LANGUAGE TWO FORM 6 – APPRECIATING LITERARY WORKS OF ART

POETIC DEVICES
                                              Sound devices
                               i.            ALLITERATION
This is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of the words in the same verse. For example in the 2^nd stanza the 1^st verse
         “your beautiful black blood………. “Also in 3^rd stanza the 1^st verses

“Is this your back that is bent?

         This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation”
                            ii.            CONSONANCE
This is when the poet decides to repeat the same or very similar consonant sounds usually at the end of words in the same verse

“Impetuous son that tree young and strong

  The sound/Å‹/ is repeated in two words

                          iii.            ASSONANCE
This is the repetition of similar vowel sounds in the same verse. For example the 1^st stanza verse 4 in the words “distance” and “on the banks of the distance river”

SENSE DEVICES

1. SYMBOLISM
   

 

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The poet uses the words like “red scars to symbolize suffering (oppression which is done to Africans. The 3^rd stanza verse 3)

“this back trembling with red scars”

1. USE OF IMAGERY
   

 

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Visual image where we see the poet use lonely tree represent Africa

  Image of taste, the poet use words like

“the bitter taste of Liberty” this show this reflects the bitter feeling that African warriors had against the colonialist. For instance the last stanza in the last verse

1. PERSONIFICATION
   

 

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Africa as a continent is given human character as it seems that the continent speaks like a human being for example in the 2^nd stanza the last verse the persona says

“Africa tell me Africa”

Mood of the poem

The mood of the poem can be sad or sympathetic due to exploitation, humiliation, oppression etc done by the colonialists

Tone of the poet

      The tone is bitter this is due to the fact that the themes revealed tell about the condition of the oppressed Africa.

THE DYING CHILD

THE DYING CHILD BY FREEMAN PETER LWANDA 

A Tanzania poet who worked for the Tanzania Tourist Corporation
 The Dying, Child
 Thin and red,
 Skinny and bald
 The boy groans on the ground
 Swollen stomach
 Full of waste,
 Thin arms,
 Twitch
 As the boy
 Fights with files
 Over the empty plate

Ten years old 
He looks older than ten,
And so small
As he wriggles
Prisoner
Of his unproportioned body,
 ‘Mother’ shouted the boy
 When I grow up
 I will carry a gun
 And not a pen!
 ‘My son’ shouted the mother
 ‘My son” cries the mother
 ‘You will never live to carry a gun
 There is no meat for us

PARAPHRASE
The poem is about a ten year boy who suffers from Kwashiakor caused by Malnutrition, where we see the boy is busy fighting with flies over the empty plate. The boy is thin. Bald red skin, has thing leg and arms .
The boy has swollen stomach which is full of waste which makes the boy groans on the ground because of his imbalanced/proportioned body
We see the boy who is ten years old but he looks older than his real age. The boy has vagence mind hence he tells his mother that when he grows up he will carry a gun and not a pen but the mother shouts to her boy that he will never live to carry a gun as there is no meat for him to make him survive. This shows that the mother is disillusioned.
THEMES

1. Poverty
   

 

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The persona shows that the boy is living in extreme poverty to an extent that they cannot afford to buy a balanced diet. The mother tells the boy that he will never live to carry a gun as there is no meat for them. As in stanza two, verses 14 & 16^th . he says,
      ” you will never live to carry a gun 
       there is no meat for us”
Also we see the boy is busy competing with the flies over the empty plate. All these are the indicators of poverty. As it is shown in 1^st stanza the 10^th and 11^th verses
“the message we get from this is that, “people should work very hard so as to get enough money to buy balanced diet for healthy of our families”

1. Classes
   

 

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In this poem we see that the poet depicts the existence of classes in the society. That is the people who can afford to eat meat. In the 2rd stanza the 15^th and 16^th verses the mother tells her son that he will never grow up to carry a gun because there is no meat for them ” you will never live to carry a gun there is no meat for us”
The message from the above theme is that, every human being has to eat a balanced diet for good health and longer life. Also classes are not good in the society as they may cause disunity among people within the society

1. Disappointment
   

 

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In this poem we see the essence of disappointment as we observe this through the mother who tells her son that he will never live to carry a gun this shows that the mother is disappointed hence she believes that her son will not live longer as they are eating unbalanced diet. In the 2^nd stanza the 12^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th verses.
The message we obtain here is that, “we should never accept failure in our lives instead we should fight to the last minute

1. Awareness
   

 

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We see that the boy has realized that changes in the society can be brought through the use of gun or by force and not peacefully means or education for example in the 2^nd stanza, the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th verses.
Also the awareness of the mother that her only son can not live to carry a gun be he will not live longer.

