Grade 12

English FAL
Poetry 2024

Revision Layout

APRIL 2024

THABASIKWA SECONDARY SCHOOL

Arranged by: MAKOSA P.T

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Grade 12 English FAL Poetry
Revision layout

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This Revision booklet contains the new poems for English FAL for 2023. The poems as
found in the “English FAL Mind the GAP Study guide Poetry 2023” authored by:

Ms Phila Masakhane, Ms. Thembeka Mtolo, Ms Mpho Mongale, Ms Nonhlanhla Mzila,

Ms Renske Pieterse, Dr Nkosinathi Sithole.
Onsite writers’ workshop support: J. Mphidi, V. Magelegeda, R. Maboyi, K. Mothapo
and N. Malope.

I noticed that my learners were having challenges studying the poetry notes in the
layout in the available draft. The poem is isolated on its own page and the notes and
commentary cover several pages. Visually this arrangement, though it is good for the
fast learners, it is taxing for the vulnerable learners

My solution to the current lay-out in the draft is to foreground the poem by centering it
amidst the notes and commentary. I divide each individual poem into Summary and
Analysis.
(a)The summary which comes first focuses on summary, form, structure, themes, mood
and tone.
(b) The Analysis comes second and it focuses on diction, imagery, sound devices and
language usage in the poem.

Each aspect is in a ‘call out’ that points specifically to it. Where possible the aspect is
bolded or underlined. Then an explanation is supplied in the call out. I used the notes
from the “English FAL Mind the GAP Study guide Poetry 2023” .In some instances I
defined the aspect first e.g. Metaphor before explaining it. I also changed some of the
words in the “English FAL Mind the GAP Study guide Poetry 2023” draft and used
‘simple’ words so that the learner is not overwhelmed by the words in the explanation
itself.
I believe that when the poem is foregrounded in the middle of the notes and
commentary the learner will have immediate reference to it and the aspect being
taught and can actively participate by circling, underlining or highlighting any aspect
that they will be studying and link it to the poem. They can also pencil in more notes for
clarification.

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I made no attempt to paraphrase any poem in the summary because I believe this robs
the poem of its originality and can distort the meaning as created by the diction,
typography, imagery and sound as intended by the poet. I emphasize the idea of noting
enjambment in poetry study since no line can be read in isolation especially in the
sonnets. Reading lines in isolation impedes the flow of ideas or creation of hierarchies
which constructs the ideas and overall meaning in the poem.

Finally I don’t claim that this Revision Layout is comprehensive or error-free. Colleagues
are free to continuously edit, add, re-arrange and craft it to suit their requirements. I
am not a professional writer, editor, or graphic designer and I welcome all criticism.
What I am is an enthusiastic educator of English whose wish is for my learners to enjoy
learning, become lifelong readers and critical thinkers who pass the subject of English
FAL or HL in the final matric examination.

Makosa P.T
0837817427
prospermakosa@gmail.com

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1. Summary of the poem You laughed and laughed and laughed by Gabriel Okara
2. Type and Form
This poem compares 2 value systems
1 In your ears my song
The poem ‘You laughed and laughed and laughed’
(a) the western system which is unkind, rude, intellectual
2 is motor car misfiring consists of 10 stanzas, that are not equal in length, it has
and it uses the images from technology e.g. cars

(b) The other is the mystic which means from the “inside”.
This an Okara word one’s values and integrity, warmth
and is linked to the sun
This poem depicts the life of Africans who faced racism at the hands
of the whites. They were ‘laughed at’ or mocked by white people
for their song, dance and music through which they expressed their
pain and emotions. White people laughed at the Africans because
they had no understanding of the meaning dancing and singing had
for blacks. The poem ends on a positive note when the poet
describes how whites started to understand the importance of the
dancing and singing to Africans.
Stanza 1
Lines 1-4 In this stanza, the speaker
shows the attitude of white people to-
wards African songs. The sound of their
song is harsh and loud, the whites do not
understand it, as a result to them it
sounds like a ‘motor car misfiring’, making
an uncomfortable noise
-He says white people do not value African
culture, instead they laugh and laugh and
laugh.
-The repetition of ‘laughed and laughed
and laughed’ emphasizes the racial
discrimination that black people experi-
ence.
Stanza 2
Lines 5-8 In the eyes of the white people
blacks have a peculiar walk, ‘ante natal
walk’ (image of a pregnant woman) which
is considered ‘inhuman’ (not like a human)
Stanza 6
Lines 19-20 the whites laughed at everything that
mattered most to the Africans: their culture and dance.
3 stopping with a choking cough;
4 and you laughed and laughed and laughed.
5 In your eyes my ante-
6 natal walk was inhuman, passing
7 your ‘omnivorous understanding’
8 and you laughed and laughed and laughed
9 You laughed at my song,
10 you laughed at my walk.
11 Then I danced my magic dance
12 to the rhythm of talking drums pleading,
13 but you shut your eyes
14 and laughed and laughed and laughed.
15 And then I opened my mystic
16 inside wide like
17 the sky, instead you entered your
18 car and laughed and laughed and laughed
19 You laughed at my dance,
20 you laughed at my inside.
21 You laughed and laughed and laughed,
22 But your laughter was ice-block
23 laughter and it froze your inside froze
24 your voice froze your ears
25 froze your eyes and froze your tongue.
26 And now it’s my turn to laugh;
27 but my laughter is not
no defined meter, no consistent rhyme scheme, and no
specified length or formal requirements. The only con-
sistent form it takes is that of repetition of the title at the
end of the first four stanzas and again in stanza 7.
Stanza 3
Lines 9-10 Stanza 3 These two lines summa-
rize and put emphasis on how white people
mock Africans for their song and walk
Stanza 4
Lines 11-14 Even after the African danced,
the white people refused to acknowledge
them “… you shut your eyes” and they still
mocked them “...they laughed and laughed”
Stanza 5
Lines 15-18 When the African Africans showed
their the mystic the white people reacted by
“...enter [ing] [their] car…”
-The speaker invites the whites to experience the
beauty of his spiritual world mystic the African's
values and integrity, warmth and is linked to the
sun but the whites preferred their materialistic
world represented by their cars.
Stanza 7
The speaker describes the continuous laugher of the
whites as ice cold. Mocking freezes their ability to
relate to Africans and the sense of understanding of
the African culture.
-The laughter shut down all the senses of the whites
(hearing, seeing and tasting), preventing them from
relating to the Africans.

