” is corrupt (serving their own desire/intent)
their eyes are blind. Their desire is blind because they serve themselves with
what they want, without seeing the negative impact it will have on their
people.

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“Blind desire” is elaborated though an image of eyes that are whitened
(blinded) by their own intent (desire). (Eyes that are blinded by cataracts
have a milky-white coating. Eyes and blindness are an important image in
these lines - more so than words - and it is important to understand how they
are connected to the idea of corruption, or serving ones own desire/intent)
Line 8-9:
8 what days will you inherit?
9 what shadows inhabit your silences?
The speaker ends this stanza by expressing worry about the future days that
his son will live through. By extension, the speaker is expressing concern for
the future of the country.

Stanza 2
Line 10-13:
10 I have aspired to expression, all these years,
11 elegant past the most eloquent word. But here now
12 our tongue dries into maggots as we continue our slimy
13 death and grin. […]
Stanza 2 starts with a reference to the past, and the speaker’s many years as
a poet, in which he has written eloquent (beautiful) words. In the next line,
this is contrasted with the present,in which elegant expression of words is no
longer possible because of decay. (insert image of grinning skull)
This is illustrated with the metaphor “our tongue dries into maggots as we
continue our slimy death and grin”. This metaphor is loaded with images of
death and decay. The tongue is compared to maggots, which feast on dead
flesh. “Slimy death” recalls the “slime of illusion” (in line 4) – this mirroring of
earlier words in the poem suggests that our death is because of the illusion,
due to a “sickness” in society.

Line 13-15:
13 […] Except today it is fashionable to scream
14 of pride and beauty as though it were not known that
15 ‘slaves and dead people have no beauty’
The speaker says that although the reality of the present (“here, now” - line 11)
is characterised by death and decay, it is fashionable to ignore the reality and
“to scream of pride and beauty…”. Notice that this links to the previous stanza,
as these loud words that “scream” carry the illusion (line 4) of pride and beauty
despite the reality of death and decay.

Stanza 3
Line 16-24:
16 Confusion
17 in me and around me

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18 confusion. This pain was
19 not from the past. This pain was 20 not because we had failed 21 to
understand:
22 this land is mine
23 confusion and borrowed fears
24 it was. […]
The speaker speaks of experiencing confusion and pain - although the pain
is not from a traumatic past or the failure (presumably of African people) to
understand “this land is mine”. It comes from the present condition.
The pain and confusion felt by the speaker comes from “confusion and
borrowed fears”. We understand from the previous lines that the speaker feels
confused by the current situation in which the decay of society and corrupt
black power is covered up by people screaming loudly about how wonderful
everything is (the illusion). “Borrowed fears”, could refer to the racist notions
perpetuated by white power suggesting that black people would not
successfully rule themselves.

Line 24-26:
24 […] We stood like shrubs
25 shrivelled on this piece of earth
26 the ground parched and cracked through the cracks my
cry:
Stanza 3 ends with a simile which compares the speaker and his peers to small
plants shrivelled in drought-stricken soil. The colon at the end of stanza 3
introduces stanza 4, which is the “cry” of the speaker

Stanza 4
Line 27-30:
27 And what shapes
28 in assent and ascent
29 must people the eye of newborn
30 determined desire know
This is the start of a cry of hope for the future, in which we are lead not by
“blind desire” but “determined desire”. In contrast to the old, white-cataract
eyes blinded by corruption, the eyes are now “newborn” and presumably
have good vision, full of hope and potential. These leaders of the future will
know “assent and ascent” and rise to new heights.
Line 31-32:
31 no frightened tear ever rolls on 32 to the elegance of
fire. […]
The metaphor of the tear gives the idea that if people are afraid, they will
not achieve glory.

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Line 32- 33

32 […] I have
33 fallen with all the names I am
34 but the newborn eye, old as
35 childbirth, must touch the day
36 that, speaking my language, will
37 say, today we move, we move ?
The speaker seems despondent - he feels he has “fallen” along with
everything he is known as (father, husband, activist, friend, Bra Willie,
Keorapetse Kgositsile, renowned poet). BUT (there is a but) despite the fall of
the poet, the poem ends on a note of hope that “the newborn eye”
(leadership with clear, determined vision) will emerge and lead to change.

