In Detention by Chris van Wyk

Poem:              In Detention by Chris van Wyk

Question:         Discuss the effectiveness of this poem as a striking example of satire

                        In your answer you may refer to some or all of the following:

·                     The poet’ s intention in writing this poem

·                     The obvious sarcasm

·                     The tone of the poet

·                     The structure of the poem

·                     The diction (word choice)

How to answer:

Make sure that you first plan what you are going to say in each paragraph.  Stick to one or two related devices in a paragraph.

Learners need to show an understanding that this is a satirical poem written to show the patent absurdity of the reasons given by the police under apartheid for people ‘dying’ in detention. Behind the nonsensical reasons given by the police, lies the horror and brutality of what was, in reality, murder in detention.           

Learners can refer to the sarcasm/the twisting of the reasons by the poet/how the three reasons are ‘twisted’ into a whole string of patently absurd statements. Behind the humour tough the reality that people have been killed.

The structure of the poem with each line beginning with ‘He’ and then going into an explanation reinforces the absurdity.

Topic, theme, tone, structure & diction

Whenever you study a poem, you will be called upon to analyse it. This means that you will need to know where the poet has used language techniques and how rhythm and meter is being used. You must be careful that in doing this you do not reduce the poem to individual and unrelated parts.

Topic

The first and probably easiest part of the process is to determine what the subject or topic of the poem is. This does not need to be the theme or message. It is simply to record what experience, object or feeling that the poet is writing about. This can be as simple as the poet writing about a balloon or a bicycle (objects) or a tenth birthday party or witnessing a person shoplifting (experience). Generally this topic or subject will be the springboard from which the poet develops his/her themes or the muse that inspires the poet to ponder something about life. Consider why the poet has chosen this topic.

What is it that has particularly caught the attention of the poet and inspired them to write a poem about it/based on it?

Themes and messages

The next step is to determine what the poet is trying to express. This is similar to purpose. You need to think about what the poet wants you to know more about now that you have read the poem or alternatively, how the poet wants to make you feel. Many poems don't have a message or point other than to amuse or entertain the reader. You should try not to be too concerned about whether your answer is 'correct' at this point. Keep an open mind and as you continue to analyse you may find other messages. Think about this non-exhaustive list of possible themes:

• To amuse
• The pains of growing up
• Lost dreams and hopes
• The folly of arrogance
• The nature of friendship
• The relationship between parent and child
• The nature of love
• The importance of honesty
• The importance of looking after the environment
• The nature of death
• The nature of birth
• The beauty of friendship/nature/love

Tone

In some ways tone has a similar effect on poetry as do emotion and mood. The tone of the poem will give you an idea about the composer's attitude towards the subject or topic. The tone is the tone of voice that the composer has used. A good way to understand this is to see the tone that we describe and use in English as being along the lines of:

'Don't use that tone of voice with me!'

Has anybody ever said this to you? What tone of voice were you speaking in? Possibly you had a sarcastic tone or a threatening tone. It is possible also to have a light-hearted tone or a serious tone. The important thing to remember is that the tone that is used implies a specific attitude towards topics or subjects.

 Structure

Poetry is a disciplined expression of the written word and the use of structures provide the tools of trade of poetry writing. Poetry structures have a set of rhyming patterns, metre, grammar and imagery.

Diction

Diction refers to both the choice and the order of words. It has typically been split into vocabulary and syntax. The basic question to ask about vocabulary is "Is it simple or complex?" The basic question to ask about syntax is "Is it ordinary or unusual?" Taken together, these two elements make up diction.

AUTUMN by Roy Campbell

AUTUMN by Roy Campbell

Themes:

1.     “With the good comes the bad.”

2.     Tribute to autumn and winter

3.     Time of purifying and transformation

4.     Both negative and positive connotations

5.     Autumn associated with both aging and dying

Stanza 1:

·         Personification of autumn

·         It is a paragon because it tells us how perfect(pure) autumn is.

·         Autumn is compared to a tree.

Stanza 2:

·         Geese migrate to warmer climate – form of change

·         Compares the geese nmigration to chains

o    The way the geese fly in a line

o    Making loud noises as they go along

·         It appears as if the geese drag the moon across the sky

·         Depicts the stripping of leaves as sunlight penetrating through branches likes needles

Stanza 3:

·         Compares olive trees with wrestlers

·         Wrestling with gale force winds

·         The colour of wine is compared to a ‘ruby’.

·         The colour is lively and possesses a feeling of warmth.

Stanza 4:

·         The ending of one thing allows for the beginning of something new.

·         It shows the transformation from one thing to another.