1. Irresponsibility
   

 

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The poet shows irresponsibility of the government which does not show any concern to those people who live under extreme poverty. Hence the citizen are living hopelessly for instance the mother who cries bitterly to her dying son. As we see in 2^nd stanza 14-16verses. Also we see irresponsibility show by the mother as she lives her son to fight with flies over the empty plate as in 1^st stanza verse 9^th up to 10^th
“fights with flies over the empty plate”
This is irresponsibility because the mother knows very well the effects of eating with flies
POETIC DEVICES
SENSE DEVICES
Imagery: The poet draws the mental picture so that we see the dying child as the son has thin arms swollen stomach, thin leg and has unproportioned body also we see the image of the groaning and staving child who is fighting with flies over the empty plate due to shortage of food as a result of his poor family
Diction
The choice and arrangement of words in a poem in this poem we see that the poet is real struggling to use words which will effectively convey what the intended to the society, so while reading any poem one need to be very keen in making sense of the words used as they both have exactly meaning and connotations. For example words like “skinny”, “bald” “thin” swollen stomach, “flies” and “pen” they are all used in associate meaning. For example from the poem the word “flies” in the 1^st stanza the 9^th stanza associate with dirty or rotten

• Also the word skinny in the 2^nd verse 1^st stanza associate with hunger/malnutrition/starring etc
  
• The word “bald” in the 1^st stanza 2^nd verse associate with absence of balanced diet
  
• The world “pen” in the 2^nd stanza the 11 verse associate with learning /knowledge
  
• Again the word prisoner in the 2^nd stanza the 6^th verse associates with absence of freedom/presence of suffering/torture and many other word in the poem.
  

  SOUND DEVICES
  Alliteration
  In the 1^st stanza the 3^rd verse the words “groans” and ground the consonant/g/is repeated. Therefore alliteration is used to show emphasis but also create the rhythm of the poem
  ‘the boy groans on the ground’
  In the 1^st stanza the 4^th verse the word “swollen “and “stomach” also alliterate because they both begin with consonant sound/s/ This repetition is made intentionally to emphasize the concept of poverty, malnutrition and the suffering of the boy
  “swollen stomach
  STRUCTURAL DEVICES
  Use of stanza
  The poem has two stanza. The 1^st stanza has 11 verses and the 2rd stanza has 15 verses
  Parallelism
  In 2^nd stanza the 13^th and 14^th verse are parallel
  The verses have similar structure to emphasize the disappointment of the mother who sees the suffering of her dying child
       “my son, shouted the mother 

        My son cries the mother”
  Repetition
  The word “thin is repeated in the 1^st stanza in the 1^st, 6^th and 7^th verses to express the horrible condition of the boy. This repetition helps the poet to evoke the feeling of sympathy towards the referred boy
         “Thin and red…
          Thin leg
          Thin arms”
  Dialogue
  The poet uses the dialogue between the boy and the mother, this is made to reveal the real situation of the mother and his son. As we see in the 2^nd stanza, the 8^th , 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 13^th and 15^th verses the poet says
        ” Mother, shouted the boy
          When I grow up
          I will carry a gun
          And not a pen!
         “my son, shouted the mother 

          my son, cries the mother
        “you will never lie to carry a gun 

         there is no meat for us”
  

  An African Thunderstorm  (by David Rubadiri)
  

