Poem: Ol’ Higue by Mark McWatt

Themes: Supernatural, Culture, Superstition, Appearance versus Reality

Situation: The speaker is Ol’ Higue herself (a mythical creature). She surprises us with her opening
words: “You think I like this stupidness?” for we find ourselves in the middle of a conversation with Ol’
Higue, in which she is explaining to us that she really does not like the job she has to do. She relates the
folklore concerning her thirst for baby blood and the lengths people go to in order to protect the baby
against evil. At first the poem keeps to well-known superstitions, but towards the end the speaker
attempts to explain the psychology behind superstitions like the belief in Ol’ Higue.

Structure: The poem is a dramatic monologue which falls into three stanzas, using free verse and a
conversational tone. The speaker appropriately uses Creole and a few rhyming words.

● Stanza 1- relates the beliefs regarding Ol’ Higue, the way she comes out of her skin and becomes
a ball of fire and drinks baby blood. She refers to the salt and rice that people sprinkle to keep her from
harming the baby.

● Stanza 2- she explains the appeal of newborn babies, their sweet smell, the pure blood in their
veins, and we understand that she regrets being so old and is jealous of the ‘sweet song of life” that she
hears from the young.

● Stanza 3- Ol’ Higue stops defending her own actions and begins accusing women: they blame Ol’
Higue because they are afraid to admit to the murderous thoughts in their own heads, they project their
guilt on her. Every mother carries an “ancient dread” (perhaps of finding her baby dead in the cradle,
perhaps of getting old herself), and has murder inside her head- for much as a mother loves her baby,
there are moments when she is terrified at the thoughts passing through her mind. The speaker
concludes that once there are women giving birth (and realizing that they themselves are getting old-
that this new baby has robbed them of their youth and beauty), they will need to project their bad
thoughts on someone.

Poetic devices

1. Allusion (To Caribbean folklore): McWatt is discussing a psychological aspect of women’s lives. A
mother is expected only to show love and patience to her new baby, but when she is sleep-deprived and
the baby will not sleep, she can get murderous thoughts. Because she is unable to admit even to herself
that this is so, she invents a figure who kills babies- Ol’ Higue. This is a psychological reality: we all
project our negative characteristics onto others in order to appear virtuous. By using the folk figure in
this way, McWatt is helping us to understand something about ourselves, but in a playful, entertaining
way.
2. Simile: “burning myself out like cane-fire”: Cane-fire has a very distinct quality. It burns very
quickly and its presence is felt through it's pungent smell. Therefore, when the Ol' Higue compares
herself to cane fire in her fireball state, it implies that she uses a lot of energy quickly, and is very visible.

3. Rhetorical Questions: The questions and conversational tone that Ol’ Higue uses help to bring
the reader into her thoughts, inviting a response.

● Stanza 1,line 4: This rhetorical question highlights the scant regard that the Higue has for the
average person. She is thoroughly annoyed that she has to literally waste her energy on them.

● Stanza 1, line 5: This highlights the fact that, again, she is annoyed that she has to expend so
much energy to obtain a few drops of baby blood.

● Stanza 1, lines 6-8: The Ol' Higue is emphasizing the fact that regular people ingest blood too,
just in a more palatable manner. She would not mind if she could ingest it in the same manner as well.

● Stanza 3, lines 22-23: At this point the Ol' Higue is making excuses for her presence, claiming that
she serves an actual purpose in the scheme of life. If a child dies of unknown causes, she can be
scapegoated for it.

● Stanza 3, lines 24-25: 'The murder inside your head' refers to the moments, when out of pure
frustration and tiredness, a mother might wish ill on her child. The Ol' Higue is implying that, again, she
can be used as a scapegoat if something unfortunate happens to the child. The mother is relieved of
bearing the burden of guilt.

4. Repetition: The repetition of the word 'soft' emphasizes the fact that the call of the child's blood
has captured and beguiled the Ol' Higue'. She implies that she cannot resist that call.

5. Alliteration: “baby blood”: This device emphasizes the Ol' Higue's dependence, even addiction,
to the sweet blood of the baby.