Structure/ Form
Four stanzas of irregular line - lengths, with no fixed rhyme scheme. The
form links to the idea of “random notes” rather than a formally structured
poem.
Tone/ Attitude
The tone shifts throughout the poem. Stanza 1 and 2 are thematically
linked as the speaker expresses his concern for the future of a country in
which the infection caused by corruption (“blind desire”) is covered up
with loud illusions. The overall tone is one of deep concern and despair.
Stanza 3 acts as a bridge in which the speaker expresses his current pain
and confusion which is caused by his observations in the previous two
stanzas in a sincere, confessional manner.
Stanza 4 expresses hope for the future.
Alliteration
Imagery and Sound Devices Line 5: “battered back”
Metaphor Line 9: “shadows inhabit silences”
Line 3: “blind desire” - being blinded by desire Lines 24-25: “shrubs/shrivelled”
Line 4-5 (extended metaphor) “slime of Line 26: “cracked through the
illusion dripping like pus” cracks my cry”
Line 7: “eyes … whitening of their own intent” – Line 30: “determined desire”
Line 29: “eye of newborn determined Rhetoric
desire” – Simile Lines 8-9: rhetorical questions
Line 5: “dripping like pus” – implies an Personification
“infection” in society which is full of illusions Line 31: “no frightened tear” –
of pride and beauty to cover the reality of human attributes/emotions given
corruption to tears
Line 24-25: “We stood like shrubs/ shrivelled Repetition
on this piece of earth” - the speaker

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compares himself and his peers to small, Line 37: “we move, we move” – to
drought-stricken plants emphasize progression.

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THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS –
Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labour in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 5

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, 10

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

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Rhythm:
Rhyme pattern: abcde
Rhyme scheme: Free verse

Summary of content: The poem is the speaker’s memories of how his father ,
with whom he had a complicated relationship, performed caring gestures
for his family. These acts went unnoticed and unappreciated and the
speaker regrets it. As an adult the speaker has learned to appreciate the
form his father’s love had taken. In this poem, the speaker is remembering
his childhood. In stanza 1, the speaker remembers how his father woke up
early every day, even on the weekends. Stanza 2 describes the speaker’s
mixed feelings about his father, who also used to get very angry very quickly.
In stanza 3, the speaker regrets the way he spoke to his father – he says he
did not show him proper appreciation. He now realises his father was loving
as well as angry. The poem is about the difficulties of communicating in
families. Often love is not expressed (told or shown) in words.

Title:
A Sunday is a day of rest, yet the father still got up early to warm the house
while the family still lay in bed. The title refers to those specific Sundays that
the father made these sacrifices.

Tone/Mood/Emotion: Contemplative, sad, regret

Theme:

THEME 1 LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE COLD AND WARMTH

The poet uses an extended (long) metaphor to compare the

weather and his father’s behaviour. Literally, the cold days of winter are
symbolic of the figuratively cold (emotionally) house in which the speaker
grew up. This is contrasted with the intense warmth of the fires his father
created out of love. The speaker did not feel or understand the love when he
was growing up. He only felt the rage from his father. Now he has mixed
feelings about his father, because he realises his father kept the house warm
for the family, even when it was not pleasant for him to do so. EVIDENCE OF
THEME IN TEXT
When temperatures are very cold, our lips can turn blue. The speaker’s father
gets dressed in the ‘blueblack cold’ (line 2). This expresses the extreme
coldness of the winter. We see figurative coldness in ‘Speaking indifferently to
him’ (line 20). If you speak ‘indifferently’, you speak to someone without

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affection or interest. When someone is described as being cold, it means they
are not very kind or friendly. The way the speaker spoke to his father can be
described as emotionally cold. A mixed message is expressed in ‘love’s
austere and lonely offices’ (line 20). Love is usually associated with warmth,
but austere means to be plain or emotionally cold and hard. Love should
make us feel connected to people, not lonely and isolated. The speaker pities
his father’s inability to express his love properly. He also feels regret that he did
not understand how his father tried to show his love.
THEME 2 MISUNDERSTANDING
For the sake of his family, the speaker’s father works hard all during the week.
Even on the weekends he gets up early and makes the house warm. No one
thanks him or appreciates all the little jobs he does. They only notice his rage.
The father is a lonely person: most of the time the family feels his anger more
than his love. They do not understand him because he swings between rage
and gentle acts of love.
EVIDENCE OF THEME IN TEXT
The speaker says, ‘my father got up early’ (line 1) to ‘put his clothes on in the
blueblack cold’ (line 2). In other words, his father was prepared to be cold
himself (even when it is so cold that your skin turns blue), because he wanted
his family to be warm. This shows that the father was willing to suffer himself, so
his family could be comfortable. ‘When the rooms were warm, he’d call’ (line
7) confirms this idea – he would only call his family when it was warm enough
for them to leave their warm beds. His family did not acknowledge or notice
his good deeds. We know that there is chronic anger’ (line 9) in the house. This
means that there is always the possibility for the speaker’s father to be angry
and in a bad mood. We do not know exactly why. ‘No one ever thanked him’
(line 5) tells us that the family didn’t notice or say anything about the father’s
hard work. Perhaps the father is angry because no one acknowledges (says
thank you) all the his kind deeds. Perhaps it is because the father works so
hard that he is tired and grumpy: ‘cracked hands that ached’ (line 3) tells us
that he worked hard all week, and also that making fires for the family must
have been unpleasant for him. We do not know why the father is angry.
However, we do know that the anger in the house makes the speaker leave
his room slowly. The speaker does not trust his father because he gets angry
quickly. The child speaks indifferently (without care), because he thinks his
father does not love him: ‘love’s austere and lonely offices’ (line 14) suggests
that the father tried to show his love by doing household chores but did not
feel connected to the family. He was lonely and suffered because he gave
love in surreptitious (not obvious) ways, but did not receive love in return. The
speaker in the poem misunderstood his father. We see that the lack of
communication (especially with regards to talking about feelings and love) in

