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Ignatius Royston Dunnachie
Campbell, better known as
Roy Campbell, (October 2, 1901 – April 22, 1957)
was an Anglo –African Poet and satirist. He was
considered by T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Edith
Sitwell to have been one of the best poets of the
period between the First and Second World Wars.
1. Read through the poem in your group.
2. Look up any words you don’t understand. Then write them in and figure out what the line is saying.
3. Find the sound devices. What is their use in that sentence?
4. Is there a Rhyme scheme?
5. Underline any words that stick out to you.
6. What do you think the poem is about?
7. Can this Zulu lady be a symbol of something?
When in the sun the hot red acres smoulder,
Down where the sweating gang its labours plies,
A girl flings down her how, and from her shoulder
Unslings her child tormented by the flies.
What is the setting of the poem?
What is the job that the girl is doing?
Which words stick out to you? Why?
SUN HOT RED SSMOULDER,
What does this
word imply ?
Look at the red words. What type
of place do you imagine? Is this a
pleasant place?
Account for the
use of
alliteration in
this line.
GIRL FLINGS
TORMENTED BY THE FLIES.
Why has the
poet told us
this detail?
What is
implied by the
use of this
word?Why the
repetition?
What picture is
created for the
reader?
She takes him to a ring of shadow pooled
By thorn-trees: purples with the blood of ticks,
While her sharp nails, in slow caress ruled,
Prowl through his hair with sharp electric clicks.
Which words stick out to you? Why?
PROWL SHARP
Comment on the use of this
word. What does it imply?
Why does the poet repeat this
word? Does it tie into other
imagery?
His sleepy mouth, plugged by the heavy nipple,Tugs like a puppy, grunting as he feeds;Through his frail nerves her own deep languor’s rippleLike a broad river sighing through the reeds.
What is the mood of this stanza?
Account for the change in mood.
FRAIL NERVES
Implies vulnerability
Why is he frail?
Tenderness
Literally the mother is feeding her hungry boy.
Metaphorically she is feeding his soul
SIGHING
Why is the river seen as
“sighing”?
Is this a positive or a negative image?
How does this image make you as the reader feel?
Yet in that drowsy stream his flesh imbibesAn old unquenched, unsmotherable heat-The curbed ferocity of beaten tribes,The sullen dignity of their defeat.
OLD UNQUENCHED, UNSMOTHERABLEHEAT-
From a long
time ago
Cannot be put out,
cannot be killed
Spirit/ energy
Notice how heat is used in the positive sense now, which
is in contrast to how it was first used.
Refers to the ancient and proud memory of the Zulus , a
memory of the time when they were fierce warriors.
On another level she
is feeding his soul,
pouring into him the
perseverance of the
Zulu people, their
strength as a tribe,
the might of the Zulu
nation .
D D
What is the use of
alliteration here?
Gloomy
silence
The Zulu people still have
dignity, even in their defeat,
even though they are
oppressed.
Her body looms above him like a hillWithin whose shade a village lies at rest,Or the first cloud so terrible and stillThat bears the coming harvest in its breast.
W W
What is being said about
the mother in this image?
She is a
beacon of
hope, she is a
mother to all
the oppressed
people.
Cloud brings life giving
rain to nature that brings
about a harvest, just as her
breast milk brings life to
the boy.
The children off the
oppressed people will
one day reap the harvest
of their suffering, they
will overcome their
oppression and become
great again.