6. Diction (use of Creole): In this poem Creole is totally effective because Ol’ Higue is a folk figure.
The Creole adds to the humour at the beginning of the poem. The Creole expressions add realism, and
also underscore serious concerns that the poet brings to our attention.

'stupidness!': This is a distinctly Caribbean phrase that highlights frustration or scorn. Therefore, it
highlights the Ol' Higue's frustration with her lack of self-control.

'gallivanting': This term refers to someone 'playing around', having fun. The Ol' Higue is being sarcastic at
this point. She is expressing displeasure at having to fly around to seek prey
7. Use of punctuation and lineation: question marks, ellipsis, exclamation – facilitates the dramatic
monologue style, supports the changes in emotions and the need for the listener/reader to see from her
point of view.

Tone and Mood: The first stanza is very playful, the second a little serious, and the third very thoughtful.
In stanza 1, Ol’ Higue can be asking in a playful, teasing tone, “You think I wouldn’t rather take my blood
seasoned in fat black pudding…?” But, by the final stanza the diction includes words like “middle of the
night”, “ancient dread”, “blame”, “murder”- creating a far more solemn, even ominous tone. The tone
adopted by Ol’ Higue affects the mood of the reader. At first we are amused by Ol’ Higue’s cheeky
presentation of herself, but as she grows accusatory, we become thoughtful and serious, asking
ourselves whether there is any truth in the claims she makes.

Message: McWatt uses Ol’ Higue to remind us of the human propensity to project our failings and
wicked thoughts onto other people, instead of admitting that we all have a dark side to our personality.

Poem: A Stone’s Throw by Elma Mitchell

Themes: Cruelty, Bullying, Discrimination, Oppression, Gender inequality, Religion, Hypocrisy

Situation: The situation in the poem is a re-creation of an incident in the life of Jesus (Gospel of John,
Chapter 8). A woman who had been caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees
(religious leaders), who asked if he agreed that she should be stoned to death- as the Law required. Jesus
stooped down and wrote in the sand, and then invited any of the men who considered himself “without
sin” to throw the first stone. One by one they all slunk away, accused by their guilty consciences. In the
poem, one of the Pharisees relates the incident from his point of view, showing his sadistic tendencies and
his disrespect for Jesus.

Structure: This poem is a free verse which contains 6 stanzas.

Stanza 1: the crowd caught a woman
Stanza 2: persona implies to the reader that the woman is not decent. She was beautiful, but scared
because she had gotten 'roughed up' a little by the crowd.
Stanza 3: persona states that the woman has experienced men's hands on her body before, but this crowd's
hands were virtuous.
Stanza 4: he makes a proviso that if this crowd bruises her, it cannot be compared to what she has
experienced before. The persona also speaks about a last assault and battery to come. He justifies this last
assault by calling it justice, and it is justice that feels not only right, but good.
Stanza 5: the crowd's 'justice' is placed on hold by the interruption of a preacher, who stops to talk to the
lady. He squats on the ground and writes something that the crowd cannot see. Essentially, the preacher
judges them, thereby allowing the lady to also judge the crowd, leading to the crowd inevitably judging
itself.
Stanza 6: the crowd walks away from the lady, still holding stones [which can be seen as a metaphor for
judgments] that can be thrown another day.

Poetic devices

1. Biblical allusion: The events that unfold in the poem allude to the story of Mary Magdalene in the
Bible.

John 8 (1-11): Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the
Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of
religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her
in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The
Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down
and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All
right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote
in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until
only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the
woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And
Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

2. Bracketed responses: these function as asides in the poem and reveal the malicious intentions of the
speaker. For example “A decent-looking woman, you'd have said/ (They often are)”.

3. Juxtaposition: corrupt vs virtuous, clean vs unclean. The woman is juxtaposed against the members of
the mob and “this guru/Preacher/God-merchant” is contrasted against the members of the mob.

4. Personation/Metaphor: “And if our fingers bruised/Her shuddering skin/These were love-bites,

compared to the hail of kisses of stone”- this metaphor encapsulates the wrath of the mob who are intent
on inflicting physical pain to this ‘sinful’ woman.