28 ice-block laughter. For I

Stanza 9
29 know not cars, know not ice-blocks.
Line –30-38 The strength of the African laughter is shown
through the use of the image of fire to show intensity of the
Stanza 8 In this stanza, the speaker uses ‘And now’ to water, air, water (seas), river fishes and trees . All these are
indicate a change. 30 My laughter is the fire natural elements.

-It is now the turn of Africans to laugh, but their 31 of the eye of the sky, the fire - The speaker describes the African’s laughter as the fire of the
sun (eye of the sky). The intensity of the hotness of the sun is
laughter is not mocking like the laughter of the whites.
32 of the earth, the fire of the air, emphasized.

- Africans are not materialistic and they are friendly 33 the fire of the seas and the -The intensity the water, air, water (seas), river fishes and trees
unlike the whites, so they do not mock the white melted (thawed) their frozen hearts , inside, voice, ears, eyes
34 rivers fishes animals trees and tongue. These had been frozen in stanza 7 when the
people
whites laughed.
35 and it thawed your inside,
- this allowed the white people to be able to speak, hear , see
36 thawed your voice, thawed your and understand the African culture.
Stanza 10 37 ears, thawed your eyes and
Lines 39-46 38 thawed your tongue.
-The white people who laughed were surprised that the warm and kind
4. Themes
laughter of the African enabled them to see, hear, speak and understand
the Africans, 1-Racism The issue of racism is shown
39 So a meek wonder held
-This stanza concludes the poem. It is at this point that the white man throughout the poem. The speaker raises the
realizes that despite all the humiliation the Africans underwent, they are 40 your shadow and you whispered;
shame of racial intolerance when the white
still warm-hearted people. .
41 ‘Why so?’ people mock African people’s music and
-They are belong to the earth They are very close to Nature.
dance.
42 And I answered:
2-Culture African culture is mocked by white
43 ‘Because my fathers and I
people who misunderstand the songs and
44 are owned by the living dance. White people do not understand the
45 warmth of the earth
Africans’ culture and misunderstand the
connection that Africans have with Nature.
46 through our naked feet’

