South – Kamau Brathwaite Page 177-179

Kamau Brathwaite, 1930-2020, Barbadian poet and academic, widely considered one of the
major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. His literary career has taken him to Ghana, across
the Caribbean, U.K. and U.S.A. as a professor of Comparative Literature at New York University.

English B for CSEC – A Study Guide

SUMMARY
“South portrays the persona’s nostalgic journey into the place of birth, tracing the journey to
other places (not as idyllic) and returning once more to the beauty of the islands.”
 The persona speaks about the fact that today he is recapturing the beauty of the island of his
birth. He reflects on the fact that he has travelled to the lands of the north, which appeared to
be the very opposite of his island. The persona appeared, at that point, to be homesick for his
island and resented the ease and comfort that the Northerners’ felt towards their land. He then
shifts back to the present where he appreciates certain features of the island, particularly those
that remind him of his past on the island.

The poem can be seen as a celebration of Caribbean life.

Stanza 1 – the idyllic (happy, picturesque) live in the islands where man and nature seem to be
in harmony.

Stanza 2 – the unpleasant experience of life in the North with its stone, snow, shadows and
river.

Stanza 3 – Speaker philosophically claims the culture of the North is associated with rivers,
suggesting purpose and progress, while the timeless and unchanging culture of the South is
linked to the ocean.

Stanza 4 – The speaker decides to join the river of time – history. He revisits the tragic story of
colonialization.

Stanza 5 – He imagines his return to the islands with images of the beach

Stanza 6 – the joyous homeward journey continues with the fisherman’s greeting and the
image of a starfish.

LITERARY DEVICES
ALLITERATION

Note: The use of the alliterative ‘s’ and how it is used to portray experiences within the islands
(as in the soft, sibilant sounds of ‘shores’, ‘sound of the sea’) and compare this with the ’s’
sounds associated with the experiences outside of the islands (‘sharp slanting sleet’ and
‘stoniest cities’). Alliteration is used to portray the contrast with the then and the now; the
islands and elsewhere – the harshness of winter and the ocean and the river.

• lines 1-2: The sound that the alliteration elicits, when spoken, is a positive one. This is the
case because the alliteration forces the reader to sound cheerful, thereby facilitating the
interpretation that the persona is happy to be home.
• lines 4-5: This alliteration, again, draws the reader through the sound that it elicits. One can
almost hear the sound that the sea makes through the repetition of the ‘s’ sound. It emphasizes
the joy that the persona feels to be home.

•lines 13-14: This alliteration, when spoken, is staccato. It literally emphasizes the persona’s
discomfort, and dislike, of the new context that he is faced with. It is alien to him, as seen when
contrasted with the scene that he describes in the first stanza.

•Stanza 4, line 33: This device gives the reader a visual image of the scene. It is simple image
that highlights the persona’s excitement at being home and seeing scenes, even seemingly
inconsequential ones, that he knows and loves.

•Stanza 5, line 43: This alliteration gives the reader a visual of what the persona sees as
pleasant and calming, as opposed to the alliteration in stanza 2. The sound that the alliteration
elicits is a calm one, implying that the persona is at peace.

PERSONIFICATION
•Stanza 1, lines 6-7: This device gives a beautiful impression of the effect that the island had on
the persona. He felt whole when he was there, at peace.

•Stanza 2, lines 16-17: The shadows, in this context, represents his past life and experiences on
the island. The memories of his island elicits feelings of sadness, even homesickness. These
memories cast an oppressive shadow over his life in the north.   

SIMILE
The persona compares the flowing of the rivers, which represents the north, to his longing for
his island home. This comparison indicates that his longing is an intense one, he is homesick.

SYMBOLISM
The Caribbean man thinks of himself as born of the ocean, while the people in the North are
associated with rivers. The river symbolizes longing, endeavour, progress, purpose. The speaker
recognizes that this river-quality has led Europeans to conquer and colonize, bringing pain and
sorrow to peaceful people.

The Mandala image portrayed by the final image in the poem, the starfish to symbolize
wholeness or perfection.
Originally a symbol of Hinduism and Buddhism that represents the universe/ cosmos/ microcosm of
the universe.