5. Irony: the persona and the other members of the mob are convinced that they are doing a
just/honourable act by stoning this woman. However, one important premise of Christianity is forgiveness
and the avoidance of judgement (which should be carried out by God), nevertheless the persona and the
mob are of the belief that this woman does not deserve forgiveness for her sin and has assumed the duty
of God (he has deified himself). One would think that these ‘virtuous’ men have intentions and thoughts
that are pure, however, they are malicious as they intend to harm this woman who seems completely
vulnerable.

6. Diction: a number of words are sexual innuendos.

- “tousled”- This means to be handled indelicately which results in a disorderly and dishevelled look.

- “tastes so good”- the persona uses these words to underscore the extreme pleasure that they garner from
punishing this woman for her sexual indiscretion. However, the words also demonstrate the hypocrisy of
these people who claim to be virtuous but are also sexually aroused from ‘manhandling’ the prostitute.

- “Battery”- refers to non-consensual touching of someone’s intimate parts.

The diction also includes words and phrases associated with violence: “roughed her up”, “bruised”,
“assault and battery”, “kisses of stone”.

The speaker utilizes an ‘us vs them’ rhetoric which mimics the notion of otherness that is pervasive
throughout the poem. There is an inherent “our” vs “her” in the poem which immediately alienates the
woman and locates her to the condemned realm of ‘other’.

7. Repetition: “eyes”

Jesus looks at the men and sees past their religious clothing to the lust and hypocrisy inside. Similarly, the
woman now sees past their religious exterior, and the men finally see themselves as they are. It is they
who are on trial now- not the woman.

Tone: The Pharisee uses a flippant, insulting tone in speaking about Jesus: “this guru”, “Preacher”, “God-
merchant”, “God-knows-what”. He insinuates that Jesus has degraded himself just by talking to the
woman. His flippant tone continues to the end when he asserts that they may bring another woman to be
stoned another day “given the urge”.

Mood: disgust for the self-righteous Pharisees, admiration for Jesus, and compassion for the woman
Message: In some cultures, stoning to death is still the punishment for adultery. And even today it is the
woman who is punished and not the man. By shifting our gaze away from the woman caught in adultery
and onto one of the Pharisees, the poem sends the message that self-righteousness makes us blind to our
own failings and cruelly intolerant of the failings of others.

Poem: My Parents by Stephen Spender

Themes: Childhood experiences, Cruelty and inhumanity, Parents and children, Attitude to power and
authority

Situation: The speaker remembers how, when he was a child, his parents shielded him “from children
who were rough” with the result that he never learnt how to deal with their bullying and taunting. He
grows to fear them, even though he longs to “forgive” them and be friends.
Structure: The poem has three four-line stanzas of regular line lengths, but without end rhymes. The
orderliness of the structure makes us think of the orderliness of the speaker’s world, but the absence of
rhymes perhaps hints at the lack of harmonious relationships in his life- something he clearly regrets.
Poetic Devices:
1. Simile: The “rough” children are compared to animals: they spring out “like dogs to bark”, and the
speaker fears “more than tigers” their muscles and their ability to wrestle him down. Another simile
compares their verbal taunts with stones thrown at the speaker, suggesting how painful the insults
were, and how they are not easily forgotten.
2. Irony: The speaker tells us that his parents kept him “from children who were rough”. Ironically,
though, their protectiveness has left him unable to deal with those same children, and he relates how
much he feared them and was hurt by them. his suffering has been greater because of their misplaced
kindness.
3. Metaphor: The persona now states that he feared their 'salt coarse pointing.' This metaphor directly
compares their pointing to the coarseness of salt. The use of coarse continues the description of the
children as rough, but it also gives a tangibility to the derision of the boys. The persona feels their
mockery to be coarse and harsh, inflicting a near-physical abrasion that goes beyond some sort of
friendly badinage. By saying salt coarse, it also alludes to a common phrase 'rub salt into the wound.'
Although it is a bit of a stretch, their mockery, on top of forcing him into compromising positions in
fights, is like rubbing salt into an open wound, as he experiences the emotional fallout as well as the
physical.
Mood/Tone: The speaker’s tone is very varied in this poem. He speaks somewhat disdainfully about the
torn clothes, the rags that the rough children wore, but he also seems to adopt a tone of envy when he
speaks of their freedom to run in the street, climb cliffs and bathe in the country streams. A mood of
remembered terror creeps in when he describes the physical attacks, and the rudeness as they copied his
lisp. Throughout we feel his pain and humiliation, and we are sorry for him. Also, we are critical of the
parents for not teaching their son how to cope and stand on his own two feet.
Message: The poem is a serious indictment of class distinctions. The speaker’s parents clearly see
themselves as being superior to the “rough” neighbours, and have taught their son accordingly, but in
doing so they have made him a victim of vengeful response of the “have-nots” in society. He has grown
up unable to bridge the gap between himself and the lower class.
Poem: Birdshooting Season by Olive Senior

