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Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Grade 12 English First Additional Language Mind the Gap study guide for the Poetry: Voice of the land by B. Walters.
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Acknowledgments All reasonable steps were taken to acknowledge the sources used in this study guide. In the event of any omission or error in the acknowledgments, kindly bring this to the attention of the Department of Basic Education.
The extracts from the Short Stories in this study guide are from Changes
by B. Walters
Mind the Gap Team
Senior Project Leaders: Dr S. Malapile, Ms C. Weston
Production co-ordinators:
B. Monyaki, B. Ras, M. Phonela, M. Nematangari
Authors: Ms Christelle Barnard, Ms Mpho Lukhele, Ms Pila Masakane, Ms Thembeka Mtolo, Ms
Mpho Mongale, Ms Nonhlanhla Mzila, Ms Renske Pieterse, Dr Nkosinathi Sithole
Critical reader: Monyaki, B.S.
Designer and editor: Page82 Media
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Onsite writers’ workshop support:
J. Mphidi, V. Magelegeda, R. Maboyi, K. Mothapo, N. Malope
Ministerial Foreword The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has pleasure in releasing the second edition of the Mind the Gap study guides for Grade 12 learners. These study guides continue the innovative and committed attempt by the DBE to improve the academic performance of Grade 12 candidates in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination. The study guides have been written by teams of experts comprising teachers, examiners, moderators, subject advisors and co-ordinators. Research, which began in 2012, has shown that the Mind the Gap series has, without doubt, had a positive impact on grades. It is my fervent wish that the Mind the Gap study guides take us all closer to ensuring that no learner is left behind, especially as we celebrate 20 years of democracy. The second edition of Mind the Gap is aligned to the 2014 Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). This means that the writers have considered the National Policy pertaining to the programme, promotion requirements and protocols for assessment of the National Curriculum Statement for Grade 12 in 2014. The Mind the Gap CAPS study guides take their brief in part from the 2013 National Diagnostic report on learner performance and draw on the Grade 12 Examination Guidelines. Each of the Mind the Gap study guides defines key terminology and offers simple explanations and examples of the types of questions learners can expect to be asked in an examination. Marking memoranda are included to assist learners to build their understanding. Learners are also referred to specific questions from past national exam papers and examination memoranda that are available on the Department’s website – www.education.gov.za. The CAPS editions include Accounting, Economics, Geography, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy and Physical Sciences. The series is produced in both English and Afrikaans. There are also nine English First Additional Language (EFAL) study guides. These include EFAL Paper 1 (Language in Context); EFAL Paper 3 (Writing) and a guide for each of the Grade 12 prescribed literature set works included in Paper 2. These are Short Stories, Poetry, Cry, the Beloved Country, The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Macbeth and My Children! My Africa! Please remember when preparing for Paper 2 that you need only study the set works you did in your EFAL class at school. The study guides have been designed to assist those learners who have been underperforming due to a lack of exposure to the content requirements of the curriculum and aim to mind-the-gap between failing and passing, by bridging the gap in learners’ understanding of commonly tested concepts, thus helping candidates to pass. All that is now required is for our Grade 12 learners to put in the hours required to prepare for the examinations. Learners, make us proud - study hard. We wish each and every one of you good luck for your Grade 12 examinations.
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Table of Contents Item Page Number
5 Dear Grade 12 learner
6 How to use this study guide
7 Top 7 study tips
7 On the examination day Instructional verbs and meaning 8
11 Overview of the English First Additional Language Paper 2: Literature Exam
12 What are the examiners looking for? Literary features found in Poems 13
Sub-headings per Poem Poetry
Hard to find – SinesipoJojo 16 - 20
One the grasshopper and cricket – 21 - 26
John Keats
Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare 27 - 33
Reciprocities – Cathal Lagan 34 - 38
What life is really like – Beverly Rycroft 39 - 47
You laughed and laughed and laughed 48 - 53
– Gabriel Okara
The lake isle of Innisfree – William 54 - 59
Butler Yeats
The slave dealer – Thomas Pringle 60 - 67
Inversnaid – Gerard Manley Hopkins 68 - 76
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The night-jar and Inkosazana 77 - 85
Yasezulwini – Chris Mann
Dear Grade 12 learner
This Mind the Gap study guide helps you to prepare for the end-of-year Grade 12 English First Additional Language (EFAL) Literature examination. There are three examination sessions for EFAL: Paper 1: Language in Context (80 marks); Paper 2: Literature (70 marks); and Paper 3: Writing (100 marks).
There are eight great EFAL Mind the Gap study guides which cover papers 1, 2 and 3. Paper 2: Literature, includes the study of novels, drama, short stories and poetry. A Mind the Gap study guide is available for each of the prescribed literature titles. Choose the study guide for the set works you studied in your EFAL class at school.
This study guide focuses on the 10 prescribed poems examined in Paper 2: Literature. You will need to study all 10 poems listed below for the examination.
Number Poem and Author Page
1. Hard to find – SinesipoJojo 16-20
2. One the grasshopper and cricket – John Keats 21-26
3. Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare 27-33
4. Reciprocities – Cathal Lagan 34-38
5. What life is really like – Beverly Rycroft 39-47
6. You laughed and laughed and laughed – Gabriel Okara 48-53
7. The lake isle of Innisfree – William Butler Yeats 54-59
8. The slave dealer -Thomas Pringle 60-67
9. Inversnaid – Gerard Manley Hopkins 68-76
10. 77-85 The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini – Chris Mann
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How to use this study guide
There is one chapter for each poem. Each chapter includes a copy of the poem and information about: • The background of the poem and poet; • The themes; • Words you need to know to understand the poem; • Type and form; • A detailed analysis; and • Tone, mood and intention. All the above information is then contained in a summary. Use the 10 summaries to help you understand the 10 poems clearly. You can test your understanding of each poem by completing the activities, then use the answers to mark your own work. The activities help you to understand the poems and to practise questions in preparation for the literature examination (paper 2).
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Top 7 study tips
Divide your work into manageable sections. This will help you to focus. Take short breaks between studying one section and going i. onto the next section. Have all your materials ready before you begin studying a section ii. - pencils, pens, highlighters, paper, glass of water, etc. Be positive. It helps your brain hold on to information iii. Your brain learns well with colours and pictures. Try to use them iv. whenever you can.
Repetition is the key to remembering information you have to
learn. Keep going over the work, until you can recall it with v. ease.
Teach what you are learning to anyone who will listen. It is
vi. definitely worth reading your revision notes aloud. Sleeping for at least eight hours every night, eating healthy food and drinking plenty of water are all important things you need to vii. do for your brain. Studying for examinations is like exercise, so you must be prepared physically as well as mentally.
On the examination day
Make sure you bring pens that work, sharp pencils, an eraser and a sharpener. Make sure you bring your smart ID card and examination admission letter. Arrive at the examination venue at least an hour i. before the start of the examination.
Go to the toilet before entering the examination room. You do not
want to waste valuable time going to the toilet during the ii. examination.
You must know at the start of the examination which two out of the four sections of the Paper 2 Literature Paper Examination you will be answering. Use the 10 minutes reading time to read the instructions, iii. carefully.
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Break each question down to make sure you understand
what is being asked. If you do not answer the question properly you will not get any marks for it. Look for the key words in the question to iv. know how to answer it. You will find a list of question words on page xii of this study guide.
Manage your time carefully. Start with the question you think is the easiest. Check how many marks are allocated to each question so you give the right amount of information in your answer. Use the v. suggested time allocation on the instruction page of the examination paper.
Remain calm, even if the question seems difficult at first. It will be
linked with something you have covered. If you feel stuck, move on to another question and come back if time allows. vi. Try to answer all the questions or as many questions as possible.
Take care to write neatly so that the markers can read your answers vii. easily.
INSTRUCTIONAL VERBS AND MEANING
Instructional verb Explanation Account for … Explain the reasons for why something is the way it is. E.g. Account for Hamlet's feelings towards Ophelia at this stage in the play.
Comment on Present an informed opinion on … This may also require an
agree/disagree/or partially agree response. E.g. Comment on the extent to which it would be justifiable to attribute Ophelia's suicide to Hamlet.
Compare Examine qualities of character/s to discover similarities. ‘Compare’ is
usually stated as ‘compare with’: you are to emphasise similarities. Although you may not be specifically asked to ‘compare and contrast’, you may discuss differences, if appropriate. Justify your choice.
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Critically discuss Express your judgement based on careful consideration of the evidence for and against something. Discuss the limitations and merits of something. Always provide supporting evidence from the text. E.g. Critically discuss how Pi's comment at this point in the novel is crucial to your understanding of his plight on the lifeboat
Describe In a descriptive answer you should recount, characterise, sketch or relate
in narrative form (story form)
Discuss The term discuss, directs you to examine, analyse carefully, and present points in favour and against an issue/point. This type of question calls for a complete and detailed answer. The response requires you to investigate by argument. You should sift through the arguments and the evidence to support them, giving reasons for and against both sides and examining the implications. You might need to provide evidence even for the ‘side’ you do not support, using evidence from the text.
Evaluate In an evaluation question, you are expected to present a careful
appraisal/judgement of the problem stressing both merits and limitations. You are weighing and giving your opinion, based on the evidence from the text.
Explain/How In explanatory answers, it is important that you clarify and interpret the material you present. In such an answer it is best to state the ‘how’ or ‘why’, reconcile any differences in opinion, and, where possible, state causes. The aim is to make plain the circumstances which give rise to whatever you are examining. E.g. Explain the irony in the words ...
Illustrate This question requires you to explain or clarify your answer to the problem by using an example (in languages, this does not mean that you should draw something).
Interpret Reveal what you believe to be the meaning or significance of something.
This involves giving your own judgement. You are expected to translate, solve or comment on the subject and give your reaction to the issue/subject.
Justify When you are instructed to justify your answer, you must prove or show adequate grounds for a decision or conclusion by supporting it with sufficient evidence and argument. In such a response, evidence must be presented in convincing form. E.g. Do you agree with the views expressed in line...? Justify your response by drawing on the novel as a whole.
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Place in context State what had just taken place to result in what is happening in the given extract and briefly state what happens after the given extract (the result).
State Outline clearly and briefly the facts of the situation. This does not call for an argument or opinion. Merely state the facts.
Summarise Give a condensed form/concise account of the main points or facts.
All details, illustrations, examples to be omitted.
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OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE PAPER2: LITERATURE EXAMINATION
In the Paper 2 Literature Examination, you need to answer questions from two sections. Choose the two sections that you know best: • Section A: Novel • Section B: Drama • Section C: Short Stories • Section D: Poetry A total of 70 marks is allocated for Paper 2, which means 35 marks for each section you choose. You will have 2 ½ hours for this exam. Here is a summary of the Paper 2 Literature Exam Paper: SECTION A: NOVEL
Answer ANY ONE question.
QUESTION NO. MARKS PAGE
NO. 1. Cry, the Beloved Country 35
2. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 35
SECTION B: DRAMA
Answer ANY ONE question.
3. Macbeth 35
4. My Children! My Africa! 35
SECTION C: SHORT STORIES
Answer the questions set on BOTH extracts.
5.1 Short Story 1 18
AND 5.2 Short Story 2 17
SECTION D: POETRY
Answer the questions set on BOTH poems.
6.1 Poem 1 18 AND 6.2 Poem 2 17
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What is a contextual question?
In a contextual question, you are given an extract from the poem. You then have to answer questions based on the extract. Some answers you can find in the extract. Other questions will test your understanding of other parts of the poem. Some questions ask for your own opinion about the poem.
What are the examiners looking for?
Examiners will assess your answers to the contextual questions based on: • Your understanding of the literal meaning of the poem. You need to identify information that is clearly given in the poem. • Your ability to reorganise information in the poem. For example, you may be asked to summarise key points. • Your ability to provide information that may not be clearly stated in the extract provided, using what you already know about the text as a whole. This process is called inference. For example, you may be asked to explain how a figure of speech affects your understanding of the poem as a whole. • Your ability to make your own judgements and form opinions about aspects of the poem. This process is called evaluation. For example, you may be asked if you agree with a statement. • Your ability to respond to the emotional level of a poem. This is called appreciation. For example, you may be asked what you would have done in the situation described in the poem. You may be asked to discuss how the writer’s style helps to describe the tone and mood of a poem.
