Chapter 18: Poetry

After practicing the activities in this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Understand basic poetic features such as stanzas, rhythm, and rhyme schemes.

2. Compare poems with a similar theme.

3. Think critically about what is unique about African poetry.

4. Analyse your response to poetry with reference to a particular poem.

Keywords

• theme
• structure
• poetic
• features
• stanzas
• rhythm
• rhyme
• personification
• imagery
• poetry

Introduction

In this chapter, you will be focusing on poetry by African poets and thinking critically about their meaning. Is there a difference between African poets and poets from any other continent?

Probably not much. The human condition throughout the world, and how people feel about their lives is probably not entirely different.

There are one or two things, however, that are different. African countries have been subjected to more than their fair share of suffering. Their suffering includes poverty, in spite of their natural wealth, and exploitation by other nations, for the sake of this natural wealth.

Much of African poetry focuses on the beauty of the continent, but also the suffering of the poor and the desire for equal opportunities, free of the domination of others.

Activity 10.1 A Poem from Africa

1. Read the poem, paying particular attention to the theme, structure, poetry and poetic features.

The shepherd dreams

Dawn air crisp

She pulls her blanket close against the cold;

The flock mumbling at her knees.

Sun slices above the hills,

And floods the valley with light.

Sheep shift and mutter in the breeze

A lamb strays,

She guides it to the ewe,

The flock settles under her care.

She unwraps her food

The lamb suckles; they

Breakfast together in the cool morning air.

She dreams

Of city life, of cars and bars

And phones, and clothes and busy streets.

The sun warm,

The sheep grazing green,

And paradise lies at her

2. Answer questions on the content and structure of the poem.

a) What is the theme of this poem? (Tip: you won’t find it at the beginning of the poem.)

b) How many stanzas does the poem have?

c) How is the poem punctuated?

d) Does the poem have rhythm?

e) Do any of the lines in the poem rhyme?

f) Find and explain the first metaphor in the poem.

g) Find another figure of speech and explain it.

h) Do the sheep belong to the shepherd? Give a reason for your answer.

i) Explain one example of personification in the poem.

j) Explain this image: “The sheep grazing green”.

k) What is the shepherd dreaming of?

l) What does the poet think of this dream? Quote a line from the poem to support your answer. m) What is the shepherd’s greatest desire?

3. Exchange books with a partner and mark each other’s work.

Activity 10.2 Discuss the poem, The shepherd dreams

Work in groups.

1. Is the title of the poem appropriate? What title would you give it?

2. Are there still children attending to flocks, instead of attending school? Do you think this is a problem in Uganda?

3. Is the lack of education a social problem?

4. Should parents, or the government, attend to the problem of lack of education?

5. In two paragraphs, write a summary of your group discussion. In your written work, share your personal view on education for all children.

Activity 10.3 Read a poem on blindness

1. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Think about what it must be like to be unable to see a person who is speaking to you, or identify an unknown noise. What emotion would you feel?

2. Read the poem silently and then aloud. Listen to the words as you read them aloud.

The blind man waits

Every day he sits at the crossroads

Under his umbrella

Wearing his old fedora

Patiently waiting; bowl at his feet.

Taxis hurtle past

Bata-batas beep beep

A cacophony of sound

And him an island; in the street.

Trucks rumble by

The whoosh of air

Lifting his hat; he turns to the sound

But who to greet?

Smells of spices, stink of diesel,

Hot rain bulleting

On corrugated roofs

He sits; listening to the beat, the street.

Waiting for a word,

A touch, a coin in his bowl

A moment of connection

With another soul.

by Anonymous

Poetry…………Poetry…………..Poetry………….Poetry…………..Poetry…………….Poetry…………….Poetry…………

3. Work in pairs to discuss the questions. Work on your own to write the answers in your exercise book.

a) What is the theme of this poem?

b) How do you think the blind man feels?

c) Find and write down a line from the poem that expresses the blind man’s feelings.

d) How does the poet convey the blind man’s experience of blindness?

e) How does the poet convey the feeling of being ignored by society?

f) What other emotions does the blind man feel? g) What do you think the blind man is really waiting for?

4. Do you think that one’s other senses could compensate for lack of sight? 5. Exchange books with a partner and mark each other’s work.

Activity 10.4 Write about the poem, The blind man waits

1. Work in pairs and discuss the poem. The poet makes use of imagery, and word pictures, to convey meaning. Imagery appeals to your senses. For example, visual imagery describes what you see. It includes colors, shapes, and sizes. Imagery also describes what you smell, feel, taste and hear.

An example of imagery is ‘hot rain bulleting’. This tells you how hard it is raining. Identify examples of imagery used in The blind man waits.

2. Choose at least two examples of imagery in the poem, and write one paragraph for each interpretation of the imagery. Write how imagery gives greater meaning, and depth to a poem.

3. Exchange books to read, and discuss each other’s interpretation.

Activity 10.5 Read a poem on superstition

1. Are you superstitious? Do you know people who are superstitious? What do you think about superstition?

2. Work in pairs. Take turns to read the poem aloud, as if you are having a conversation. Read the first stanza, and then your partner responds by reading the second stanza, and so on. Read it several times, taking note of rhyme and rhythm.

Good Luck

When my mother gets home from hospital

She stamps on an egg on the floor.

She tells me it will keep her safe,

And away from the hospital door!

If we hear the hoot of an owl,

My mother will worry all night.

But the sound of the rain on the roof,

Always makes her shout with delight!

If we walk down a busy street,

My mother stops to greet,

One by one by one by one,

Everyone that we meet.

It’s good luck! she says,

And she holds my hand very tight.

That’s why we don’t itch our right palm,

And we never cut our nails at night.

by Anonymous

3. Work in pairs to discuss the questions. Then answer them individually in writing.

a) Look at the title of the poem. What does this tell us about the content of the poem?

b) How many stanzas does the poem have?

c) How many sentences does the poem consist of?

d) What is the effect of the exclamation marks in the poem?

e) Can you identify any rhythm in the poem?

f) Write out the rhyme scheme of the poem.

4. Do you recognize any of the superstitions mentioned in the poem?

5. What do you think is the theme of the poem? What does the poem say about superstition?