Themes: Cruelty and inhumanity, Childhood experiences, Nature, Gender roles, Attitude to power and
authority, Death

Situation: The speaker describes the season when men in Jamaica’s rural areas go bird shooting. We see
their “macho” demeanour as they “make marriages with their guns”, and “drink white rum neat” in
preparation. The role of the women is different: they are the stay-at-home nurturers, brewing coffee and
packing snacks for the males-only outing. Little boys watch the preparations, eager to grow up and join in
while little girls just pray for the birds to escape.

Structure: Senior opted for free verse with four stanzas of different lengths. There are no end rhymes.
The first stanza focuses on men, the second on the women. Stanza three provides a transition with the
men leaving for the hunt, and stanza four tells of the different reactions of the boys and the girls. The
structure underscores the contrast between men and women.

Poetic Devices:

1. Metaphor: “make marriages with their guns” is effective in showing the deep love the men have
for this activity. They are now bound to their guns and the hunting as they are bound to their
wives. Ironically, whereas marriage usually produces new life, this “marriage” to their guns will
produce death.

Contrast: This shows the different activities for the men and women, and different attitudes for the boys
and girls
Mood/Tone: A gentle and mocking tone can be observed in the speaker’s voice as she uses the word
“macho”, and talks of the “marriage” the men make with their guns. She captures the irritation of the
women in the word “contentless”. Then at the end we feel compassion and fear for the birds in the
whispered words of the little girls.

Message: Human beings are both male and female: we have a side that is aggressive and destructive, but
we also have a side that is gentle and nurturing. The two sides of our humanity are displayed in the
situation depicted in the poem.
Poem: Once Upon a Time by Gabriel Okara

Themes: Hypocrisy and values, Childhood experiences, Parents and children, Appearance versus reality,
Identity, Societal changes

Situation: The speaker tells his son that life has taught him to be hypocritical: to wear different faces for
different occasions. Other people, he has found “only to laugh with their teeth” instead of with their
hearts, and when they shake his hand, their other hand is searching his pockets. Since society is insincere,
the speaker now wears “faces like dresses”, and says the things people want to hear. He regrets the falsity,
and wants his son to teach him to be sincere again because he is horrified to see his own face in the
mirror, looking like a snake’s fangs.

Structure: The poem is a free verse which consists of seven stanzas with no definite rhyming; it
emphasizes the fact that it is a monologue from a father to his son.

Poetic Devices:

1. Choice of speaker: Okara chooses to use a father talking to an innocent child as his speaker. The
contrast between his loss of innocence- the falsity and hypocrisy- and the child’s simplicity is
moving. We do not want the child to be corrupted like the father, and we sympathise with the
father for the regret he feels.

2. Repetition: The repetition of the fairy-tale formula “Once upon a time” suggests it is almost as if
the father is starting to tell a bedtime story, but sadly he has a much more serious tale to relate to
his son, and the world of fairy tale and magic is a far cry from the world that has taught him to
constantly wear a false face.

3. Simile: “…my laugh in the mirror/Shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!” emphasises
that the speaker’s happy, innocent laugh has been transformed into something dangerous and
frightening. The speaker is bemoaning the fact that as he has grown older and learnt the ways of
society, he has changed- ha has lost his innocence. This makes us feel sorrowful and anxious to
know that such a corrupted person is the role model for a little child.