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Literary features found in poems
Allegory A poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral, religious or political one. Many poems make use of allegories. Apostrophe The poet addresses an inanimate object, or an absent person. Enjambment (run-on lines) Continuation of sentence beyond end of line, e.g. ‘His state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed and post o’er land and ocean without rest:’ Diction The poet’s choice of words and how he/she organises them. Euphemism A mild or vague expression in place of a word that is more harsh or direct. Figures of speech: Words, phrases, or expressions used in a manner other than their literal meaning in order to produce a special effect. It is important to know how figures of speech work. First person The poem is written from the point of view of ‘I’ or ‘we’. Hyperbole A deliberate exaggeration. For example, ‘a big’ plate of food is described as ‘a mountainous’ plate of food. Imagery It is the use of word-pictures or images that usually appeal to our senses, but they may also appeal to the heart or the mind (Imagery is gathered by the understanding of the diction, tone and mood). Irony A statement or situation that has an underlying meaning that is different from the literal meaning. Lyric Originates also in songs. It is more emotive than other poems. It expresses the speaker’s feelings Metaphor A figure of speech that uses one thing to describe another in a figurative way. Metonymy Something associated with the object, represents the object, e.g. “And ploughs down palaces, and thrones, and towers.” In this example, the ‘Palaces’, ‘thrones and towers’ is a substitution for the people in power/Government/ Monarchs. Mood The emotions felt by the reader when reading the poem. Mood or feeling is a term used to refer to the atmosphere the poet creates within the particular work. It is related to the tone and in some ways, mood may also be said to reflect the poet’s attitude towards the subject matter. Examples of mood are cheerful, reflective, gloomy, humorous, melancholy, idyllic, whimsical, romantic, amongst others. Oxymoron A combination of words with contradictory meanings (meanings which seem to be opposite to each other). For example, ‘an open secret’ Personification Giving human characteristics to non-human beings. Pun A play on words which are identical or similar in sound. It is used to create humour. Rhetorical question A question that is asked not for information but to produce effect. Rhyme Lines of poetry that end in the same sound. It is the repetition of similar sounds. a) End rhyme: rhyme occurs at the end of lines of verse.
(time; crime) b) Half rhyme: words do not fully rhyme but there is a similarity in sound. (work; pitchfork) c) Internal rhyme: a word in the middle of the verse line, rhymes with the word at the end of the verse line. (“In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,) Rhythm A regular and repeated pattern of sounds. Sarcasm An ironic expression which is used to be unkind or to make fun of someone. Simile Comparing one thing directly with another. ‘Like’ or ‘as’ is used to make this comparison. Symbol Something which stands for or represents something else. Theme Themes are the main messages of a text. There are usually a few themes in each poem. Third person The poem is written from the point of view of ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘they’. Tone The feeling or atmosphere of the poem. It is the poet’s attitude towards the subject of the poem. The tone can only be determined once one has examined the diction of the poem thoroughly. The tone may also vary within a poem. (Emotional is not an example of tone, the emotion should be specifically stated.) Look at the examples of tone below: Sincere, humorous, forceful, critical, sarcastic, ironic, loving, mocking, sentimental, joyful, melancholic, bitter, amongst others. Sonnet • The sonnet is probably the poetic form most commonly used in English. • It has fourteen lines. • Rhymed iambic pentametre (five iambs per line). • There are two common rhyming patterns for sonnets: • Italian or Petrarchan • English or Shakespearian. Shakespearean/Elizabethan Sonnets • The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg, • Three quatrains (a set of four lines) and a final couplet (two lines). • The first two quatrains deal with a problem, then there is a Volta, indicating a transition located between the third stanza and the final couplet (line 13) • The last quatrain and couplet deal with a “solution” or way to cope. Petrarchan/Italian Sonnets ▪ The rhyme scheme of the Italian sonnet is abbaabba cdecde (or cdcdcd). ▪ The first eight lines are called an octave, in which a problem or situation is presented. ▪ In the sestet or the last six lines, the problem is resolved. ▪ There is a volta (change in tone and attitude in line 9.
Sound devices Alliteration A pattern of words that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated sound can be either at the beginning of successive words or inside a word. Assonance The vowel sounds of words that occur close together are repeated. Consonance A sound that occurs at the end of words that are close together is repeated. Onomatopoeia The use of words to create the sounds being described.
1.Hard to find by Sinesipo Jojo Sinesipo Jojo was born in the Eastern Cape (Port St Johns) in 1993. She began writing while still at high school. She wrote this poem while studying Psychology at a university in Port Elizabeth.
1. Summary of the poem
The speaker expresses how people at times struggle to find the right words to describe how they feel.
Hard to find by Sinesipo Jojo
1. Words are everywhere
2. daily 3. we read them, and they fly out 4. like nobody’s business when we are provoked…
5. but there’s always something hard to understand…
6. they are hard to find
7. when they are needed by the heart; 8. when the heart feels, 9. words hide like they are not part of life.
10. While words are busy playing some twisted game
11. my heart looks sadly through the glass windows 12. as the raindrops slowly slide down, gently 13. on a cloudy lifetime, 14. hoping that one day,
15. words will realize what my heart wants to say.
Words to know Word Basic meaning fly out escape/ leave nobody’s business slang phrase meaning something is being done with passion provoked to be angered/annoyed/irritated/frustrated twisted cruel slide move smoothly/ glide realize understand clearly/ become aware
2. Type and Form
The poem ‘Hard to find’ is a free verse which represents the emotions that the poet experiences. The mixture of long and short lines creates stanzas that portray the speaker’s mixed feelings.
3. Analysis Lines 1 - 5 In line 1 and 2 the speaker highlights the abundance of words. The daily availability of words is emphasised by the one word in line 2. The speaker explains in lines 3 - 4 that when a person is triggered by emotion, words are readily available (‘fly out’) as illustrated by the ellipsis after ‘provoked…’
In line 5 the speaker introduces a contradictory idea indicated by the word ‘but’. Whereas lines 1 to 4 focus on words that come easily, the focus now shifts to ‘something hard to understand’ that the speaker is trying to figure out.
Lines 6-9 The contradictory idea is explained in lines 6 - 9 when the speaker states that in times when a person experiences deep emotion, words are not readily available.
Lines 10-15 The idea that words are playing a cruel game of hide-and-seek is explored when the speaker explains how the game causes sadness. The speaker’s sadness is caused by an inability to find the right words to express their emotions. The sadness is evident in the tears (‘raindrops’) falling from the speaker’s eyes (‘glass windows’). The speaker is not only crying over a moment’s inability to express emotions or feelings, but over that of a lifetime.
Despite the speaker’s sadness about this inability to express feelings, lines 14 and 15 show that there is hope that it may be different in future. The concluding single line emphasises this hope of finding the right words to express feelings.
4. Themes Communication Words are used to communicate with one another. At times, words ‘fly’ freely when we are passionate, however, there are times we fail to speak freely as words ‘hide’ and we cannot find the right words to express how we feel.
Sadness When the speaker is at a loss of words to express emotion, it leads to a feeling of sadness. The ‘raindrops’ is a physical sign that the speaker experiences sadness when the ‘heart looks sadly through the glass window’.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Personification Line 15 (‘words will realize’) - in the same way a person would come to a clear understanding, words will understand what the heart is feeling.
Metaphor ● Line 3 (‘they fly out’) - ‘fly out’ indicates a quick action. In the same way the speaker refers to the speed with which words can be uttered, almost without thinking. ● Line 11 (‘my heart looks … the glass window’) - the eyes are a ‘glass window’ and the emotions the heart is feeling can be seen in a person’s eyes. ● Line 12 (‘raindrops slowly slide down’) - raindrops slide down a windowpane. Similarly, tears are falling down the speaker’s cheeks. ● Line 13 (cloudy lifetime) - the speaker expresses how the lack of words has always been something that prevented the full range of emotions to be expressed like clouds hiding the brightness of the sun. Metonymy In the poem, ‘the heart’ refers to the speaker who is struggling to express feelings.
6. Tone and Mood
● The tone is reflective, and the speaker considers why it is sometimes so difficult to find the appropriate words to express intense emotions. ● The mood is hopeful (in the last 2 lines) as the speaker is optimistic about the possibility that in future, words might be easily available.
1.7 Describe the speaker’s state of mind in this poem. (2)
1.8 One of the themes in this poem is sadness.
Discuss this theme. (3)
Total [15]
Suggested Answers 1.1 Words come out easily ✓ when the speaker is filled with emotions of anger or frustration. ✓ (2)
1.2 Daily suggests that words are used frequently. ✓ (1)
1.3 The ellipsis emphasises how difficult it is for the speaker to understand why he/she struggles to find words when intense emotion is experienced. ✓ (1)
1.4 (a) Metaphor✓ (1)
(b) The eyes are a window ✓ reflecting the speaker’s emotions. ✓ (2)
1.5 The speaker’s tears are rolling down ✓and this suggests that the speaker is emotional. ✓ (2)
1.6 B / reflective✓ (1)
1.7 The speaker is pensive/thoughtful✓ and realises that her inability to find words to express her innermost feelings, has clouded her life. ✓ (2)
1.8 One of the themes in this poem in discussion of the theme of sadness should include the following points, among others:
● The speaker’s inability to find words to express emotion, leads to a feeling of
sadness. ● ‘my heart looks sadly’ is a symbol of the speaker’s sadness. ● The ‘glass windows’ and the ‘raindrops’ represent sadness as they refer to the tears rolling down the speaker’s cheek. ● The cloudy lifetime shows the extent of the speaker’s sadness.
NOTE: When responding to a ‘discuss question’, you have to ground the
response in the poem and elaborate to make your understanding of the question clear. (3) Total [15]
and died on 23 February 1821, was a Romantic English poet who accentuated extreme emotion through natural imagery. He served as an apprentice to a surgeon before registering as a medical student. He later quit to devote his life to poetry. He died of tuberculosis, which had previously killed his mother and his younger brother.
1. Summary The poem ‘On the grasshopper and cricket’ is a Petrarchan Sonnet used by Keats to celebrate the beauty of nature. He pays particular attention to the grasshopper and the cricket by praising them for producing the music of nature. The octave focuses on the grasshopper as an agent of summer while the sestet looks into the role played by the cricket. Both these insects survive the harshest weather to fly around while producing their buzzing sounds. Both the octave and the sestet open with a declaration that the poetry of the earth is not dead.
2 When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 3 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 4 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; 5 That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead 6 In summer luxury—he has never done 7 With his delights; for when tired out with fun 8 He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. 9 The poetry of earth is ceasing never: 10 On a lone winter evening, when the frost 11 Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 12 The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, 13 And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 14 The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
Words to know Word Basic meaning faint feeling weak mead meadow, a piece of grassland delights pleasure, joy wrought brought about shrills produces a sharp and penetrating sound
2. Type and Form
The poem ‘On the grasshopper and cricket’ has 14 lines and is known as a Sonnet. This sonnet has two parts, i.e., the octave (8 lines) and the sestet (6 lines). This makes it an Italian/Petrarchan sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde.
3. Analysis With this sonnet, the speaker celebrates the continuous beauty of nature. As a Romantic poet, Keats praises nature and its capacity to bring joy to people. He believes that love and nature are interconnected. He feels that nature offers love and joy, and so humans must be receptive to that.
Octave (the first 8 lines)
The poetry of earth is never dead: a When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, b And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run b From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; a That is the Grasshopper’s — he takes the lead a In summer luxury— he has never done b With his delights; for when tired out with fun b He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. a
Line 1 By ‘poetry of earth’, the speaker refers to the sounds made by nature. These sounds are always alive. Even in extreme weather conditions, they do not die. The first line is metaphoric.
Lines 2-8 In summer, when the sun is too hot, the birds find it difficult to keep to their habits (line 2) and find comfort in the shelter of trees (line 3). However, the grasshopper flies from one place to another (lines 3-4) and one continuously hears a buzzing sound from all over the meadow (line 4). The grasshopper will not stop singing. When the grasshopper is tired (‘when tired out with fun’), he rests at ease under the weeds.
Hot sun Cooling trees
Newly-mown mead
Pleasant weed Indicative of summer
Luxury
Sestet (the last six lines)
The poetry of earth is ceasing never: c On a lone winter evening, when the frost d Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills e The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, c And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, d The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills. e
The poet uses poetic licence in line 9 (‘The poetry of earth is ceasing never’) to reinforce line 1 (The poetry of earth is not dead). When winter comes with frost and snow, and when creatures hide in their homes, the sound of the cricket will not be silenced. So, instead of growing quiet because of the cold temperatures, the cricket will find a corner in some warm kitchen near a stove and sing its song (‘from the stove there shrills/ A Cricket’s song’). The artificial warmth of a small room will make people feel drowsy, thus making the sound of the cricket seem like that of a grasshopper (lines 12-13).
In summary, the grasshopper and the cricket will survive the harshest weather conditions, even when the other animals surrender to it. When the other creatures feel weak because of the heat, the grasshopper continues singing. For the grasshopper, summer is a time of joy. In summer, Nature is alive, and the grasshopper will sing to provide music to nature. When winter comes and creatures are hiding, the cricket will take over from the grasshopper and sing to the world. These two insects keep the poetry of Nature alive.
4. Theme Beauty of Nature This sonnet describes the physical world and its natural beauty. We hear the voice of Nature in the sounds made by the grasshopper and cricket. These voices speak to us, creating the ‘poetry’ of Nature. The music of Nature is always alive.