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the speaker‘s household led to hurt feelings, loneliness and sadness. It also
leads the speaker to look back with regret later in life.
Diction / use of words:

1. METAPHOR: A metaphor directly compares two things. This poem uses

an extended (long) metaphor to compare the weather(literal) with
human moods and emotions (figurative). ‘Those Winter Sundays’: The
title of the poem is the beginning of the extended metaphor. It refers to
actual, literal winter, when the temperatures are freezing. It also refers to
the lack of emotional warmth and love in the family.

2. REPETITION: Repetition is when words or sounds are written more than

once in a poem. The speaker repeats the words ‘What did I know, what
did I know’ (line 13). This repetition emphasises the regret and sadness
that the poet feels about not understanding his father. It shows that the
speaker can see now, as an adult, the things he did not understand as
a child.

3. OXYMORON: An oxymoron is two seemingly opposing ideas next to

each other. When the oxymoron is looked at more closely, it makes
sense. ‘love’s austere and lonely offices’ (line 14) is an oxymoron. The
image in the oxymoron combines love (a warm, generous, positive
feeling) with austerity, which means plainness or poverty. The poet
means this is a stern kind of love.

4. IRONY: Irony is when we expect one thing to happen and, instead, the
opposite happens. The title of the poem, ‘Those Winter Sundays’, is
ironic. The title leads the reader to expect a poem about the ordinary
warmth, love and cosiness of family life. Sunday is a day to relax, and
when it is cold, we can think about a family relaxing at home, by a fire
or under blankets to keep warm together. Instead, we get the opposite
– an adult’s reflection (looking back) on his childhood with an
emotionally unstable father. The speaker is still talking about a kind of
love, but it is a difficult love. He has mixed feelings (some positive, some
negative) about his father, who was angry and maybe even violent
(this might be why the speaker seems afraid to leave his room). We
know that Hayden did not always live at home with his family because
he was sometimes in foster care. Now he regrets not understanding all
the work pressure his father must have been feeling.

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5. ALLITERATION: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds (usually
at the beginning of words). In ‘weekday weather’ (line 4), the repetition
of the soothing / w / sound reminds us of the routine associated with
the days of the week. ‘banked fires blaze’ (line 5) contrasts the soft / w
/ sound with the harsh / b / sound. The change mimics (copies) the
father’s mood swings. First, he is gentle and loving, and then he flies into
a rage. The fire getting hotter is also a metaphor for his anger. It gets
bigger and brighter during the day, and calms down at night when he
sleeps.

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Page | 72
POEM FOR MY MOTHER - Jennifer Davids

That isn’t everything you said

on the afternoon I brought a poem
to you hunched over the washtub
with your hands
the shrivelled 5
burnt granadilla
skin of your hands
covered by foam.

And my words
slid like a ball 10
of hard blue soap
into the tub
to be grabbed and used by you
to rub the clothes.

A poem isn’t all 15

there is to life, you said
with your blue-ringed gaze
scanning the page
once looking over my shoulder
and back at the immediate 20
dirty water