● “I have learned to wear many faces like dresses” (lines 20-21): The 'faces' of the persona are
compared to dresses, in that he cycles through them based on where he is. He simply switches
between the personality/face he puts on to conform to where he goes.

● “...with all their conforming smiles like a fixed portrait smile” (lines 23-24): The persona's
several faces have smiles compared here to a fixed portrait smile. The smile a person puts on
 in a photograph or portrait of themselves is often not representative of the normal state of
being of the person, and is also often uncomfortable and an exaggerated pretence of
happiness- similar to the pretence the persona performs here with his several smiling faces.

4. Irony: We expect that a father will be in a position to advise and teach his son, so there is some
irony in the poem when this situation is reversed, and we find the father asking his son to teach
him. The father realises that in dealing with the hypocrisy in society, he has become a hypocrite
himself, and he yearns to recapture the innocence that he has lost, but now sees in his son.

5. Metaphor: “while their ice-block-cold eyes” (line 5) indicates that the eyes of the people are
compared to ice-blocks in how cold and unwelcoming they are. It emphasizes how callous and
unfeeling the people have become.

Mood/Tone: The tone throughout is nostalgic as the father remembers what things used to be like once
when he was a child. There is an undertone of bitterness throughout the poem whenever the father talks
about how things have changed and how the world has progressively become more and more decadent.
The mood is one of disdain and nostalgia. The tone could also be considered to be ironic, since not only
does the father act the exact way he despises, but his dream of turning the clock back to a time of
sincerity is nothing more than a fantasy as well.

Message: People, in order to get by in society, become hypocritical and compromise their values. We may
be aware of being forced to be insincere which may lead to regrets.

Poem: A Stone’s Throw by Elma Mitchell

Themes: Cruelty, Bullying, Discrimination, Oppression, Gender inequality, Religion, Hypocrisy

Situation: The situation in the poem is a re-creation of an incident in the life of Jesus (Gospel of John,
Chapter 8). A woman who had been caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees
(religious leaders), who asked if he agreed that she should be stoned to death- as the Law required. Jesus
stooped down and wrote in the sand, and then invited any of the men who considered himself “without
sin” to throw the first stone. One by one they all slunk away, accused by their guilty consciences. In the
poem, one of the Pharisees relates the incident from his point of view, showing his sadistic tendencies and
his disrespect for Jesus.

Structure: This poem is a free verse which contains 6 stanzas.

Stanza 1: the crowd caught a woman
Stanza 2: persona implies to the reader that the woman is not decent. She was beautiful, but scared
because she had gotten 'roughed up' a little by the crowd.
Stanza 3: persona states that the woman has experienced men's hands on her body before, but this crowd's
hands were virtuous.
Stanza 4: he makes a proviso that if this crowd bruises her, it cannot be compared to what she has
experienced before. The persona also speaks about a last assault and battery to come. He justifies this last
assault by calling it justice, and it is justice that feels not only right, but good.
Stanza 5: the crowd's 'justice' is placed on hold by the interruption of a preacher, who stops to talk to the
lady. He squats on the ground and writes something that the crowd cannot see. Essentially, the preacher
judges them, thereby allowing the lady to also judge the crowd, leading to the crowd inevitably judging
itself.
Stanza 6: the crowd walks away from the lady, still holding stones [which can be seen as a metaphor for
judgments] that can be thrown another day.

Poetic devices

1. Biblical allusion: The events that unfold in the poem allude to the story of Mary Magdalene in the
Bible.

John 8 (1-11): Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the
Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of
religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her
in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The
Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down
and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All
right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote
in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until
only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the
woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And
Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

2. Bracketed responses: these function as asides in the poem and reveal the malicious intentions of the
speaker. For example “A decent-looking woman, you'd have said/ (They often are)”.

3. Juxtaposition: corrupt vs virtuous, clean vs unclean. The woman is juxtaposed against the members of
the mob and “this guru/Preacher/God-merchant” is contrasted against the members of the mob.
4. Personation/Metaphor: “And if our fingers bruised/Her shuddering skin/These were love-bites,
compared to the hail of kisses of stone”- this metaphor encapsulates the wrath of the mob who are intent
on inflicting physical pain to this ‘sinful’ woman.