Endurance The poetry of earth symbolises beauty and endurance. Like the poetry of the earth, Nature endures. Conditions may be harsh, but they can be overcome. The grasshoppers sing despite the heat and the crickets find their song, even when it is winter. Immortality One of the themes of this sonnet is the eternal delight of the beauty of nature. The sonnet’s message is that beauty of nature, endurance of life and love of poetry will never die.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Run-on-lines The run-on lines indicate the interconnectedness between creatures and Nature. These lines also symbolise continuity in Nature.
Repetition Line 1 ‘The poetry of earth is never dead:’ Line 9 ‘The poetry of earth is ceasing never:’ The poet uses a declaration in the first line. This declaration that the poetry of earth is forever and never ending is repeated to emphasise the immortality of Nature.
Imagery Line 1 ‘The poetry of earth’ - The earth is made up of different sounds which include the calls of birds and the buzz of insects. These sounds are the ‘voice of the earth’, which is represented as the poetry of the earth.
Personification Lines 10 and 11 ‘the frost has wrought a silence’ - Frost is personified as a person who brings silence. Contrast In summer Nature is noisier than winter when the frost ‘has wrought a silence’. The contrast is further emphasised by the creatures of summer who hide from the heat while the grasshopper is having fun.
Alliteration Line 4 ‘new-mown mead’ - Repetition of the m-sound.
Metaphor In the octave the sound of the grasshopper represents summer, while the sound of the cricket in the sestet represents winter.
6. Tone and Mood
The tone is joyful and merry because the sounds made by the calls of the birds and the buzz of insects create a celebratory mood.
Read the poem, ‘The grasshopper and the cricket’, and answer the questions below.
1 The poetry of earth is never dead:
2 When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 3 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 4 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; 5 That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead 6 In summer luxury—he has never done 7 With his delights; for when tired out with fun 8 He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. 9 The poetry of earth is ceasing never: 10 On a lone winter evening, when the frost 11 Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 12 The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, 13 And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 14 The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
2.1 Give a detailed description of the structure of this poem. (3)
2.2 Refer to lines 1-4 (‘The poetry of …the new-mown mead’)
(a) Identify the figure of speech in this line. (1)
(b) Quote TWO words from the poem that suggest a sense of relief from the heat of summer. (1)
2.3 Which creature’s voice is dominant in the octave? (1)
2.4 Refer to lines 10-11 (‘On a lone… stove there shrills’).
Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentence:
The figure of speech used in these lines is a/an ….
A simile. B personification. C onomatopoeia. D metaphor. (1)
2.5 Explain why the poet believes the poetry of the earth is not dead. (2)
2.6 Name the insect responsible for breaking the silence in winter. (1)
2.7 Explain the contrast in the octave. (2)
2.8 Identify the main theme of this sonnet. (1)
2.9 What constitutes the poetry of earth? State THREE points. (3)
2.10 The poet succeeds in illustrating the commonality between the grasshopper and the cricket. Discuss your view. (3) Total [19]
Suggested Answers 2.1 This sonnet is an Italian/Petrarchan sonnet. ✓ It comprises 14 lines. ✓ The first eight lines are referred to as the octave. ✓ The last six lines are referred to as the sestet. ✓ The rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde. ✓ (3)
2.2 (a) Metaphor ✓ (1)
(b) ‘cooling trees’ ✓ (1)
2.3 The grasshopper’s voice✓ (1)
2.4 B/ personification✓ (1)
2.5 The poetry of nature does not stop soothing us with its music✓. It soothes us throughout the year irrespective of the season. ✓ (2)
2.6 The cricket ✓ (1)
2.7 The contrast is created by the birds who hide in the extreme heat while the grasshopper is moving from hedge to hedge. ✓✓ (2)
2.8 Poetry and music in nature do not die/ The beauty of Nature/Endurance . ✓ (1)
2.9 The poetry of the earth is not written in words like normal poetry✓ but is made up of the sounds of nature. ✓ These sounds are produced by insects. ✓ (3)
2.10 Open-ended. Accept a relevant response which shows an understanding of the following viewpoints, among others: Yes. ● Both the grasshopper and the cricket represent voices in nature’s music. ● The grasshopper’s song balances the extreme heat during the summer by providing music that is comforting and pleasing and the cricket does the same during winter. ● In Nature, the grasshopper and the cricket are audible whereas the other creatures are silent and hiding.
No. ● These two insects provide irritating sounds referred to as poetry. ● The sounds made by these insects keep us awake instead of awakening a positive memory of summer. ● Not all readers will see the commonality between these insects because the cricket is hiding in winter whereas the grasshopper is active in summer.
NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. (3) Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem. Total [19]
and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town in England in 1564.
3.1 Summary of the poem
In the first quatrain, the speaker compares aging to late autumn when the leaves have fallen off the trees and the weather is cold. The church buildings (metaphor for bare branches) where the choirs once sang are now in ruins and the birds no longer sing.
The speaker compares aging to the dusk when the sun has set in the west and introduces the darkness of night-time in the second quatrain. Night-time is compared to death’s second self. In the third quatrain the speaker compares aging to the coals of a fire that is about to die. He compares old age that cannot exist without the figments of the youth to how the coals cannot burn without the ashes.
In the couplet, the speaker advises that these things must be noted so that love can be strengthened by the knowledge that we depart from our loved ones when life is extinguished.
Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare
1 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
2 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 3 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 4 Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang. 5 In me thou seest the twilight of such day 6 As after sunset fadeth in the west, 7 Which by and by black night doth take away, 8 Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. 9 In me thou seest the glowing of such fire 10 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 11 As the deathbed whereon it must expire, 12 Consumed with that which it was nourished by. 13 This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, 14 To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Words to know Word Basic meaning bough branch of a tree ruined reduced to a state of collapse twilight period just before it becomes completely dark in the evening seals a tight and perfect closure ere before (a specified time)
3.2 Type and Form
This is a Shakespearean sonnet, also known as an Elizabethan sonnet. Like all sonnets, it has fourteen lines. It is divided into 3 quatrains (units of four lines) and has a rhyming couplet (a unit of two lines). The rhythm in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
3.3 Analysis In each quatrain, the speaker uses a different image to show the progression of life from youthfulness to old age and death. The following images have been used: In quatrain 1 the tree, quatrain 2 the sunset and quatrain 3 the glowing fire.
Quatrain 1 In the first quatrain, the speaker compares his current state to autumn, a season when the leaves fall from the branches. The branches shake because of the cold wind. This means that he is getting older and losing his youth just like the trees lose their green leaves. There is a quietness that comes with getting old when the youthful exuberance no longer exists.
Quatrain 2 In this quatrain, the speaker compares his progress towards death as moving from dusk, (after the sun has set) to night-time. The change in the comparison from a season to a day shows the speed with which aging affects the body.
Quatrain 3 The third quatrain clarifies the end that the speaker talks about represents death that the speaker is moving to. In this quatrain, the speaker’s life is compared to a fire that will soon be extinguished. He refers to both literal death and figurative death which signifies the end of his youth.
The Couplet The speaker introduces the reader to the importance of love. He wants the reader to see what life is like, so they value their time together. He reminds us that we need to love well because we will have to leave (die) soon.
3.4 Themes Aging In this poem, the speaker explores what it feels like to get older and face the reality that death is imminent. The effects of time on one’s physical health and mental fear are compared to moving further from youth and closer to death. Part of growing old is longing for the years gone by. Aging is also associated with a sense of peace and calm as life begins to slow down. By comparing the speaker to a tree in late autumn his age is revealed. However, the yellow falling leaves that shake from the cold are clear signs that the tree is not ready for winter. The comparison of the bare branches where the birds no longer sing to ruined churches where the choir no longer sings, reveals how the speaker mourns the loss of his youthful appearance. The absence of birds implies the peace and quiet that comes with old age.
Death The speaker seems to be haunted by the inevitable truth that all living beings are subjected to death. The poem includes several metaphors for death. In the second quatrain the moving image of twilight fading as the sun sets in the west and turning into darkness, symbolises the last moments of the speaker. The image of fire that is
extinguished and turning into ashes, in the third quatrain, represents a youthful life that is well lived. The ashes represent a beautiful life that has come to an end.
Love In line 13 the speaker introduces the theme of love. Although love can triumph over many obstacles, it is still limited by mortality and nature. In the poem, love is discussed in relation to the life cycle. The speaker wants the reader to understand that life is not too long, and it may be too late to enjoy this light feeling of love. The speaker, therefore, advises the reader to fall in love as often as possible and to love when possible.
3.5 Diction and Figurative Language
Assonance Line 2 ‘When yellow leaves…’
Alliteration ● Line 4 ‘sweet birds sang’ - contrasts with ‘bare ruin’d choirs’. This emphasises the change that has taken place. ● Line 7 ‘by and by black night’ - supports the feeling of death fast approaching. ● Line 8 ‘Death’s second self … up all in rest’ - links the dark hours of night to Death. ● Line 14 ‘To love that … leave ere long’ - The alliteration in this line emphasises the strong, positive emotion of love.
Metaphor ● Line 10 ‘ashes of youth’ - The speaker compares life to fire that is burning out. His once youthful nature has turned to ash. ● Lines 7-8 ‘Death’s second self …of such fire’ – death is compared to night.
Metonymy ● This is a figure of speech that replaces the name of things with something else with which there is close association. ● Line 4 ‘Bare ruined choirs’ - substitute the bare branches that are stripped of their leaves.
Simile ● Lines 5-6: ‘As after sunset …doth take away’ - The speaker compares his life to daytime when twilight is replaced by sunset.
Symbolism ● Lines 2-4 ‘When yellow leaves…sweet birds sang.’- Trees are a symbol of life and growth. The physical changes of the tree as the winter season sets in reflects how the speaker’s body is degrading as death approaches. ● Lines 5-6 ‘In me thou …in the west’ - Light is a symbol for life and hope and darkness is a symbol for death. In these lines the speaker refers to death slowly taking away his life.
Imagery ● The use of imagery clarifies the speaker’s feelings and emotions. In this sonnet, the speaker has used the following images:
Images of Autumn: Lines 2 - 3 ‘When yellow leaves,... shake against cold ’
Images of Death: ● Line 7 ‘black night’ ● Line 6 ‘sunset fadeth’
Apostrophe Line 13: ‘This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong’.
3.6 Tone and Mood
In the quatrains, the tone is pensive and mournful as the speaker perceives his proximity to death. It is also melancholic as the speaker explains that he is aging. The tender tone creates a sentimental and sorrowful mood.
ACTIVITY 3 Read the poem, ‘Sonnet 73’, and answer the questions below.
Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare
1 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
2 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 3 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 4 Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang. 5 In me thou seest the twilight of such day 6 As after sunset fadeth in the west, 7 Which by and by black night doth take away, 8 Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. 9 In me thou seest the glowing of such fire 10 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 11 As the deathbed whereon it must expire, 12 Consumed with that which it was nourished by. 13 This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, 14 To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
3..1 Give a detailed description of the structure of this poem. (3)
3.2 Refer to the first quatrain.
Identify the time of year the speaker is referring to. (1)
3.4 Refer to lines 5-6 (‘In me though…in the west’).
Explain the imagery in these lines. (2)
3.5 Refer to line 7 (‘Which by and …doth take away’).
(a) Identify the literary device used in this line. (1)
(b) Explain how this literary device enhances the message of this poem. (2)
3.6 Refer to lines 8-12 (‘Death’s second self … was nourished by’).
Give ONE word which best describes the speaker’s state of mind in these lines.
Substantiate your answer. (2)
3.7 Identify the speaker’s tone in the third quatrain. (1)
3.8 One of the themes in this poem is death.
Discuss this theme. (3)
3.9 The couplet is a fitting conclusion to this sonnet.
Discuss your view. (3)
Total [20] Suggested Answers
3.1 This sonnet is an Elizabethan/Shakespearean sonnet. ✓
It comprises 14 lines. ✓ It has 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet. ✓ The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. ✓ (3)
3.2 Autumn✔ (1)
3.3 The leafless branches where the birds used to sit, and sing are compared to the ruins of the church building where the choirs once sang. ✓ ✓ (2)
3.4 The speaker compares his fast-fading life to a day when twilight is quickly replaced by night-time. ✓✓ (2)
3.5 (a) Alliteration✓ (1)
(b) It indicates the speed with which the twilight fades and gives way to the night. ✓ This shows how fast time flies and brings his death closer. ✓ (2)
3.6 The speaker is depressed/melancholic. ✓
He realises he is getting older, and he is reaching the end of his life. ✓ (2)
3.7 mournful/pensive ✓ (1)
3.8 The discussion of the theme of death should include the following points, among others:
● The speaker is haunted by the inevitable truth that all living beings are subject to death. ● The moving image of twilight fading as the sun sets in the west and turning into darkness symbolises the last moments of the speaker. ● The image of fire that is extinguished and turning into ashes, in the third quatrain, represents a youthful life that is well lived. The ashes represent a beautiful life that has come to an end.