and my words
being clenched
smaller and smaller

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It is an afternoon and the mom is washing clothes in a tub. The child has written
a poem for her mother and gives it to her as she is washing. The mother scans
the poem but rejects it as not being ‘all there is to life’. She feels that there is
much more to life than reading or writing poetry. Despite her protest, the
mother glances at the poem while she continues to wash clothes.
Stanza 1
The mother obviously has given her life to hard work and struggle and seems
to have lost interest in life.
She does not seem to appreciate the effort of her child to offer some relief or
change in her burdensome routine. That her mother washes in the afternoon
indicates that her workload is enormous (as washing is usually done in the
morning so that clothes can be hung out to dry.) The images of stress and strain
are effectively captured in the description of the woman ‘hunched’ over the
washtub and her ‘shrivelled hands’. The word ‘hunched’ suggests her
strenuous routine which has physically harmed her posture. The comparison of
her hands to the shrivelled burnt skin of a granadilla evokes the destructive
efforts of hard labour on her physical body.
Stanza 2
The words of the child’s poem are compared to a piece of slippery soap, just
as soap is used to cleanse dirt off clothes in this case, so too do the words of
the poem give the mother strength and power to bear her burden to restore
her to some state of wholesomeness, just like soap restores clothes to their
original clean condition. Note that the mother ‘grabbed’ the words and
‘used’ them, suggesting that she needed the desperately to sustain her to
cope with the oppressive burden of life.
Stanza 3
It is the burden of life which weighs down oppressively, that prevents the
mother from appreciating or being sensitive to other aspects of life (like
reading or enjoying poetry). But the fact that she does read the poem
indicates that she is aware of its significance and healing power. A poem
appeals to our aesthetic sense. It makes us see life in detail and appreciate
the multi-faceted experiences of life. The word ‘scanning’ suggests that she
does read the poem. The reference to the mother’s ‘blue-ringed gaze’
suggests that she has a deeper, appreciative side to her nature. Note that the
colour ‘blue’ is usually associated with sky and beauty. The reference to the
‘dirty water’ is a metaphor for the corruption of life which have sullied or dirtied
capacity to be sensitive to the beauty of nature of life.

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Stanza 4
The poem ends on a positive note. The mother continues to hold onto the
words of the poem, the word ‘clenched’ recalls the term ‘grabbed’ of stanza
2, it means to hold tightly onto something. That the words are clenched
‘smaller and smaller’ indicates the great effort exerted by the mother to make
the world of poetry a part of her life, she realises the value of poetry to guide
her through the difficulties of life.
Central message of the poem
The poem whilst acknowledging the burden and harshness of life, confirms the
value of developing aesthetic, nature, our capacity to appreciate what life
has to offer as the only hope to cope with the hostility and problems we
encounter on a daily basis.
Further Consideration
The writer uses simple words to reinforce the innocent, pure exchange
between mother and child. The simplicity of the words also evokes the humility
of their life – the setting is most likely a rural one. The poem also has a simple
structure; the lines are uniform and short reinforcing the simple effort of the
child to console her mother.

The title of the poem indicates that it is a poem written for or dedicated to the
daughters’ mother. This indicates that there is a certain love and sincerity that
the daughter wants to show through an affectionate poem. In the first stanza
the first two lines indicate that the mother shows disregard for poetry, “That isn’t
everything” (line 1) when the daughter presents the poem to her mother. In
lines three and four we can see that the mother is busy with household chores,
she is busy washing the laundry by hand. The mother is described as being
“hunched” on the washtub in line three which indicates that the mother is tired
and has spent a great amount of time doing the laundry. From line four to line
eight there is a figurative description of the mothers’ hands. This metaphor that
compares the mothers’ hands to a “shrivelled burnt granadilla skin” (lines 5-6)
describes the age and harsh labour intensive life of the mother. In the last line
of the stanza, line eight, it says “covered by foam”. This also indicates why the
mothers’ hands are all shrivelled up.

The poem describes a very tender moment between a mother and her
daughter. The fact that the daughter had written a poem for her mother
indicates that they have a very close relationship, or that this is an attempt to
mend the lack of communication in their relationship. It can be seen that they
are a poor working class household, “Blue ringed eyes” (line 17), doing laundry

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by hand and also hands that are worn by the work in lines three to eight. The
poem is offered to the mother with great enthusiasm, excitement and
appreciation. The speaker wants the mother to discontinue the chores and
rather read and appreciate the poem written for her. Unfortunately the mother
does not have the time or an understanding for poetry. The mother is dismissive,
too busy and not impressed by the poem. Poetry is seen by the mother as a
luxury and she would rather focus on the practicalities of life. The tone of the
poem is of disappointment and deflation. The theme links the mother-daughter
relationship with the lack of communication.

In the poem there are irregular line lengths, no punctuation and also run-on
lines. The poem has a conversational tone to it because the speaker is actually
addressing the mother. There are several metaphors that are used through the
poem and also an instance of irony. The form of the last stanza compliments
the meaning and adds to the effect; it is a small and short stanza which
indicates the daughters’ words as losing their meaning and being squeezed
into nothingness.

The poem describes a moment that should have been a very loving and
tender one between a mother and her daughter. Unfortunately the moment
is ruined because of social class factors. This poem was written during
apartheid and in a way the effects thereof can be seen in this poem. A typical
poor and working class family is portrayed that enjoys no simple luxuries like a
washing machine and which also indicates the issue of illiteracy, where the
child has surpassed the parent in the form of education and culture and can
be regarded as an intellectual.

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