5. Irony: the persona and the other members of the mob are convinced that they are doing a
just/honourable act by stoning this woman. However, one important premise of Christianity is forgiveness
and the avoidance of judgement (which should be carried out by God), nevertheless the persona and the
mob are of the belief that this woman does not deserve forgiveness for her sin and has assumed the duty
of God (he has deified himself). One would think that these ‘virtuous’ men have intentions and thoughts
that are pure, however, they are malicious as they intend to harm this woman who seems completely
vulnerable.

6. Diction: a number of words are sexual innuendos.

- “tousled”- This means to be handled indelicately which results in a disorderly and dishevelled look.

- “tastes so good”- the persona uses these words to underscore the extreme pleasure that they garner from
punishing this woman for her sexual indiscretion. However, the words also demonstrate the hypocrisy of
these people who claim to be virtuous but are also sexually aroused from ‘manhandling’ the prostitute.

- “Battery”- refers to non-consensual touching of someone’s intimate parts.

The diction also includes words and phrases associated with violence: “roughed her up”, “bruised”,
“assault and battery”, “kisses of stone”.

The speaker utilizes an ‘us vs them’ rhetoric which mimics the notion of otherness that is pervasive
throughout the poem. There is an inherent “our” vs “her” in the poem which immediately alienates the
woman and locates her to the condemned realm of ‘other’.

7. Repetition: “eyes”

Jesus looks at the men and sees past their religious clothing to the lust and hypocrisy inside. Similarly, the
woman now sees past their religious exterior, and the men finally see themselves as they are. It is they
who are on trial now- not the woman.
Tone: The Pharisee uses a flippant, insulting tone in speaking about Jesus: “this guru”, “Preacher”, “God-
merchant”, “God-knows-what”. He insinuates that Jesus has degraded himself just by talking to the
woman. His flippant tone continues to the end when he asserts that they may bring another woman to be
stoned another day “given the urge”.

Mood: disgust for the self-righteous Pharisees, admiration for Jesus, and compassion for the woman

Message: In some cultures, stoning to death is still the punishment for adultery. And even today it is the
woman who is punished and not the man. By shifting our gaze away from the woman caught in adultery
and onto one of the Pharisees, the poem sends the message that self-righteousness makes us blind to our
own failings and cruelly intolerant of the failings of others.
Poem: Little Boy Crying by Mervyn Morris

Themes: Childhood experiences, Parents and children, Appearance versus reality, Attitude to power and
authority
Situation: The speaker is a father who has just slapped his three-year 0old son for playing in the rain. As
he watches the child crying in frustration, he tries to imagine what the child is thinking of his father, and
how the boy probably hates this giant of a man who seems so cruel. He lets us know that in fact he would
love to lift the boy up and play with him to ease his sadness, but feels he must remain firm, and stern,
since the child must learn not to play in the rain.
Structure: Using free verse, the poet presents his poem in four stanzas- the first three of similar length,
and the final stanza consisting of just one line. In the first stanza, the father describes the reaction of the
child to the slap; in the second, the father imagines what he must look like to the child- a grim giant like
the one in Jack and the Beanstalk. As we move into the third stanza the father addresses the child,
claiming that it pains him to punish the child, but the lesson has to be learnt; and in the final, one-line
stanza, he states the lesson: “You must not make a plaything of the rain”. We see the situation from both
points of view, and are kept in suspense until the last line to find out what occasioned the slap.
Poetic Devices:
1. Allusion: The most striking device is allusion to the fairy tale. The father imagines that his son
sees him as the “grim giant” in the story ‘Jack the Giant Killer’. The child sees himself as Jack,
the hero, “chopping clean the tree he’s scrambling down”. The allusion is effective because it is
the kind of story the child would be familiar with, it suggests the immense size of the giant/father,
and conveys the hatred the child feels at that moment.
2. Metaphor: The metaphor “angling” captures very cleverly the way children have of demanding
attention: like someone fishing, the child is “angling” for some “hint of guilt and sorrow” in the
father’s face.
3. Contrast: The child sees the father as an all-powerful tyrant, but the father presents himself as one
who is hurt, who wavers, who would prefer to play than to administer punishment.