NOTE: The interpretation must be grounded in the poem. (3)
3.9 Open-ended. Accept a relevant response which shows an understanding of the following viewpoints, among others:
Yes. ● The speaker wants the readers to see how short life is so that they value their time together. ● He reminds us that we need to love well because we will have to leave (die) before long. ● The couplet ends the poem with positivity and hope instead of it dwelling on sadness and death. No. ● The couplet has no link to the poem, it cannot be a suitable ending. ● Telling a person who is thinking of death to focus on love could be insensitive. ● Some people do not need to be reminded of the importance of love because love is their life.
NOTE: You will not be awarded any marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem. (3) Total [20]
4. Reciprocities by Cathal Lagan Cathal Lagan was born in Northern Ireland in 1937. He served as a priest in Port Elizabeth, Alice and King William’s Town before teaching English Literature at the University of Fort Hare.
1. Summary In this narrative free verse, the speaker reflects on how he used to help his mother during her knitting sessions. He remembers how his mother would make him hold the skeins of wool so she could roll it into a ball. He is also reminded of the relationship they had. He is now a writer and his writing process reminds him of those childhood years. He compares his writing to his mother's knitting. His mother benefitted from him just like he benefited from his mother’s experience, commitment, talks and skill. Reciprocities for my mother By Cathal Lagan 1 She gave me skeins of wool 2 To hold out (like a priest at Mass), 3 With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she 4 Wound it into a ball, unwinding me, 5 Unravelling my hands and arms, checking 6 My lapses with a gentle tug 7 When I wandered off through images 8 Her chat had made, for though 9 She kept the line between us taut 10 She kept my heart at ease with all her talk.
11 And when her ball compacted grew,
12 And my few strands fell limp away, 13 I knew there was no loss, for she 14 Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.
15 But richer still,
16 I see today these lines are drawn out from me 17 To knit through this faltering verse 18 A thread of memory 19 Time has pulled away from consciousness.
Words to know Word Basic meaning skeins length of thread loosely coiled or knotted rubrics instructions on how a church service should be conducted lapse brief or temporary loss of concentration taut tight compacted compressed or firmly packed together strand a thin length of thread faltering imperfect
2. Type and Form
This is a narrative poem written in free verse. It does not follow a specific set of rules. The first stanza comprises 10 lines, the second stanza 4 lines and stanza 3 comprises 5 lines.
3. Analysis The speaker remembers how he helped his mother by holding the skeins of wool to wind into a small ball so she could do her knitting. He details the process focusing on her mother’s precision and attention to detail. He then compares that whole process to that of him writing his poetry.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines reciprocity as a state of mutual
dependence. So, this poem is about mutual benefits. The mother would be assisted by the boy when knitting. The boy has grown up to be a man, and he now writes poetry. He compares his writing to his mother’s knitting.
Stanza 1 In stanza one, the speaker looks at the process of winding or spinning wool into a ball. His mother would give him skeins to hold with two hands held up and wide apart. Holding his hands like that would make him look like a priest at a mass (line 2). He would be given instructions to follow just like a priest would follow instructions from the rubrics (line 3). He would be told not to move or twitch (‘not to fidget’ in line 3). As the process goes on his head would spin, resulting in his confusion and wandering. He would drop his hands. She would check his concentration by pulling the strands harder (‘… checking/ My lapses with a gentle tug’ in lines 5 and 6). If he loses concentration and his mind starts wandering, his mother puts him at ease by talking to him. Stanza 2 When the ball of firm, strong wool grew bigger and bigger (line 11) it is a sign that there was no loss and they had enough for his mother to knit something for him.
Stanza 3 Looking back, he now realises that his imperfect poems that he creates are not as perfect as his mother’s knitting. His writing is like a thread that connects him to his mother. Writing poetry always prompts his thoughts about his mother’s knitting. ‘But’ (line 15) is used to show transition or to link his childhood to adulthood.
4. Theme Nostalgia The speaker longs for the time he has spent with his mother and some of the activities they did while being together. When he writes, he feels connected to his mother and this reinforces the idea of nostalgia.
Mutual dependence The mother benefits from the boy who holds the skeins of cotton for her. The boy also benefits from spending time in his mother’s company. Her focus and creativity find its way into his writing.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
This poem is written in free-verse, and it uses a language that is visually descriptive. Simile Line 2 ‘To hold out (like a priest at Mass)’ - the poet is ordered to lift his hands up just like a priest would lift his hands up during a sermon.
Personification Lines 18-19 ‘A thread of memory/Time has pulled away’ - time is personified as a person who has pulled a thread of memory away from consciousness.
Contrast Lines 15 - 19 ‘But richer still … away from consciousness’)’ - His imperfect writing (‘faltering verse’) forms a contrast to his mother’s perfect knitting.
6. Tone and Mood
The tone is appreciative because the speaker appreciates the lessons he learnt from his mother. This creates a nostalgic and sentimental tone when the speaker writes poetry.
ACTIVITY 4 Read the poem, ‘Reciprocities’, and answer the questions below.
1 She gave me skeins of wool
2 To hold out (like a priest at Mass), 3 With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she 4 Wound it into a ball, unwinding me, 5 Unravelling my hands and arms, checking 6 My lapses with a gentle tug 7 When I wandered off through images 8 Her chat had made, for though 9 She kept the line between us taut 10 She kept my heart at ease with all her talk.
11 And when her ball compacted grew,
12 And my few strands fell limp away, 13 I knew there was no loss, for she 14 Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.
15 But richer still,
16 I see today these lines are drawn out from me 17 To knit through this faltering verse 18 A thread of memory 19 Time has pulled away from consciousness.
4.1 Describe the structure of this poem. (2)
4.2 Refer to line 2 (‘To hold out (like a priest at Mass’).
(a) Identify a figure of speech in this line. (1)
(b) Explain the meaning of this figure of speech. (2)
4.3 Why does the mother check the boy’s lapses? (2)
4.4 Refer to line 9 (‘She kept the line between us taut’).
Explain the use of the word ‘line’. (2)
4.5 Give ONE reason why the ball grows. (1)
4.6 Refer to Stanza 2
Quote ONE word from stanza 2 that has the same meaning as strings. (1)
4.7 Identify the tone the speaker uses in lines 1 to 15. (1)
4.8 Explain the role and the effectiveness of the word ‘But’ at the beginning of the third stanza. (2)
4.9 Refer to line 16.
Discuss the meaning of the phrase ‘these lines’. (2)
Suggested Answers 4.1 This poem is a narrative poem ✓ in free verse comprising three stanzas of unequal length. ✓ (2)
4.2 (a) Simile✓ (1)
(b) The same way a priest would hold out his hands during a mass to bless people✔, the speaker holds out his hands when assisting his mother. ✓ (2)
4.3 The boy has a tendency for his thoughts to wander ✓and that might lead to him losing his grip. ✓ (2)
4.4 The word refers to the string he is holding as he helps his mother, ✓ and also to the relationship they have where his mother would pull him back on track when he goes astray. ✓ (2)
4.5 It is a sign that they have been doing this task for some time. / They have spun more string. ✓ (1)
4.6 ‘strands’ ✓ (1)
4.7 nostalgic / sentimental ✓ (1)
4.8 The word ‘But’ is transitional in its use ✓ because it links the speaker’s past to the present. ✓ (2)
4.9 The phrase ‘these lines’ refers to the poetry that he is now writing✓ while the lines are also associated with the thread he used to help his mother spin. ✓ (2) Total [16]
by Beverly Rycroft Beverly Rycroft was born in the Eastern Cape. She qualified as a teacher at the University of Cape Town and furthered her studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. After teaching for several years, she turned to writing. As a qualified teacher, she taught widely at various schools before she focused on writing full-time. Her debut poetry collection, missing, won the 2012 Ingrid Jonker award. In 2013, she was awarded the Thomas Pringle Prize for best poem in a journal.
In 1997 Beverly Rycroft was diagnosed with
stage three breast cancer. The themes of the poems in her debut collection, missing relate to the experience of facing mortality, illness and the hope of recovery.
1. Summary of the poem
The poet relives some of her childhood experiences when her dad exposed her to a number of experiences that, in his view, would prepare her for life. His demeanour changes after she returns home, recuperating from invasive surgery.
What life is really like
by Beverly Rycroft 1 You need to toughen up 2 my father would complain 3 when I was small 4 I ought to take you to see 5 chickens having their heads 6 chopped off. 7 That’d teach you 8 what life is really like.
9 He’d seek me out
10 when one of his pigeons 11 - crazed for home or 12 mad with terror from a 13 roaming hawk –
19 clench my palms round 20 its pumping chest, 21 to keep it still while 22 my father’s hairy fingers stitched 23 its garotted throat 24 angrily to rights again.
25 You see life is a fight for survival
26 he’d shout, forgetting 27 he was not lecturing his students 28 or giving his inaugural address 29 You gotta roll with the punches.
30 i waited and waited for the bitter
31 roughness to spy me and circle 32 in to land 33 years and years 34 of flinching anticipation until 35 the day i came home from hospital
36 and my father dressed my wound.
37 Easing with practiced hands
38 the drip from my bulldozed chest 39 he renewed the plaster in breathing silence 40 never speaking never 41 once saying
42 Life’s a bastard 43 Toughen Up.
Words to know Word Basic meaning to toughen up to become hardened to the ways of the world, and to be less emotional when dealing with pain and suffering. complain express dissatisfaction or annoyance about something terror extreme fear roaming moving about aimlessly or unsystematically, especially over a wide area tumble move or rush in a headlong or uncontrolled way loft a pigeon house
mutilated inflicted a violent and disfiguring injury
garotted kill (someone) by strangulation, especially with a length of wire or cord survival the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances inaugural marking the beginning of an institution, activity, or period of office flinching making a quick, nervous movement as an instinctive reaction to fear, pain, or surprise. anticipation the action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction dress wound clean, treat, or apply a dressing to a wound
2. Type and Form
The poem ‘What life is really like’ is a lyric written in free verse. The poem consists of 8 stanzas of 43 lines of unequal length.
3. Analysis Stanza 1 The poem starts with an instruction from a father to his young daughter, ‘You need to toughen up’, but the girl experiences it as a complaint about her innocence. The father implies that the child needs to get used to the real experiences in life in line 8 (‘what life is really like’) which implies that she does not yet understand the intricacies of life. Furthermore, ‘really’ in line 8 is printed in bold, emphasising the importance of his message.
Stanza 2, 3 and 4 In these three stanzas the child describes the father using another real-life situation to teach her about the cruelty of life. He forces her to assist when he stitches up an injured pigeon. The father uses anecdotes like ‘life is a fight for survival’ (line 25) and ‘you gotta roll with the punches’ to get his message across. His child experiences his tone as harsh and angry. She feels her father forgets she is his child and not one of his students at university.
Stanza 5 In this stanza, ‘I’ is now reduced to ‘i’ (lower case). This corresponds with the mood of vulnerability she experiences due to the expectation she had for ‘years and years’ (line 33) that harm will come her way one day. This expectation is realised when she falls ill.
Stanza 6 This stand-alone line must be read in conjunction with lines 34 and 35. It is effective that the father, who used to warn her to toughen up, is the one to dress her wounds.
Stanza 7 The poet describes the way her father dresses her wounds. It is significant because he does it in silence which contrasts with his conduct during her childhood when he was described as loud and insensitive.
Stanza 8 These lines are effectively isolated from the previous stanza. The poet tells us that her father is now a changed man. He believes she has received her share of toughening up by the invasive surgery she experienced.
4. Themes Cruelty The father believes life is hard and he attempts to make his child aware of the harshness of life by exposing her to events that are seen as harsh. Examples of these are chickens that are killed by decapitation and a pigeon injured in flight that the father has to stitch up.
Fate Fate is part of life and human beings cannot act in any way to change the outcome of what has been planned. The father does his best to ensure that his child is aware of the cruel nature of life, but still, when the family is faced with a medical incident that influences their lives, he is shocked. He therefore treats her wounds in silence and realises that they are now experiencing the fact that ‘Life’s a bastard’.
Psychology of growing up The father presents his child with many examples of how ‘Life’s a bastard’ and ‘Toughen up’ and he repeats these words to enforce the idea that his daughter has to develop resilience to be ready to face the cruelty of fate. The effect of his actions is that she grows up waiting for a cruel event for ‘years and years’ to strike her. She describes fate as a predatory bird that spies on her causing her to flinch in anticipation of the harsh event that will happen.
Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Metaphor ● Lines 30 - 32 (‘i waited and … in to land’) - The speaker describes the toughness expected by her father as a ‘bitter roughness’ and compares it to a bird of prey, as it circles above her looking for a place to land. ● Line 38 (‘my bulldozed chest’) - The way she describes the effects of the surgery (breast removal) is indirectly compared to the state of soil churned up by a bulldozer.
Personification ● Lines 10-12 (‘when one of … mad with terror’) - the pigeon is described as a crazy or mad person. It is effective because the speaker successfully emphasises how unsettled the pigeon was.