STRUCTURE AND RHYTHM

The poem consists of six unrhymed stanzas of 6 lines x 4 then 7 and 5 lines respectively.
The poet uses no rhymes at all, instead frequent alliteration and assonance gives a musical
quality to the lines.
The predominant rhythm (dactylic: one stressed followed by two unstressed syllables) mimics
the gentle rocking of a boat on the waves, seen in the lines:
“Bright waves splash up from the rocks to refresh us
…into the limitless morning before us.”
Consider the phrase “sea-shells shift” as an onomatopoeia to capture the sound of shells
crunching underfoot?

IMPORTANT WORDS/ PHRASES

1.’recapture’ 
The word capture means to take possession of something or someone. Therefore, when the
persona says that he is recapturing his island, it implies that he is taking back possession of
what he once owned.
2.’Since then I have travelled’
This line indicates that the persona did not remain on the island of his birth.

3. ‘sojourned in stoniest cities’ 

This highlights a contrast between the persona’s island and the cities that he visited. His island
has beaches and oceans, while the cities that he visited were concrete jungles made of stone.

4. ‘We who are born of the ocean can never seek solace in rivers’
The persona refers to the north, and its populace, as rivers, while the south, and his island, is
the ocean. This line highlights the persona’s discontent in the north.

5. ‘reproves us our lack of endeavour and purpose’ 

Reprove is to reprimand. Therefore, the line is saying that the flowing river, the north,
reprimands the ocean, the south, for its lack of effort and resolve. This implies that the persona
might be homesick and, therefore, not functioning at full capacity in the new northern
environment.

6.’proves that our striving will founder on that.’ 

The term founder literally means the owner or operator of a foundry. This has little to do with
the context of the poem, therefore, it can be assumed that poetic license was utilized at this
point. Contextually, the line can be interpreted as meaning that the persona’s subsequent
striving, or efforts, will be founded on the reprimand made by the river, or the north.

7.’there’ 
The emphasis placed on this word, through the use of italics, highlights the fact that the
persona is both happy and excited to be home.

8.’and look!’ 
The exclamation mark emphasizes the persona’s enthusiasm, and excitement, when he
identifies a scene that is reminiscent of his past.

MOOD/ ATMOSPHERE
The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona is thinking about his island home, as well as
places that he has visited in the north.

TONE
The tone of the poem goes from being nostalgic as he recalls the island, to being elated/
unbounded joy and hope as he sees the beach and the urchins playing there.

As the speaker contemplates what he has gone through in the northern lands and their
historical oppression of the island people, the tone becomes one of bitterness.

The friendliness and warmth of the relationships of the South contrast the loneliness, pain and
hostility of the North. The tone of praise for the first and dislike of the other intensifies our
sense of the speaker’s appreciation of island life.

THEMES
Patriotism Dreams and desires

Category of Poem – Places, Nostalgia

Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
*declension - a condition of decline or moral deterioration.

OTHER USEFUL LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCgqmzgfeRE&t=25s

South
Kamau Brathwaite

But today I recapture the islands'

bright beaches:  blue mist from the ocean

rolling into the fishermen's houses.

By these shores I was born:  sound of the sea

came in at my window, life heaved and breathed in me then

with the strength of that turbulent soil.

Since then I have travelled:  moved far from the beaches:

sojourned in stoniest cities, walking the lands of the north

in sharp slanting sleet and the hail,

crossed countless saltless savannas and come

to this house in the forest where the shadows oppress me

and the only water is rain and the tepid taste of the river.

We who are born of the ocean can never seek solace

in rivers:  their flowing runs on like our longing,

reproves us our lack of endeavour and purpose,

proves that our striving will founder on that.

We resent them this wisdom, this freedom:  passing us

toiling, waiting and watching their cunning declension down to the sea.

But today I would join you, travelling river,

borne down the years of your patientest flowing,

past pains that would wreck us, sorrows arrest us,

hatred that washes us up on the flats;

and moving on through the plains that receive us,

processioned in tumult, come to the sea.

 
Bright waves splash up from the rocks to refresh us,

blue sea-shells shift in their wake

and there is the thatch of the fishermen's houses, the path

made of pebbles, and look!

Small urchins combing the beaches

look up from their traps to salute us:

they remember us just as we left them.

The fisherman, hawking the surf on this side

of the reef, stands up in his boat

and halloos us:  a starfish lies in its pool.

And gulls, white sails slanted seaward,

fly into the limitless morning before us.