Mood/Tone: The description of the child’s crying is compassionate; the allusion introduces a slightly
playful note that suggests an understanding of the child’s mind, and the third stanza shifts to a tone that
balances self-justification with remorse. We are left feeling pity for both father and child, along with a
feeling that all will be well since love is clearly present.

Message: The father’s actions show that love involves discipline. However, through the way it expresses
the father and child’s emotions, this poem shows that punishing the one you love is painful for both
parties.
Poem: A Lesson for this Sunday by Derek Walcott

Theme: Cruelty and inhumanity

Situation: It is Sunday. The speaker swings idly in his hammock, enjoying the summery weather. A black
maid sings a church song as she does her work. Suddenly the quiet is interrupted by two small children
who have caught a butterfly and are eagerly dissecting it. As the maid intervenes to stop the cruel game,
the little girl screams out, and the damaged insect attempts to fly away. It seems to the speaker that the
little girl-like the butterfly - is a beautiful, summery thing who should never have to endure agony.

Reeling from a new-found awareness that cruelty and suffering seem to be something inherited by each
generation, the speaker wonders where and how we chose such a path for ourselves or whether indeed we
were given the choice.

Structure: The poem is written in free verse, but makes use of a fairly regular rhythm, regular line length
and frequent rhymes. The argument is developed in three stanzas of different lengths. The first stanza
focuses on the quiet moment of relaxation in the hammock on this Sunday. The second deals with the
interruption of the quiet by the cries of the children hunting and dissecting the butterfly, and then
objecting to the maid stopping their game. The third relates the reflections of the speaker - wondering
where such seemingly innate cruelty had its origins.

Poetic Devices:
Pun: The title contains layers of meaning within the word 'lesson. The children are having a science
lesson, but the speaker is also learning something. Although he is not in church, where the word 'lesson'
would refer to the Bible reading, he is actually being presented with a sermon on Original Sin as he
watches two young children (whom one would expect to be innocent) demonstrating that cruelty is innate.
This latter meaning of the title is reinforced by the fact that the black maid is singing "the plain notes of
some Protestant hosanna as if she, too, is in church. Her very presence is yet another lesson- this time for
the reader, who is reminded of slavery - of the cruelties of humankind.

The little girl is "crouched on plump haunches, as a mantis prays. Here the pun on prays/preys is
effective, suggesting that scientific research may appear to be reverencing life. but is often merely preying
on that life.
Metaphor: The butterflies are frail kites - an effective metaphor because it suggests not only their flight
and fragility, but also a sense of playfulness.

The poem is initially offered as the lemonade of simple praise - a cool, refreshing drink mixing both
sweet (sugar) and sour (lemon).

Irony: The speaker says that the cries of the children break his Sabbath with the thought of sin. Most
Sabbath-keepers consider that reflecting on one's sin is a necessary aspect of the Sabbath, but not this
man, who evidently prefers to spend Sunday in his garden. It is ironic that he is getting a lesson/sermon
even though he is not in church.

Rhymes: Rhymes are used effectively to link key concepts: swings/sings suggests the peacefulness of the
moment; sin/pin highlights the fact that the children's activity is sinful, not just playful; fear/everywhere
and torn/ born support the speaker's thesis that fear, pain and suffering are part of our lot as human beings
because cruelty is everywhere too. Like summer grass, the poem concludes, we are doomed to die: we
sway "to the scythe's design

Simile: The words "as summer grass sways to the scythe's design create a comparison between the way
each of us is born into a life of pain, suffering and death, and highlight that this process is as inevitable as
the way each blade of grass is cut down by a scythe. Crucial to the simile is the word "design"-suggesting
that the pain and cruelty are actually part of the master plan!

Symbol: The little girl wears a lemon frock and the butterfly has yellow wings. When the speaker
comments "and everywhere the frocks of summer torn", he has given symbolic value to the yellow frock:
it now represents all beauty and innocence that risks being broken and maimed by the cruelty and
destructiveness around.

Diction: In describing the two children, the poet shifts to a semi-scientific language: lepidopterists,
surgeon, eviscerate, abdomen, prodigies. Because the language is too grand to be applied to children
tearing a butterfly to pieces, we sense mockery in the tone. But we are also reminded that carefully
chosen words (ethnic cleansing, redeployment, etc.) can often mask horrors in the real world.