Contrast ● There is a contrast between stanzas 1 and 7. In stanza 1 the father is constantly uttering lessons to ‘toughen’ her up, whereas in stanza 7 he is quiet while he is dressing her wound.
Images ● The speaker makes use of imagery to assist the reader to understand her emotions when she has to assist her father to stitch up the bird. She has to hold the bird tightly, ‘clenched’, and we can picture how frightened the bird is by the description of his ‘pumping chest’ – referring to his heartbeat. She also mentions his ‘garotted throat’ which is a very strong image derived from strangling a victim with a cord, thong, or length of wire. The pigeon could have blindly flown into a wire because he was so anxious to get home (‘crazed for home’) or a hawk looking for prey, (‘roaming’), could have sliced his neck. ● The father is also pictured vividly through the description of his ‘hairy fingers’ working ‘angrily’ to stitch the wound. He is shouting that the girl should remember that ‘life is a fight for survival’. Repetition ● In stanza 5, ‘waited and waited’ and ‘years and years’ are repeated to emphasise how the girl always expected to receive a blow from the universe.
6. Tone and Mood
The poem starts on a serious, cautionary tone when the father warns his child to expect life to be tough, but it changes in stanza 7 to one of resignation* when the father realises that his child has experienced her share of toughness.
The speaker’s mood is one of anticipation as she is forever waiting on fate to deal her a blow.
*resignation - the acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable
ACTIVITY 3 Read the poem, ‘What life is really like’and answer the questions below.
What life is really like – Beverly Rycroft
1 You need to toughen up 2 my father would complain 3 when I was small 4 I ought to take you to see 5 chickens having their heads 6 chopped off.
10 when one of his pigeons 11 - crazed for home or 12 mad with terror from a 13 roaming hawk – 14 would tumble into 15 the loft 16 mutilated by 17 wire or beak.
18 I was the one made to
19 clench my palms round 20 its pumping chest, 21 to keep it still while 22 my father’s hairy fingers stitched 23 its garotted throat 24 angrily to rights again.
25 You see life is a fight for survival
26 he’d shout, forgetting 27 he was not lecturing his students 28 or giving his inaugural address 29 You gotta roll with the punches.
30 i waited and waited for the bitter
31 roughness to spy me and circle 32 in to land 33 years and years 34 of flinching anticipation until 35 the day i came home from hospital
36 and my father dressed my wound.
37 Easing with practiced hands
38 the drip from my bulldozed chest 39 he renewed the plaster in breathing silence 40 never speaking never 41 once saying
42 Life’s a bastard 43 Toughen Up.
5.1 Give TWO reasons why this poem can be described as ‘free verse’. (2)
(b) It effectively describes the agitated state of the pigeon after he nearly does not make it home or is accosted by a hawk✓ by comparing him to a crazy person who is mad with terror. ✓ (2)
5. 4 ‘tumble’✓ (1)
5.5 D/metaphor. ✓ (1)
5. 6 (a) serious/stern ✓ (1)
(b) He is adamant that his child must become stronger and face the challenges in life. ✓ He needs her to understand that life is hard. ✓ (2)
5.7 (a) It effectively portrays her feelings of defencelessness✓ while waiting for the arrival of her bad luck as predicted by her father. ✓ (2)
(b) ‘waited’ and ‘years’ ✓ (1)
(c) It emphasises how long she has been waiting✓ for the toughness of life to attack her. ✓ (2)
5. 8 He gained previous experience on treating wounds✓ by caring for his pigeons. ✓ (2)
5.9 Open-ended. Accept a relevant response which shows an understanding of the following viewpoints, among others:
Yes. ● A father needs to warn his children that ‘Life’s a bastard’ otherwise they may live in a dream world. ● He uses his life experiences, e.g., a chicken being slaughtered in a violent way and stitching up a wounded pigeon. ● His child’s chest was ‘bulldozed’ in an operation which is a good reason for a person to ‘toughen up’. No. ● It is unfair to put that burden on a child, making her wait for years and years to be stricken down. ● She finally experiences a bad thing, but her awareness of the tough nature of life does not make it any easier to deal with it. ● Her father changes his mind in the end and stops his sayings showing that he has reconsidered.
NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem.
Gabriel Jibaba Okara was a Nigerian poet and novelist.
He was born in Bomoundi State in Nigeria on 24 April 1921. He was well known for his Novel, ‘The Voice’. He won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts in 1953.
He was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize In
1979. He died in Federal Medical Centre, Nigeria on 25 March 2019.
1. Summary of the poem
This poem depicts the life of Africans who faced racism at the hands of white people. They were ‘laughed at’ or mocked by white people for their song, dance and music which they used to express their pain and emotions. White people laughed at the Africans because they did not understand the meaning dancing and singing had for black people. The poem ends on a positive note when the speaker describes how white people learn to understand the importance of dancing and singing to Africans.
You laughed and laughed and laughed
by Gabriel Jibaba Okara 1 In your ears my song 2 is motor car misfiring 3 stopping with a choking cough; 4 and you laughed and laughed and laughed.
5 In your eyes my ante
6 natal walk was inhuman, passing 7 your ‘omnivorous understanding’ 8 and you laughed and laughed and laughed.
12 to the rhythm of talking drums pleading, 13 but you shut your eyes 14 and laughed and laughed and laughed.
15 And then I opened my mystic
16 inside wide like 17 the sky, instead you entered your 18 car and laughed and laughed and laughed
19 You laughed at my dance,
20 you laughed at my inside.
21 You laughed and laughed and laughed,
22 But your laughter was ice-block 23 laughter and it froze your inside froze 24 your voice froze your ears 25 froze your eyes and froze your tongue.
26 And now it’s my turn to laugh;
27 but my laughter is not 28 ice-block laughter. For I 29 know not cars, know not ice-blocks.
30 My laughter is the fire
31 of the eye of the sky, the fire 32 of the earth, the fire of the air, 33 the fire of the seas and the 34 rivers fishes animals trees 35 and it thawed your inside, 36 thawed your voice, thawed your 37 ears, thawed your eyes and 38 thawed your tongue.
39 So a meek wonder held
40 your shadow and you whispered: 41 ‘Why so?’ 42 And I answered: 43 ‘Because my fathers and I 44 are owned by the living 45 warmth of the earth 46 through our naked feet.’
Words to know Word Basic meaning ante natal before birth, relating to pregnancy omnivorous understanding understanding everything indiscriminately (extensively) mystic magical thawed softened, melted meek quiet, gentle, shy, patient
2. Type and Form
The poem ‘You laughed and laughed and laughed’ consists of 10 stanzas, unequal in length, it has no defined metre, no consistent rhyme scheme, and no specific length or formal requirements. The only consistency is repetition of the title at the end of the first four stanzas and again in stanza 7.
3. Analysis Stanza 1 In this stanza, the speaker portrays the attitude of white people towards African songs. The sound of their song is harsh and loud, white people do not understand it, as a result it sounds like a ‘motor car misfiring’, making an awkward noise. He says white people do not value African culture, instead they laugh and laugh and laugh. The repetition of ‘laughed and laughed and laughed’ adds to the beauty of the poem as the words emphasise the racial discrimination that black people experience.
Stanza 2 The African people are not as stylish and modern as the white people. They have a clumsy walk, ‘ante natal walk’ (image of a pregnant woman) which is considered ‘inhuman’ (not like a human) and they are mocked about it.
Stanza 3 These two lines summarise and put emphasis on how white people mock African people for their song and walk.
Stanza 4 African people are mocked for their ‘magical’(cultural) dance by the speaker who describes the reaction of white people who close their eyes to avoid looking at it. They dance to their music, and to the ‘rhythm of talking drums pleading’, (the image of the ‘talking drums pleading’ represents the beat of the drums).
Stanza 5 The speaker invites the white people to experience the beauty of his world (mystic/magical). Instead of the whites enjoying that space (the African sky) they prefer their materialistic world, represented by their cars.
Stanza 6 The white people laughed at everything that mattered most to the African people: their culture and dance.
Stanza 7 The speaker describes the continuous laughter of the white people as icy-cold. Mocking freezes their ability to empathise with Africans and the understanding of African culture. Furthermore, the laughter closed all the senses of the white people (hearing, seeing and tasting), preventing them from relating to the African people.
Stanza 8 In this stanza, the speaker uses ‘And now’ to indicate a change. It is now the turn of African people to laugh, but their laughter is not mocking like the laughter of the white people. African people are not materialistic, and they are naturally warm-natured unlike white people, therefore they do not mock white people.
Stanza 9 The intensity of African laughter is portrayed using fire, sun, water (natural elements). The speaker describes the African’s laughter as the fire of the sun (eye of the sky). The intensity of the heat of the sun is emphasised. The speaker uses fine elements of the earth (animate and inanimate objects) to intensify how fire can melt (thaw) their frozen hearts.
Stanza 10 This stanza concludes the poem. It is at this point that the white man realises that despite all the humiliation African people endured, they are still warm-hearted. They are very close to Nature.
4. Themes Racism The issue of racism is explored in the poem. The speaker mentions the disgrace of racial intolerance with special reference to how white people mock African people about their music and dance.
Culture African culture is mocked and ridiculed by white people who misunderstand their songs and dance. White people show no empathy with the culture of Africans and misunderstand the connection that Africans have with Nature.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Repetition The constant repetition of the title, ‘you laughed and laughed and laughed’ emphasises the humiliation black people suffered at the hands of the colonials. Metaphor Line 22 and line 30 ‘But your laughter was ice-block’ and ‘My laughter is the fire’ - The laughter of whites is compared to ‘ice-blocks’ and then the speaker compares his laughter with fire.
(c) Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentence.
‘Omnivorous understanding’ (line 7) means understanding is …
A omniscient . B omnipresent. C onomatopoeia. D undiscriminating. (1) Total [15]
Suggested Answers
6.1 The poem consists of 10 stanzas that are not equal in length.✓It has no defined metre/no consistent rhyme scheme/no consistent length.✓ (2)
6.2 The speaker is comparing the noise of cars misfiring to the awkward ‘noise’ of the African people’s songs. ✓ (1)
6.3 They ridicule their songs ✓ and the way they walked. ✓ (2) .
6.4 The discussion of the theme of racism should include the following points, among others: ● White people do not accommodate the culture of Africans, as they see them as uncivilised or barbaric. ● They ridicule their way of singing, dancing and walking. ● When Africans open up to them, they ignore it and turn to their materialistic ways. (3)
6.5 (a) Metaphor ✓ (1)
(b) The speaker compares the laughter of white people to ice-blocks✓ implying that their laughter is devoid of any warmth. ✓ (2)
6.6 (a) mockery/ridicule✓ (1)
(b) White people pretend their knowledge is superior, ✓ but they know very little about African people and are not prepared to open themselves up to gain more knowledge. ✓ (2)
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland on
June 13, 1865, and died in 1939. After his birth, his family moved to Merville, Sligo, where Yeats grew up. He was a poet, playwright and novelist who wrote about the area and its influence on his art. ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ is one of William Butler Yeats’ most celebrated poems. It was published several years after it was written, in 1893, and is a perfect example of Yeats at his best.
1. Summary of the poem
‘The lake isle of Innisfree’ portrays the speaker’s longing for country life on an (isle/small island) and taking a break from city life. The speaker intends to live a simple life on an uninhabited island. The speaker wishes to have peace on his own in the natural environment.
The lake isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats
1. I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
1. And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: 2. Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, 3. And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
4. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 5. Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; 6. There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 7. And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
8. I will arise and go now, for always night and day
9. I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 10. While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, 11. I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
Words to know Word Basic meaning arise stand up or get up Innisfree an uninhabited island within Lough Gill, in Ireland, near which Yeats spent his summers as a child cabin a small wooden shelter or house in a wild or remote area clay stiff, sticky fine-grained earth that can be moulded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks/pottery wattles material for making fences/walls consisting of rods/stakes interlaced with twigs or branches hive structure that provides a natural habitation for bees; like a hollow tree glade an open space (with grass) in a wood or forest veils things that serve to cover, conceal, disguise cricket an insect related to grasshoppers but with short legs linnet a mainly brown and grey finch (seed eating bird) with a reddish breast and forehead
2. Type and Form
The poem consists of 12 lines, divided into 3 stanzas of three rhyming quatrains. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef.
3. Analysis Stanza 1 The speaker highlights his desire to go to Innisfree. The urgency of his intention to leave is emphasised by the repeated use of ‘go’ in the first line. The speaker is determined to go to Innisfree. The second line introduces his plans. When he is at the island, he wants to erect a tiny ‘cabin’ as his house. The use of ‘I’ strengthens the idea of staying alone, and it is evident in line 4.
The choice of building material ‘clay and wattles’, planting ‘nine bean rows’, having a bee ‘hive’ adds to the simplicity of the speaker’s ideal life. It is ironic that the speaker prefers the noise of bees which survive in a large family group-colony while the speaker desires to live alone.