  
  –   What is the subject matter?
  The poem is about the incoming of a certain situation in a village, suddenly and out of nowhere   living the people shocked as they wonder about.
  –  Identify  the instances of Alliteration 
  In  the second stanza, the 5^th line “wind whistles”  in the third stanza the 4^th line “whirling wind”  in the third stanza the 4^th line “whirling wind” in the 2^nd  line of the 4^th  stanza “wind whistles”  2^nd line of the 1^st stanza clouds come.
  –   Explain the effect of onomatopoeia
  Being words which imitate sounds produced by an action, onomatopoeia in this poem occurs “whirling wind” (3^rd stanza 4^th line) the effect of it is that is emphasized on that is been told and it enhances imagination at large tremble, Rumple….
  –   Identify and explain the  use of imagery
  Imagery in the poem is greatly used to explain the incoming of the storm which is said to be hurrying with the wind, here and there like a plague of locusts showing its speed like a mad man chasing nothing its direction.
  “Pregnant clouds” showing the shape of the clouds which are likely to be heavy and ready to release its weight anytime. “Clothes wave like tattered flags expressing” expressing the situation of the women’s clothes due to the wind direction.
  –   Show and explain the significance of personification in the poem
  Personification refers to the process of giving non- human beings human traits. In the poem “pregnant clouds” (2^nd  stanza,1^st line) clouds are said to be pregnant representing  their current state of expansion.
  The significance of personification in the poem is that it brings a dramatic expression and makes the poem interesting to convey the mood of any kind meant by the poet. Also personification makes it easy to relate (the poet idea and the object personified).
  
  

 

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1. Comment on the structure of poem
   

 

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The structure of the poem involves four stanzas each with a different number of lines, 1^st stanza has nine lines, six lines for the second, eleven for the third and seven for the fourth.
The lines are of different sizes arranged in any irregular manner. Without a rhyme scheme. The poem is likely to follow modern way for writing poems.

1. Explain the use the similes
   Similes refer to a figure of speech that involves comparing of two dissimilar things using the words like or as. In the poem similes are found
   

 

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Here and there “like a plague of locusts this is meant to express the movements direction of the wind as it approaches the village.
       clothes wave like tattered flags this represents the situation of the women’s clothes due to the winds showing how they were humiliated.
    8.  Why do mothers hurry in and out?
Due to the fear they have because of the approaching storm, the wind and noise of thunder. What could possibly happen to them and their children? 

1. Why do the children cry with delight?
   

 

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Children are naturally always pleased to experience something interesting, the wind, and thunder was thought to be of great pleasure to them so they cry with delight, there not aware of the danger.
10. Explain the deeper meaning of the poem
The poem is about the incoming of colonialism in Africa from the west “clouds come hurrying with the wind”, this represent the colonialists rushing to Africa for their needs such as raw materials market and land. Turning sharply her and there like a plague of locusts. His involves the great number or influx of the colonialists in Africa, like a madman chasing nothing, knowing the potentials of the territory.
“Pregnant clouds”, the colonialists are seen to be excited and and ready to exploit any chance they get in Africa. The whole second stanza show how determined they were and also proved to the evil “like dark sinister wings” wind whistles by using  force and measures such as congest land alienation forced labour and others for the aim of getting what they want.
The third stanza  explains the reaction of the nature  of native of Africa to the incoming situation, that is colonialism filed with fear, women dart about in and  their  children  screaming with delight, the fact that they are more or less pleased to see and experience new  people and probably new rules in their villages. There said to move madly posing confusion among them toward the situation
 In the whole situation, the last stanza shows how colonialism exploited and humiliated African clothes wave like tattered flags due to the wind which in this case is colonialism. They were put under poor working conditions as slaves paid low wages and more.

1. Paraphrase the poem
   

 

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The  poem an African thunderstorm entails  of the coming of a storm in a village, originating from the west coming in a hurry up and down, here and there, the  wind whirls and is said to move like a madman chasing nothing because its fast and moves randomly.
 Clouds during the storm filled up and ready to rain gather  around, the wind blows making  trees bend, In the village, children scream with pleasure as their mothers are filled with fear they move in and  out. Their clothes are blown by the wind exposing their bodies’ flashes of thunder strike.

1.   Assonance, identify and comment on the use repetition of value sounds without regard to the preceded consonant sounds. Eg. Here and There
   

 

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 13.  Consonance, show and comment on its use final consonant sounds are agreed but the vowels that precede them differ.
E.g.  ……..about,……….out