London by William Blake

LONDON

William Blake was a poet and artist who specialised in illuminated texts, often of a religious nature. He rejected established religion for various reasons. One of the main ones was the failure of the established Church to help children in London who were forced to work. Blake lived and worked in the capital, so was arguably well placed to write clearly about the conditions people who lived there faced.

Structure

As the title of the collection suggests, London is presented in a very regular way, much like a song. There is a strict abab rhyme scheme in each of the four stanzas.

The four stanzas offer a glimpse of different aspects of the city, almost like snapshots seen by the speaker during his "wander thro'" the streets.

Language

The tone of the poem is at times biblical, reflecting Blake's strong interest in religion. It is as if the speaker is offering a prophesy of the terrible consequences unless changes are made in the city.

What might you want to say about the poet's attitude towards the city in the poem London? Briefly note down some points you would want to include in your essay, then compare your ideas with those in our sample answer on the next page.

Sample answer

• The speaker repeats the word "charter'd", indicating his dismay at the fact that everything in the city is owned, even the river.
• Blake uses a caesura (a pause or interruption, as in conversation) in line 4 to reinforce the impact of city life on the people living there.
• The poem is full of negative language, which reveals the speaker's attitude to the city.
• There are several references to violence, suggesting the speaker views the city as a danger to all who inhabit it. There is the "cry of fear", the sigh of a soldier "Runs in blood down Palace walls", new-born infants are blasted, and marriage is blighted.
•  The speaker makes reference to the dirty conditions, which spoil everything, from churches to children.
• Sounds are an important element in the poem, representing the great noise the city produces as the speaker "wander[s] thro" it. There are cries, the sound of "mind-forg'd manacles" and curses. These sounds are all the result of anguish and pain, caused by conditions in the city.
• The city is presented as a place where the usual morality is ignored, with negative consequences. Prostitution, which is prevalent, is seen as damaging the future of the family, both physically and spiritually.

The Hollow Men - questions and answers

The poem begins with two epigraphs:

First Epigraph: Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

The epigraph tells us that, in some sense, the poem is set after the death of Kurtz, or someone "hollow" man like him.

Second Epigraph: A penny for the Old Guy

The English celebrate Guy Fawkes Day every November 5th with fireworks and the burning of little straw men or “stuffed” effigies.

Hence, lines 1-4 symbolises the men’s hollowness or lack of essential qualities. Their existence is –literally- empty. their hollowness is a sign that they lack a soul and other essential qualities of being human. More profoundly, they are Elliot’s modern man, an empty, corrupt breed!

TYPICAL QUESTION: Is hollow passivity to life an evil? Why or why not?

NO typical answer: You have the right to your own opinion, but it should be well motivated.

MODEL answer: 1.1  What do you think “the Shadow”, line 76, 82, 90 symbolises in the context of this poem?       [2]

The hollow men have desires and are moved by their emotions, but never act on them – this could be evil in that people who stand by or do nothing when evil happens, are also guilty of letting evil happen, of not trying to prevent it.

Perhaps it is more evil to allow evil by turning a blind eye than to commit it – especially if one persuades oneself that one is not guilty.

More Questions and answers:

Inertia – something which prevents the hollow men from taking an initiative/ OR cowardice – their failure to perform their will./

1.2  Explain your answer to 1.2 by referring to ONE of the verses which end in the line “Falls the Shadow”.                                                                                                               [2]

CAN EXPLAIN ANY OF THE THREE VERSES:

“Between the idea     

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act”

The hollow men have an idea which they move toward,  “motion” but then do not complete it so the “reality” is that the “act” is prevented by the “Shadow” i.e they do not act on their ideas

“Between the conception

And the creation

Between the emotion                                                 

And the response”

As above – the hollow men are unable to translate ideas “conception” into realities “creation” or to act on their strong feelings, “”emotion” and so they do nothing.

“Between the desire

And the spasm                                                                       

Between the potency

And the existence

Between the essence

And the descent”

Although the hollow men would like to do something – “desire” they do not have the power “potency” to act on their desires and so fall into doing nothing.

1.3  How do the words in italics in lines: 77, 83 and 91, emphasise the indecisiveness of the hollow men?                                                                                                                   [2]

The words in italics are incomplete statements; unrelated to what goes before or after they are therefore meaningless [despite their inherent meaning in the allusion to God], like the lives of the hollow men, who miss meaning in everything.

1.4  This section begins and ends to the tune of a children’s nursery rhyme, “Here we go round the mulberry bush”. Does this imply that the hollow men see life as a game, or that they are childish, or do you have another explanation? Explain.                                                        [2]

A game would require some engagement, so they are childish in the sense of not taking responsibility for their lives// OR they are neither childish nor playing games, but rather engaged in meaninglessness that takes them nowhere – round in circles.//

The Hollow Men - summary

The poem is narrated by one of the "Hollow Men."