Stanza 2 The speaker reveals the benefits of staying in Innisfree, the main benefit being peace. The repetition of ‘peace’ emphasises the main idea/theme of the poem. The speaker describes peace as he links peace to morning dew which will drop from the leaves on the trees to the grass on the ground.
The speaker further describes the different times of day and the extraordinary qualities they possess at the lake isle of Innisfree. The imagery calls up sequences that further emphasise the importance of the daydream to the speaker.
Stanza 3 The speaker shakes himself out of his daydream in which he has described the scenes on the lake isle of Innisfree and begins to address the real world. Once again, he states he is going to leave for the isle. The speaker’s daydream is clear, causing him to hear the sounds he has imagined hearing on the island. It seems that the speaker lives in a city, or at least somewhere where he is surrounded by roads and pavements, which are not signs of nature. The poem ends on a serious/ sombre note. The poem’s last line, ‘I hear it in the deep heart’s core’ refers to the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore. The haunting images of the lake isle of Innisfree are heard not in his head but in his heart. The speaker causes the reader to wonder whether he will ever make it from his current home to the peace he needs to be happy.
4. Themes Peace/Tranquillity of Nature Throughout ‘The lake isle of Innisfree’ the poet engages with interrelated themes which include nature and peace. The speaker wants the readers to see the natural environment without human involvement. It is a place to find peace and connect with the world on a deeper, spiritual level. The isolated nature of the island that he’s longing for is also an important element of his happiness. It is an escape from noisy city life.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Alliteration Line 10 ‘I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.’ - the repeated use of the letter ‘l’ recreates the sound made by the waves.
Repetition Line 1 ‘and go now, and go to Innisfree’ - the speaker repeatedly uses the word ‘go’ to emphasise his intention to leave the city. Lines 5-6 ‘peace’ and ‘dropping’ are repeated to emphasise the longing for silence and calm. Lines 1 and 9 ‘I will arise and go now’ is repeated to emphasise his determination to go on a journey. Imagery The speaker uses visual and auditory words to capture the reader’s attention for example ‘bee-loud’, ‘cricket sings’, ‘linnets wings’, ‘water lapping’ and ‘I hear’ -the speaker arouses several different senses, encouraging the reader to feel, hear, and see the natural scene.
The repetition of the word ‘peace’ creates a sense (tone) of calm. The mood is joyful because the speaker is looking forward to leaving the city.
ACTIVITY 3 Read the poem, ‘The lake isle of Innisfree’, and answer the questions below.
The lake isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats
1. I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
2. And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: 3. Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, 4. And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
5. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 6. Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; 7. There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 8. And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
9. I will arise and go now, for always night and day
10. I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 11. While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, 12. I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
7.1 Give a detailed description of the structure of this poem. (2)
7.2 Refer to line 2 (‘And a small … and wattles made’).
Describe the speaker’s plans by using your OWN words. (2)
7.3 Refer to line 4 (‘And live alone … bee-loud glade’).
Explain the irony in this line. (2)
7.4 Refer to line 10 (‘I hear lake… by the shore’).
(a) Identify the figure of speech in this line. (1)
(b) Explain why this figure of speech is effective. (2)
7.5 Refer to line 12 (‘I hear it… deep heart’s core’).
(a) Identify the tone the speaker would use in this line. (1)
7.6 One of the themes in this poem is the tranquillity of nature.
Discuss this theme. (3)
7.7 The speaker paints a life-like picture of island life.
Discuss your view. (3)
Total [17]
Suggested Answers
7.1 The poem consists of 12 lines divided into 3 quatrains. ✓
The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef. ✓ (2)
7.2 The speaker plans on building a small shelter/cabin✓ using basic material (‘clay and wattles’) which is available on the island. ✓ (2)
7.3 It is ironic that the speaker prefers the noise of bees which survive in a large family group/colony, yet the speaker desires to live alone. ✓✓ (2)
7.4 (a) Alliteration ✓ (1)
(b) The repeated use of the letter ‘l’ in lake…lapping …and low’ ✓recreates the sound made by the waves. ✓ (2)
7.5 (a) dreamy and wistful ✓ (1)
(b) The speaker is sad because he longs to leave the city for the island, but at present it is only a dream. ✓ (1)
7.6 The discussion of the theme of the tranquillity of nature should include the following points, among others:
● The speaker views the lake isle of Innisfree as a peaceful space.
● It is a space to find solitude and to connect with nature. ● The speaker describes the calm by looking at different times of the day; ‘dripping slow’ in the morning, ‘glimmer at midnight’, ‘purple glow at noon’ and ‘linnet’s wings’ in the evening.
NOTE: The interpretation must be grounded in the poem. (3)
Open-ended. Yes. ● He describes a picture of the relaxing activities that will occupy him. ● He refers to insects and birds like bees, crickets and linnets. ● He recreates the sound of the waves. No. ● His does not consider his friends and family who might miss him. ● He remains in the city which proves that he prefers the city. ● His descriptions are not enticing enough to make every reader move to an island.
NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem. (3) Total [17]
by Thomas Pringle Thomas Pringle was born in Roxburghshire in Scotland on 5 January 1789. He died in London (England) on 5 December 1834. Pringle emigrated to South Africa in 1820. He is often called the father of South African poetry.
Whilst in Cape Town, he published a newspaper and a magazine,
but these were suppressed because of the reformist views Pringle expressed. He returned to London in 1826 where he spent all his life as an activist in the anti-slavery movement.
1. Summary of the poem
The speaker highlights the subject of slavery from a slave dealer’s point of view. The slave dealer is a person who deals with the sale of people from poor to upper-class backgrounds and forcefully remove and transport these people from their families to other countries or continents.
The Slave Dealer
by Thomas Pringle
1 From ocean’s wave a Wanderer came,
2 With visage tanned and dun: 3 His Mother, when he told his name, 4 Scarce knew her long-lost son; 5 So altered was his face and frame 6 By the ill course he had run.
7 There was hot fever in his blood,
8 And dark thoughts in his brain; 9 And oh! to turn his heart to good 10 That Mother strove in vain, 11 For fierce and fearful was his mood, 12 Racked by remorse and pain.
13 And if, at times, a gleam more mild
14 Would o’er his features stray, 15 When knelt the Widow near her Child, 16 And he tried with her to pray, 17 It lasted not - for visions wild 18 Still scared good thoughts away.
21 It was shed where warriors bled - 23 It dropped from the gory lash, 22 As I whirled it o’er and o’er my head, 24 And with each stroke left a gash.
25 ‘With every stroke I left a gash,
26 While Negro blood sprang high; 27 And now all ocean cannot wash 28 My soul from murder’s dye; 30 Nor e’en thy prayer, dear Mother, quash 31 That Woman’s wild death-cry!
32 ‘Her cry is ever in my ear,
33 And it will not let me pray; 34 Her look I see - her voice I hear- 35 As when in death she lay, 36 And said, “With me thou must appear 37 On God’s great Judgment-day!”’
38 ‘Now, Christ from frenzy keep my son!’
39 The woeful Widow cried; 40 ‘Such murder foul thou ne’er hast done - 41 Some fiend thy soul belied!’- 42 ‘- Nay, Mother! The Avenging One 43 Was witness when she died!
44 ‘The writhing wretch with furious heel
45 I crushed - no mortal nigh; 46 But that same hour her dread appeal 47 Was registered on high; 48 And now with God I have to deal, 49 And dare not meet His eye!’
Words to know Word Basic meaning wanderer a traveller visage image, facial expression, appearance fierce angry, vicious gory brutal, gruesome, violent, bloody gash wound or a deep cut quash cancel woeful sad, miserable, unhappy writhing twisting about from pain frenzy extreme mental agitation fiend evil spirit
This poem is a ballad which retells the story of a son who returns home to his mother after being away for a long time, trading in slaves. The poem has 8 stanzas of 6 lines each. Each stanza has its own rhyme scheme.
3. Analysis Stanza 1 In lines 1-2 the slave dealer is compared to a traveller whose face has tanned to a brownish colour because he has been spending a lot of time in the sun.
His mother does not recognise him (lines 3-6) because the harshness of the sun has altered his outward appearance. The evil path he had chosen is also reflected in his ‘face and frame’. She only recognises him after he tells her his name. The ‘long –lost’ suggests that she last saw him a long time ago.
Stanza 2 In lines 7- 8 the anger in him is compared to a fever which makes him hot. He is angry at himself. The bad thoughts of what he has done haunt him and he cannot get rid of them. His mother tries unsuccessfully to make him change his thoughts and forgive himself. He is tormented (‘racked’) by the pain of what he has done. He is remorseful.
Stanza 3 At times, just for a brief moment, the slave driver gets a gleam of hope, but it does not last for too long (lines 13 - 14). This happens when the mother prays with him (lines 15 – 16). The mental pictures and thoughts of all his bad deeds chase the good thoughts away (lines 17 -18).
Stanza 4 In lines 19-20, the speaker continues to be haunted by the horrible deeds he committed. The ‘blood’ that is on his hands refers to the blood of innocent people he killed during his days as a slave trader. He feels that he cannot be forgiven for his actions (‘which water cannot wash’). In line 20 there is a tinge of regret in the speaker’s tone. He believes that it would have been better if the blood was spilled on a battlefield – which is considered heroic.
In lines 22-24 the speaker gives a clear picture of what causes his hands to be covered in blood. Using a whip to vigorously lash at the slaves, each stroke opens a deep cut from which the blood flows. There is a contrast between someone who kills when he is brave in war and the speaker who is a coward and beats up helpless people who can offer no resistance.
Stanza 5 In lines 25 -26 the speaker continues giving clear images of his horrific actions. He uses hyperbole to emphasise the enormity of the pain he inflicted on the slaves (line 26). No amount of water can wash the blood from his hands (lines 27-28).
In line 28, the speaker uses a metaphor of ‘dye’ to refer to the blood of the slaves that the slave trader is guilty of shedding. The blood is compared to dye that can never be washed out.
In lines 29-30, the speaker says his mother’s prayers cannot erase the sounds of the woman’s cry before she died. The agony that he put her through still haunts him.
Stanza 6 In line 31 the speaker confesses that the sound of the woman’s cry keeps on ringing in his ear (‘… ever in my ear’). It makes it very difficult for him to pray. He still has clear mental images of how she looked as she lay, dying from the injuries the speaker had inflicted on her. He can still hear the sound of her voice. The woman reminds him that he will be judged, with her, on ‘Judgement-day’.
Stanza 7 The alliteration in line 38 emphasises the torturous thoughts the mother has. She prays and says that her son has been possessed by an evil spirit. The son explains that it is not true, and that the avenging angel has witnessed his evil deeds.
Stanza 8 The alliteration (wr -sound) in line 43 hardens the words to show how she moved to try and save herself from him.
The angry heel (‘furious heel’) creates a clear image of the brutality with which he kills the slave. In lines 45-46 the woman’s pleading cries are ignored by the speaker, but God listens as she cries out. In lines 47-48 the speaker states he must face his fate before God, and he is scared.
4. Themes Torment The speaker reveals the slave dealer’s torment and anguish, turmoil and sadness through the emotive language that is evident throughout the poem. The poem tells us that the slave dealer is haunted by the deeds he committed when he was involved in slave trading.
Slavery The horror of slavery is told through the personal experiences of the speaker who is a slave dealer. The slave dealer, ‘Wanderer’, was the
person who forcefully removed slaves from their families and loved ones.
Remorse The speaker expresses the slave dealer’s feelings through stanza 4: ‘There’s blood upon my hands!.......’ This shows he feels responsible for someone’s death. He is filled with remorse for killing people and taking what is not his.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Metaphor ● Lines 1-2 ‘From ocean’s wave … tanned and dun’ - the slave dealer is compared to a normal traveller who has a deeply tanned face because he has been out in the sun for a long time. ● Line 7 ‘There was hot fever in his blood’ - the anger he is carrying inside him is compared to a fever which makes him hot. ● Line 19 ‘There’s blood upon my hands’ - a figurative image. The fact that he has killed people is compared to someone who literally has the blood of a murdered person on his hands.
Contrast In stanza 4, there is a contrast between someone who kills in war (which is a sign of bravery) and the speaker who is a coward and beats up helpless people who are tied up and can offer no resistance. This thought now haunts him.
Alliteration ● Line 11 ‘For fierce and fearful was his mood’ - the f-sound slows down the pace. ● Line 38 ‘The woeful Widow cried’ - the soft ‘w’ sounds emphasise the torturous thoughts of the mother. ● Line 43 - ‘The writhing wretch with furious heel’ - the ‘wr-sound’ hardens the words to show how vigorously she moved to try and save herself from him. Imagery The speaker uses images to provoke feelings of sadness, shock or disbelief. ● Line 12 ‘Racked by remorse and pain’ - image of torture ● Line 43 - 44 ‘The writhing wretch … no mortal nigh’ - image of evil
Hyperbole Line 20 ‘Which water cannot wash’ - to indicate that his guilt cannot be removed.