Mood/Tone: The speaker's mood (shared by the reader) is initially relaxed and contented, then mildly
annoyed, and finally disoriented, deeply disturbed and appalled.

The tone of the meditation is serious and philosophical.

Message: Deftly, Walcott uses this incident of the cruelty of two young children. to make the reader
reflect on the pervasive cruelty and suffering in our world
Poem: The Woman Speaks to the Man who Has Employed her Son by Lorna Goodison

Themes: Dreams and aspirations, Hypocrisy, Cruelty and inhumanity, Parents and children, Appearance
versus reality, Life versus death, Nature versus technology

Situation: The speaker tells us of a mother who has worked and made sacrifices to raise her son, only to
have her hopes dashed when the boy gets caught up with criminal elements. She is so resigned to the
certainty that his life will end violently (“the day he draws his bloody salary”) that she buys the materials
for her funeral dress ahead of the even. Notwithstanding the poem’s title, the speaker is not the mother
herself, but someone close to her who speaks on the mother’s behalf: the speaker refers to the mother as
“she”, to the son as “he”, and to the employer as “you”. By having someone other than the mother as
speaker, Goodison avoids introducing the negative tone of self-pity or bitterness, which might detract
from our compassion.

Structure: There are six unrhymed stanzas of equal length. The absence of deliberate end rhyme is
effective because it suggests to us that, try as she might, the speaker simple cannot bring order and
harmony into her response to the tragedy. Significantly, the nearest approach to a rhyme is in the words
prayers/tears. The regularity of the stanzas, though, suggests an inevitability about events that have taken
place.

Poetic Devices:

1. Contrast: The poem begins with talk of morning sickness and the baby growing inside the mother-
intimate and natural- but then dramatically switches to talk of machine guns and “hot exploding
death”. The contrast is between life and death, between nature and technology.

2. Diction: Much of the diction conveys the religious faith of the mother: “prayers”, “psalms”, “knee
city”, “soul”.

3. Allusion: In lines 25-28, Biblical allusion is used. In Matthew 7:9 Jesus asks the question: ‘Or
which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?’ Any good father would
naturally give his son what is good for him, but not the ‘father’ in the poem.

In another Biblical allusion, she is compared with other mothers whose sons have died violent
deaths after they have gone astray- the mother of Judas Iscariot and of the thief beside Jesus. The
allusion reminds us that even the worst criminal was once a baby, nursing at his mother’s breast.
 In the story of King David and his son Absalom (2 Samuel 18:24-33), Absalom had almost
destroyed his father in his rebellion, but David never stopped loving him. The woman in the poem
sees herself as both mother and father to a son who has turned to crime, so she identifies herself not
only with Biblical mothers of criminals, but also with this father of a renegade son.

The Biblical allusions underscore the simple faith of the mother, but they also speak out against the
gang-lords whose unrighteous dealings are destroying youths in society.

Mood/Tone: In lines 13-17 the speaker imagines the mother speaking of the absentee father with wry
humour, but no bitterness. In line 22, again speaking on behalf of the mother, the friend turns to the
criminal employer and her sarcasm spills over. In lines 33-40 we find a mixture of sorrow and vengeful
anger. The hint here is that while the woman is seeking comfort from God as she prays for the son, she is
bringing a curse down on the employer- reading psalms for him and covering him with her eye-water.
Caribbean readers are familiar with the use of the Bible in obeah- and it looks as if this mother is seeking
her own kind of revenge.

But while the humour and sarcasm spill over, the chief tone of the poem is of grief and lamentation, and
controlled anger at the injustice that all of the mother’s dreams should be shattered in this way. The reader
experiences different moods as the poem progresses: tenderness at the mention of the mother’s love and
hopes for the baby, wry humour on learning of the father’s “fair-minded” treatment of his children, anger
and dismay at the employer’s action and the tragedy, compassion for the mother’s grieving and
admiration for her strength.

Message: The poem is a woman’s protest against the violence pervading many Caribbean societies with
its tragic waste of life and potential.