The Hollow Men are men of high ideals but without moral fortitude. Their passionate quest for noble idealism has blinded them, and they have sacrificed their morality for the sake of idealism. Now they seek salvation ...

In the first section of the poem, a bunch of Hollow Men are leaning together like scarecrows. Everything about them is as dry as the Sahara Desert, including their voices and their bodies. Everything they say and do is meaningless. They exist in a state like Hell, except they were too timid and cowardly to commit the violent acts that would have gained them access to Hell. They have not crossed over the River Styx to make it to either Heaven or Hell. The people who have crossed over remember these guys as "hollow men."

In the second section, one hollow man is afraid to look at people who made it to "death's dream kingdom" – either Heaven or Hell. The Hollow Men live in a world of broken symbols and images.

The third section of the poem describes the setting as barren and filled with cacti and stones. When the Hollow Men feel a desire to kiss someone, they are unable to. Instead, they say prayers to broken stones.

In the fourth section, the hollow man from Section 2 continues to describe his vacant, desolate surroundings, in which are no "eyes." The Hollow Men are afraid to look at people or to be looked at.

The fifth and final section begins with a nursery rhyme modeled on the song "Here we go 'round the mulberry bush," except instead of a mulberry bush the kiddies are circling a prickly pear cactus. The speaker describes how a "shadow" has paralyzed all of their activities, so they are unable to act, create, respond, or even exist. He tries quoting expressions that begin "Life is very long" and "For Thine is the Kingdom," but these, too, break off into fragments. In the final lines, the "Mulberry Bush" song turns into a song about the end of the world. You might expect the world to end with a huge, bright explosion, but for the Hollow Men, the world ends with a sad and quiet "whimper."

Old folks laugh by Maya Angelou

Poem:              Old folks laugh by Maya Angelou

The poet takes a simple but poetic view at aging. One of the important things of growing old, she says, is that the elderly are no longer forced to hold their tongues; but they may say exactly what comes to mind. They are also free to laugh as they please.

They have spent their

content of simpering,

holding their lips this

and that way, winding

the lines between                                                                                             5

their brows. Old folks

Allow their bellies to jiggle like slow

tambourines.

The hollers

rise up and spill                                                                                                10

over any way they want.

When old folks laugh, they free the world.                                          

They turn slowly, slyly knowing

the best and the worst

of remembering.                                                                                              15

Saliva glistens in

the corners of their mouths,

their heads wobble

on brittle necks, but

their laps                                                                                                            20

are filled with memories.                                                                               

When old folks laugh, they consider the promise

of dear painless death, and generously

forgive life for happening

to them.                                                                                                              25

Questions:      

1.1          List one advantage and one disadvantage of aging as described in the poem.        (2)                                                             

1.2       What does the word “hollers”, line 9 refer to?                                               (2)              

1.3       ‘their bellies jiggled like slow tambourines’ (lines 7/8)

1.3.1    Identify the figure of speech in the above line.                                             (1)                                                                                        

1.3.2    Explain the effectiveness of this comparison.                                                           (2)

1.4       What does the poet mean when she says:

“When the old folks laugh, they free the world”?                                         (2)

1.5       Why do you think the poet uses colloquialisms such as “folk” and “holler”?  (1) 

Model answer:

1.1          List one advantage and one disadvantage of aging as described in the poem.        (2)                                                             

Learners responses can include the following: Advantages- Freedom to express life with all it has to offer. Disadvantages - Physical deterioration of body, loss of independence.

1.2       What does the word “hollers”, line 9 refer to?                                           (2)              

“Hollers” usually means “shouting out”. In this poem, however it means that the old folk’s laughter is loud, as if their laughter itself is shouting out.

1.3       ‘their bellies jiggled like slow tambourines’ (lines 7/8)

1.3.1    Identify the figure of speech in the above line.                                         (1)                                                                                        

Simile    (1)

1.3.2    Explain the effectiveness of this comparison.                                                       (2)

Tambourines quiver, just as their bellies do and also tambourines make a joyful sound- they are used for festivals and celebrations, which links to laughter.

1.4       What does the poet mean when she says

“When the old folks laugh, they free the world”?                                     (2)

Just as old folks feel free to laugh as they wish, so their laughter itself is refreshing. It is pleasant to be with people who have the freedom to enjoy themselves and don’t mind other people seeing it.

1.5       Why do you think the poet uses colloquialisms such as “folk” and “holler”?  (1) 

The poem sounds more direct and personal in this way.