6. Tone and Mood
The tone is remorseful as the speaker regrets his misdeeds. The mood is sombre and sad as the speaker is haunted by dreadful memories of what he has done in the past.
ACTIVITY 8 Read the poem and answer the questions below.
The Slave Dealer
by Thomas Pringle 1 From ocean’s wave a Wanderer came, 2 With visage tanned and dun: 3 His Mother, when he told his name, 4 Scarce knew her long-lost son; 5 So altered was his face and frame 6 By the ill course he had run.
7 There was hot fever in his blood,
8 And dark thoughts in his brain; 9 And oh! to turn his heart to good 10 That Mother strove in vain, 11 For fierce and fearful was his mood, 12 Racked by remorse and pain.
13 And if, at times, a gleam more mild
14 Would o’er his features stray, 15 When knelt the Widow near her Child, 16 And he tried with her to pray, 17 It lasted not - for visions wild 18 Still scared good thoughts away.
19 ‘There’s blood upon my hands!’ he said,
20 ‘Which water cannot wash; 21 It was shed where warriors bled - 23 It dropped from the gory lash, 22 As I whirled it o’er and o’er my head, 24 And with each stroke left a gash.
25 ‘With every stroke I left a gash,
26 While Negro blood sprang high; 27 And now all ocean cannot wash 28 My soul from murder’s dye; 30 Nor e’en thy prayer, dear Mother, quash 31 That Woman’s wild death-cry!
32 ‘Her cry is ever in my ear,
33 And it will not let me pray; 34 Her look I see - her voice I hear- 35 As when in death she lay, 36 And said, “With me thou must appear 37 On God’s great Judgment-day!”’
42 ‘- Nay, Mother! The Avenging One 43 Was witness when she died!
44 ‘The writhing wretch with furious heel
45 I crushed - no mortal nigh; 46 But that same hour her dread appeal 47 Was registered on high; 48 And now with God I have to deal, 49 And dare not meet His eye!’
8.1 Quote ONE word from stanza 1 which proves that the son seldom visited his mother. (1)
8.2 Refer to line 2 (‘With visage tanned and dun:’).
Rewrite this line in your own words. (1)
8.3 Refer to line 1 (‘There was hot fever in his blood,’).
(a) Identify the figure of speech in this line. (1)
(b) Explain why this figure of speech is appropriate. (2)
8.4 One of the themes in this poem is remorse. Discuss this theme. (3)
8.5 Refer to lines 37-38 (‘Now, Christ, from …woeful Widow cried’). Describe the state of mind of the mother as reflected in these lines. (2)
8.6 Refer to stanza 4.
Why is the following statement FALSE? The slave trader has killed people on a battlefield. (2)
8.7 Refer to line 27 (‘And now all ocean cannot wash’).
(a) Identify the figure of speech in this line. (1) (b) Explain why this figure of speech is relevant. (2)
(b) The boiling anger inside him, ✓ is compared to a fever. ✓ (2)
8.4 The discussion of the theme of remorse includes the following points, among others: ● The slave trader states that there is ‘blood on his hands’ which shows he is feeling responsible for the ill-treatment of slaves. ● He is tortured by the memories of his horrendous actions. ● He realises that God will judge him for what he did.
NOTE: Your answer must be grounded in the poem. (3)
8.5 The mother is desperate ✓ as she is pleading for redemption for her son. ✓ (2)
8.6 He has killed slaves in the course of his trade. (1)
a) Hyperbole (1)
b) The exaggeration emphasises the guilt ✓ he carries after committing
horrendous deeds. (2)
8.8 A/ alliteration ✓ (1)
8.9 Open-ended Yes ● He really regrets what he has done, his actions haunt him. ● He reveals his horrendous actions to his Mother. ● He tries to pray but he is distracted by what he has done. No. ● He himself believes the way he murdered the innocent woman is beyond absolution. ● He cannot even pray for it himself without becoming distracted. ● He knew exactly what he was doing when he mistreated the innocent slaves. NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem. (3) Total [20]
9. Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins Hopkins was born in Stratford in London on 8 July 1844. He passed away in Dublin (Ireland)on 8 June 1889. Hopkins was a very spiritual man. He converted (changed) from being an Anglican Christian to a Catholic priest when he was an adult. Hopkins did most of his work as a priest in industrial (factory) communities, where people were poor, hard- working and suffering. He became very depressed. His poetry was a way to cope with his sadness about the world. Hopkins’s poetry was only published thirty years after he died in 1889.
1. Summary of the poem
In 'Inversnaid' Gerard Manley Hopkins was inspired by the time he spent in the Scottish Highlands. He adapted many Scottish dialectic words to this particular poem and titled the poem after a small village where he stayed. This poem is an example of how he continually explores the possibilities of words.
The poem was written at the height of the Industrial Revolution in England and Scotland and the poet makes an appeal that such places should not be destroyed forever by man’s search for wealth at any cost. The poet praises the special and irreplaceable beauty of the ‘wetness and wildness’ of the world.
Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins
1 This darksome burn, horseback brown,
2 His rollrock highroad roaring down, 3 In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam 4 Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
5 A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth 6 Turns and twindles over the broth 7 Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning, 8 It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.
9 Degged with dew, dappled with dew
10 Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, 11 Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, 12 And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.
Words to know Word Basic meaning Inversnaid a remote part of the Scottish Highlands, on the east bank of Loch Lomond darksome dark and gloomy burn a stream highroad main road coop Hopkins described a coop as an ‘enclosed hollow’ fleece woolly covering of sheep comb water rippling or running freely flutes to make a shape like the flute or stem of a long-stemmed glass; to make the whistling sound of the musical instrument with the same name windpuff bonnet froth which sits on top of the water like a lady’s hat, or part of a sail. fáwn-fróth fawn-coloured foam created by running water in streams twindles twists, turns and dwindles broth soup consisting of meat or vegetables cooked in stock, sometimes thickened with barley or other cereals.
a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England degged from the Scots dialect: a word meaning to water a plant dappled marked with spots or rounded patches groins sides braes hills tread to walk or proceed along wiry resembling wire in form and texture heathpacks heath is a dwarf shrub with small leathery leaves and small pink or purple bell-shaped flowers, characteristic of heaths and moorland flitches patches or streaks beadbonny made beautiful – ‘bonny’ – by being beaded with berries ash a type of tree bereft deprived of or lacking (something).
2. Type and Form A rhyming couplet
is two lines of the The poem has four quatrains consisting of two rhyming couplets. same length that These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of aabb ccdd eeff rhyme and complete gghh. The first three stanzas depict a picture of Nature and the one thought. There is poem concludes with a plea for the preservation of the beauty of no limit to the length Nature. of the lines. Rhyming words are words that sound the same when Hopkins invented a rhythm called ‘sprung rhythm’. spoken, they don't necessarily have to be Sprung rhythm is spelt the same. based on the number of stressed syllables in a line and permits an A quatrain in indeterminate number poetry is a series of of unstressed syllables. four-lines that make It is designed to imitate one verse of a the rhythm of natural poem, known as a speech. stanza.
3. Analysis Line 1 ● a description of a fast-flowing dark stream (‘burn’) ● ‘darksome’ is a word the poet invented to describe the colour of the stream (‘burn’) ● the use of the word ‘horseback’ creates an image of the stream flowing fast like a horse running down
Line 2 ● ‘rollrock’ is a combination of the words ‘rock’ and ‘roll’ to emphasise the speed of the stream; it is flowing so fast that some rocks are dislodged and rolling down ● the poet uses the words ‘roaring down’ to imitate the speed and sound of the stream
Lines 3 and 4 ● when the stream reaches a pool, it is contained (‘coop’) ● the force of the water tumbling down leaves a residue of foam that resembles wool (‘fleece’) covering (‘comb’) the pool ● the energy of the river is now ‘cooped up’ in a rockpool and the water gently ‘combs’ over the rocks and falls to the lake ● ‘flute’ creates an image of a narrowing in the stream before it continues to the lake which is its ultimate destination (‘home’)
Line 5 ● the wind causes the foam covering the pool to look like a bonnet made of foam ● the foam is fawn coloured which is coined ‘fawn-froth’
Lines 6 and 7 ● ‘twindles’ effectively describes the force of the water as being calmer ● ‘broth’ creates an image of a soup which is dark in colour and is made of a mixture of meat and vegetables ● ‘broth of a pool’ should be read together as the poet makes use of enjambment (run-on line) to link the description ● the colour ‘the broth/Of a pool’ is ‘pitchblack’, which is an intensive form used to describe a particularly dark night This Photo by Unknown ● ‘Despair’ is written with a capital letter. The poet personifies it implying that as the pool ‘rounds and round’ (going in circles), it drowns Despair, based on his view of Nature Bonnet ● ‘féll-frówning’ is a compound word invented by Hopkins. It refers to the hills looking down on the pool and they are appearing to be frowning
Lines 9 and 10 ● the sides (‘groins’) of the steep banks (‘braes’) through which the small stream (‘brook’) flows, are wet (‘degged’ and ‘dappled’) from the dew. ● the use of enjambment effectively creates a mental picture of the stream flowing at a calmer pace ● the stream is personified as a person walking along, implying a more leisurely pace
Lines 11 and 12 ● in these two lines the vegetation growing on the banks of the stream is described ● By using words like ‘wiry’ and ‘flitches’, the vegetation is described as a combination of plants that can withstand extreme weather conditions. ● on the banks of the stream ash trees covered with berries grow
● In stanza 3, the description of Nature is vivid, but a true image of
the countryside is presented to us.
Lines 13 and 14 ● the stanza opens with a rhetorical question ● this poetic device introduces a change in mood ● the use of enjambment forces the reader to consider the rhetorical question ● through the effective use of alliteration, Hopkins emphasises the importance of Nature ● Hopkins makes a plea to his fellow men to leave Nature to run its course
Line 15 ● the repetition of ‘let them be left’ emphasises his earnestness about the preservation of Nature ● the use of ‘O’ invokes a pleading tone ● the inversion of ‘wildness and wet’, emphasises the importance of the natural state of Nature ● he ends the poem with a rallying cry where the alliteration serves to emphasise the call to arms: ‘Long live the weeds and the Ash tree wilderness yet’ ● In stanza 4 Hopkins no longer describes Nature, but rather makes an appeal to mankind to preserve Nature.
4. Themes Natural wonder The speaker is in awe of the beauty of Nature. He expresses it through newly-coined words like ‘darksome’, ‘rollrock,’ fáwn-fróth. By using alliteration, the reader hears the sounds in Nature.
The preservation of Nature
The speaker is concerned that the Industrial Revolution might destroy Nature because mankind was more concerned about prosperity. He therefore starts stanza 4 with a rhetorical question.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Alliteration The poet uses alliteration throughout the poem. Line Quotation Purpose 1 ‘This darksome burn, horseback brown’ The alliteration of the ‘b’, emphasises the dark colour of the river. 2 ‘His rollrock highroad roaring down’. One hears the sound of the rocks rolling when the force of the water hits them. 13 ‘What would the world be, once bereft’ The repetition of ‘w’ forces the reader to consider the question. There are more examples of alliteration in lines, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8,9,10,11,12, 14, 15, 16. Alliteration gives a lyrical tone to the poem.
Line Quotation Purpose 5-7 ‘A windpuff-bonnet The enjambment effectively matches the of fáwn-fróth speed of the stream and assists the Turns and twindles over the broth reader to understand the lines. . Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,’ Refer to lines 3-4, 5-7, 9-10. 13-14 ‘What would the world be, once bereft In this example the enjambment helps Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,’ the reader to understand the question.
Metaphor ● Line 1 ‘This darksome burn, horseback brown’) -the colour of the river is compared to the brown colour of a horse. ● Line 3 ‘the fleece of the foam’ - the foam on the pond is compared to the fleece of a sheep. ● Line 5 ‘A windpuff-bonnet’ - the foam is also compared to the bonnet of a lady that has been swept up by the wind. ● Line 6 ‘Turns and twindles over the broth’ - The colour of the pond is compared to a ‘broth’. ● Line 8 ‘Despair’ - is compared to a person drowning.
Personification ● Line 8 ‘Despair’ -the capital letter indicates that Despair is personified.
6. Tone and Mood
The tone in the first three stanzas is appreciative but in the last stanza it becomes quizzical when he questions the wisdom of the progress of the Industrial Revolution.
The mood created is stanzas 1-3 is reverence as the speaker describes the beauty of Nature. In stanza 4 it changes to concern as the speaker wonders what the world would be without Nature.
ACTIVITY 9 Read the poem, ‘Inversnaid’ and answer the questions below.
Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins
1 This darksome burn, horseback brown,
2 His rollrock highroad roaring down, 3 In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam 4 Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
5 A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth 6 Turns and twindles over the broth 7 Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning, 8 It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning
This (a) ...poem consists of four (b)… The stanzas are further broken down into (c)…(d)… . (4)
9.2 Refer to line 2 (‘His rollrock highroad roaring down’).
(a) Identify the figure of speech in this line. (1)
(b) Explain why this figure of speech is effective. (2)
9.3 Refer to line 6 (‘Turns and twindles over the broth.’)
Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentence: The quotation is an example of …. A alliteration. B an oxymoron. C onomatopoeia. D a pseudonym. (1)
9.4 Refer to lines 13 and 14 (‘What would the ….and of wildness’.)
Give ONE word which best describes the speaker's state of mind in these lines.
Substantiate your answer. (2)
9.5 Refer to stanza 3.
Quote ONE word that means the same as ‘riverbank’. (1)
9.6 One of the themes in this poem is appreciation.
Discuss this theme. (3)
9.7 The speaker succeeds in convincing the reader that Nature is worth saving.
(b) The speaker compares the sound made by the rushing river✓ to an animal or person roaring. ✓ (2)
9.3 A / alliteration✓ (1)
9.4 anxious/concerned✓
The speaker fears that the beauty of Nature will be lost forever due to the encroachment of Industrialisation. ✓ (2)
9.5 ‘braes’ ✓ (1)
9.6 The discussion of the theme of appreciation should include the following points, among others:
● The speaker mentions many details of how the stream is flowing into the lake. ● He pictures how the swirling of the stream manages to take away negative feelings (‘Despair’). ● He makes a plea to mankind to leave the wildness of Nature to flourish.
NOTE: Your response must be grounded in the poem. (3)
9.7 Open-ended.
Accept a relevant response which shows an understanding of the following points,
among others:
Yes. • The speaker gives a number of images that are typical of the beauty of Nature. • He makes up new words to describe the sounds of a river flowing, e.g., ‘rollrock’. • He uses alliteration and metaphors to describe the beauty of Nature.
No. ● He uses strange new words to describe Nature. ● He does not effectively show that if Nature is destroyed it will have detrimental effects on mankind. ● Describing the flow of a river is not sufficient evidence to ensure that Nature is preserved.
NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem. (3) Total [17]
Inkosazana Yasezulwini by Chris Mann Chris ‘Zithulele’ Mann, born in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) in 1948, was a leading South African English poet, teacher and cultural icon. His prayer-like and joyous poems offer deep reflections on apartheid times, nature, God, the cosmos and inevitability of death. He was diagnosed with cancer. He died peacefully at his home in Makhanda, Eastern Cape in 2021.
Although what Mann does is often described
as ‘poetry’, much of his work can be considered music. The ‘poetry’ in his work should be understood more as a Chris ‘Zithulele’ Mann methodology – experimentation within systems of signification – than a formal boundary.
1. Summary of the poem
The poem describes how a night-jar, a bird which is active at night and makes a jarring noise, becomes a messenger and a guide. The night-jar points humans to a place where they can receive relief from their troubles.
The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini
The Princess of the Heavens – Zulu by Chris Mann
1 The speckled bird as brown as dust
2 which roosts inside a bush by day, 3 hiding its head against the glare, 4 at midnight pecked against the pane, 5 and gently pecked, until I saw 6 the starlight glitter through its beak.
7 On calm and tender summer nights,
8 when fishes bite the wobbling moon, 9 and moths rise to silvery fruit 10 sprinkling the space among the boughs, 11 it wakes and glides from sill to sill 12 across the worn-out, curtained town.
14 and when the tar-bound slope had turned 15 to bush and rocky hill it said, 16 ‘There is a grass-house in the hills, 17 above the coast where sugar spumes, 18 and lilies sprout, and no storms fly.
19 ‘There, the Princess of Heavens,
20 beside her dark as honey feet, 21 gathers up the dreams which reach her 22 and stooping to her woven pots 23 rinses them in rainbow water, 24 or stores them with the morning mist.
25 ‘Go, waking sleeper, call to her,
26 and wading through the icy stream 27 in which the golden pebbles shine, 28 ask her if her power is love, 29 for she is old as she is young, 30 and without her, no one dreams.’
31 She leaned against a leafless tree
32 on which a crown of crimson burned, 33 and then the hill began to dim, 34 and standing in the greying rocks, 35 I heard the nightjar fade, from sill 36 to sill, across the windowed town.
Words to know Word Basic meaning speckled covered or marked with a large number of small spots or patches of colour glare shine with a strong or dazzling light pecked (of a bird) struck or bit by something with its beak wobbling move or cause to move unsteadily from side to side boughs main branches of a tree sill 1. a ledge or sill forming the bottom part of a window sandman 1. fictional man supposed to make children sleep by sprinkling sand in their eyes spumes froth or foam, especially that found on waves sprout (of a plant) put out shoots woven interlaced long threads passing in one direction with others at a right angle to them wading walk with effort through water or another liquid or viscous substance pebbles a small stone made smooth and round by the action of water or sand crimson a rich deep red colour
This poem combines characteristics of a narrative poem, prose and a sestina (six stanzas of six lines).
3. Analysis Stanza 1 The speaker introduces the night-jar. In line 1 it is described as a brown- speckled bird.
This is a nocturnal bird because during the day it nests in the bush, hiding from the brightness of the sun. It comes out of the bush at night and moves around and sits on windowsills. At midnight it visits the speaker’s window and pecks on the windowpane. The reflection of the stars is seen through the movement of its beak. A night-jar Stanza 2 In this stanza, the speaker gives a clear description of a calm summer night and what the night-jar does. In line 8, the presence of the moon is evident; ‘fishes bite the wobbling moon’. The moon is said to be wobbling. The movement of the reflection of the moon on the water is caused by the movement of the fish in the pond. In line 9, the fruit looks silvery because of the moonlight. In line 10, the moon shines through the space between the tree branches.
The night-jar wakes and flies from one windowsill to the next, across town. The speaker refers to the town as curtained to indicate that it is night and curtains are drawn.
Stanza 3 The speaker has insomnia, he cannot fall asleep, and he blames his lack of sleep on the night-jar. In line 13, the speaker says the bird ‘shook the sandman from my sight’, this means that the sandman who is supposed to make the speaker drowsy and fall asleep is being removed by the night- jar. In line 15, the speaker is receiving directions to a place where he will get help. Lines 16-18 give a clear picture of the place the speaker is directed to: • a thatched roof hut built on a hill. • in a coastal area where ‘sugar spumes’. This refers to the area on the coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal with sugar cane plantations. • the area where the hut is built is beautiful, there are lilies on the hill. • it is a peaceful place (line 18: ‘no storms fly’).
Stanza 4 The night-jar, in this stanza, informs the speaker of someone who can help him get relief from his trouble. The Princess of Heavens, a being who collects dreams, helps human beings by bringing them new hope. In lines 21-23 the Princess of Heavens receives the dreams, puts them in a woven pot and cleanses them in rainbow water.
A rainbow is a symbol of hope, promise, peace and new beginnings.
Washing dreams in ‘rainbow water’ means giving back hope and it is a promise of new beginnings. This idea is reinforced in line 24 when she stores the dreams with the morning mist, a sign of rebirth.
Stanza 5 The night-jar instructs the speaker to go to the Princess of Heavens to seek help. The walk is not going to be easy (line 26 – ‘wading through the icy stream’), but there is great promise and hope (line 27 – ‘golden pebbles shine’). The princess of Heavens is ageless, line 29 ‘for she is old as she is young’. This means that she is accessible to everyone, and she A woven pot identifies with people of all ages. Her remedy is love (line 28).
Stanza 6 In line 31 the speaker sees the Princess of Heavens leaning against a leafless tree. Leafless trees symbolise the end of an era and lack of vitality. In line 32 the tree has bright red flowers, ‘a crown of crimson’. Although the crimson colour can be associated with danger, it also symbolises excitement, love and power.
In line 33, the hill begins to fade – it is dawn, the morning mist is appearing, resulting in the hill beginning to dim. In line 34 the speaker is standing in the greying rocks. The speaker has reached a turning point. He has decided to act by using the grey rocking technique. Grey rocking is a technique used to divert a toxic person’s behaviour by acting unresponsively when interacting with them. The speaker in this line decides to stop being responsive to things that disturbs his peace. As he A leafless tree with makes this decision, the night-jar fades away, it has accomplished its a crimson crown mission.
4. Themes Hope The night-jar, as a messenger and a guide, brings hope to humans by pointing them to a being who can renew their hope and make them dream again.
Humans’ physical and spiritual needs
Human needs of inner peace, understanding and acknowledgement can be attained by spreading love to other human beings. Humans only reach this point when they start to ignore and stop entertaining people with toxic behaviour.
5. Diction and Figurative Language
Simile ● Line 1 ‘as brown as dust’ - the speaker compares the night-jar’s colour to dust. ● Line 20 ‘dark as honey’- the colour of the skin of the Princess of Heaven’s feet is compared to honey.
Metaphor ● Line 26 ‘wading through the icy stream’ - the water is as cold as ice water. ● Line 32 ‘a crown of crimson burned’ - the speaker compares the crimson flowers on the leafless tree to a burning crown.
Images Images to capture beauty and energy: ● Line 7 ‘calm and tender summer nights’ ● Line 8 ‘fishes bite the wobbling moon’ ● Lines 17-18 ‘…the coast where sugar spumes, and lilies sprout, and no storms fly’.
Alliteration ● Line 11 – ‘sill to sill’ ● Line 31 – ‘crown of crimson’
6. Tone and Mood
Tone ● The tone is placid as the night-jar is peaceful in its manner while it guides the speaker to find a solution to his problems. ● The tone is sympathetic because the night-jar portrays a sense of understanding and being non-judgemental as it assists the speaker.
ACTIVITY 10 Read the poem, The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini, and answer the questions below.
The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini
The Princess of the Heavens – Zulu by Chris Mann
1 The speckled bird as brown as dust
2 which roosts inside a bush by day, 3 hiding its head against the glare, 4 at midnight pecked against the pane, 5 and gently pecked, until I saw 6 the starlight glitter through its beak.
7 On calm and tender summer nights,
8 when fishes bite the wobbling moon, 9 and moths rise to silvery fruit 10 sprinkling the space among the boughs, 11 it wakes and glides from sill to sill 12 across the worn-out, curtained town.
13 It shook the sandman from my sight,
14 and when the tar-bound slope had turned 15 to bush and rocky hill it said, 16 ‘There is a grass-house in the hills, 17 above the coast where sugar spumes, 18 and lilies sprout, and no storms fly.
19 ‘There, the Princess of Heavens,
20 beside her dark as honey feet, 21 gathers up the dreams which reach her 22 and stooping to her woven pots 23 rinses them in rainbow water, 24 or stores them with the morning mist.
25 ‘Go, waking sleeper, call to her,
26 and wading through the icy stream 27 in which the golden pebbles shine, 28 ask her if her power is love, 29 for she is old as she is young, 30 and without her, no one dreams.’
31 She leaned against a leafless tree
32 on which a crown of crimson burned, 33 and then the hill began to dim, 34 and standing in the greying rocks, 35 I heard the nightjar fade, from sill 36 to sill, across the windowed town.
(b) A comparison is drawn between the colour of the night-jar and dust, ✓ creating a clear picture of the bird. ✓ (2)
10.2 The night-jar is a nocturnal bird. ✓
It hides in the bush during the day ✓ (and only comes out at night). (2)
10.3 The speaker paints a picture of a beautiful summer night✓ the moon is shining brightly; its reflection is seen on the pond filled with fish and its light gives the fruit a silvery colour. ✓ (2)
10.4 flows✓ (1)
10.5 C / the curtains are closed✓ (1)
10.6 He helps children fall asleep. ✓ (1)
10.7 a) instructional/commanding✓ (1)
b) The speaker is in bed, ✓ but he cannot fall asleep/ he remains awake. ✓ (2)
10.8 ‘wading through the icy stream’ ✓ (1)
10.9 It means that the Princess of the Heavens is ageless✓. People of all age groups can (2) identify with her. ✓
10.10 Any TWO of the following responses:
The Princess of the Heavens collects the dreams that reach her. She rinses the dreams in rainbow water. She stores the dreams with the morning mist. (2)
10.11 The discussion of the theme of hope must include the following points, amongst others:
● The night-jar is a messenger that brings hope by pointing people to the
Princess of Heavens. ● When the Princess of Heavens cleanses the dreams that she has gathered, it is a sign of the renewed hope. ● The presence of the spirit guide is an indication that hope will remain alive. (3)
● The night-jar is a messenger who brings hope to people.
● Not only does the night-jar wake people up, it also leads them to a solution. ● When it has done its job, it goes away. It is not bothersome, and it does not linger.
OR No.
● The night-jar disturbs people who are sleeping.
● He makes people believe in ‘The Princess of the Heavens’ who could be a fictitious being. ● It imposes itself on people and gives unsolicited advice.
NOTE: You will not be awarded marks for only YES or NO. To obtain full marks, your response must be well-substantiated. You can score 1 or 2 marks for a response which is not well-substantiated. (3) Your interpretation must be grounded in the text of the poem.