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1. Repetition
-The constant repetition of the
title, ‘you laughed and laughed
and laughed’ emphasizes the
humiliation black people
suffered at the hands of the
white colonialists.
Metaphor
-the way the African walks is compared
to how someone would walk before
they are born.
-The words ante-natal ’ means before
birth’ here they possibly indicate that
something is “undeveloped”
- the struggle with walking is used to
show how the whites see the Africans
as ineffective or unproductive
The inside is the place of the soul and a person’s
life force and integrity.
-it is mysterious and magical but it cannot be
known intellectually by studying or read in a book.
-Here it is generously shown “ wide”
Symbolism
This is when an object mentioned in the poem
represents or stands for something else.
-Cars lines 15&29 symbolize/ stands for the
white people’s technology and materialistism
Symbolism
-voice and tongue symbolizes
communication
-ear symbolizes ability to hear
-eyes symbolize the ability to see
You laughed and laughed and laughed by Gabriel Okara
2. Metaphor
1 In your ears my song
2 is motor car misfiring Line 1-2 “...my song is motor car misfiring…”
3 stopping with a choking cough;
The African’s song is taken to be car that is
4 and you laughed and laughed and laughed. misfiring.
-it makes an uncomfortable sound just like a
5 In your eyes my ante- gun being fired
6 natal walk was inhuman, passing
7 your ‘omnivorous understanding’
8 and you laughed and laughed and laughed
The word omnivorous refers the love for
9 You laughed at my song, books. The speaker is saying that the
10 you laughed at my walk. white people’s understanding is based
on books, so there are things that they
11 Then I danced my magic dance do not understand
12 to the rhythm of talking drums pleading,
13 but you shut your eyes Metaphor
14 and laughed and laughed and laughed.
The sound the drum makes is compared to talking.
- This means that the drums actually speak and they
15 And then I opened my mystic
need to be listened to
16 inside wide like
17 the sky, instead you entered your
18 car and laughed and laughed and laughed
19 You laughed at my dance,
20 you laughed at my inside.
Metaphor
21 You laughed and laughed and laughed,
Line 22-23“...ice-block laughter…” The white's
22 But your laughter was ice-block
laughter is compared to ice blocks . This shows
23 laughter and it froze your inside froze that it is unfriendly.
24 your voice froze your ears
-however it affected the whites and not the Afri-
25 froze your eyes and froze your tongue. cans. The whites were then unable to perceive and
understand. Ie Their sight, speech, hearing was
blocked
26 And now it’s my turn to laugh;
27 but my laughter is not
28 ice-block laughter. For I
29 know not cars, know not ice-blocks.
Metaphors
1-line 30 Laughter is taken to be or com-
30 My laughter is the fire pared to fire
31 of the eye of the sky, the fire
2-line 31 the sun is taken to be or com-
32 of the earth, the fire of the air,
pared to the eye of the sky
33 the fire of the seas and the
3– lines 31,32,33 the power/ intensity/
34 rivers fishes animals trees
strength is compared or taken to be a
35 and it thawed your inside,
fire.
36 thawed your voice, thawed your
37 ears, thawed your eyes and - the fire image is used to show the inten-
38 thawed your tongue. sity/ power/ strength of the water, air,
water (seas), river fishes and trees .
39 So a meek wonder held
40 your shadow and you whispered;
41 ‘Why so?’ Personification
42 And I answered:
Lines 43-45 the earth is taken to be
43 ‘Because my fathers and I person who can own something. In
44 are owned by the living this case the earth owns the African
45 warmth of the earth people, the Africans belong to the
46 through our naked feet’
earth
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Summary The poem
The speaker re-lives some of her childhood experienc-
es when her father showed her experiences that he
would prepare her for life. His attitude changes when
looks after her when she returns home after she has
been ill and in the hospital.
Stanza 1
-The poem starts with and instruction from a
father ‘You need to toughen up’, but the daugh-
ter sees it as complaining .
-The father is suggesting that the child needs to
get used to the real experiences in life in line 8
“what ...like” which means that the child does
not
-‘really’ in line 8 is printed in bold, stressing what
life is genuinely about
Stanza 2, 3 and 4
-In these three stanzas the child explains how
the father uses areal-life situation to teach her
about the cruelty of life
-He forces her to help when he stitches up an
injured pigeon.
-The father uses idioms like ‘life
is ...survival’ (line 25) and ‘you ... the punches’ to
describe what the child should do.
-His child feels the father is and angry and he
forgets he is talking to a child and not one of his
students at university.
Stanza 5
-In this stanza ‘I’ is now
change to a small letter
‘i’ (lower case). -This
matches with the mood of
vulnerability she experienc-
es due to the anticipation
that harm will come one
day until the day when she
returned from hospital.
Stanza 8
These lines are stand alone because
they contrast the gentleness in stan-
za 7 . The speaker tells us that the
father did not talk about being
tough.
What life is really like – Beverly Rycroft Type and Form The poem is a lyrical
poem It is more emotive than other
1 You need to toughen up
-It is written in free verse following no
2 my father would complain
particular pattern like in a sonnet
3 when I was small
4 I ought to take you to see
5 chickens having their head
Themes are underlying ideas found in a poem
6 chopped off.
Harshness of life The father believes life is hard and he
7 That’d teach you tries to prepare his child to face the harshness of life by
showing the child some harsh situations e.g. chickens being
8 what life is really like. slaughtered and an injured pigeon.
Fate people cannot change or fully prepare for what can
9 He’d seek me out happen in life. Although the father teaches his child to be
tough there is no preparation for the sickness or accidents
10 when one of his pigeons e.g. when the child get sick and goes to . When the child is
11 - crazed for home or back home he gently dresses her wounds and never tells her
that ‘Life’s a bastard’ and the child must “toughen up”.
12 mad with terror from a
Psychology of growing up
13 roaming hawk –
14 would tumble into -The father shows his child many examples of how ‘Life’s a
bastard’ and so the child must ‘Toughen up’ and be strong
15 the loft enough to face the cruelty of life.
16 mutilated by -So the child grows up waiting bad to happen . —-She likens
the “bitter roughness” as a predatory bird that spies on her
17 wire or beak. causing her to cringe in
Illness
18 I was the one made to
-The daughter falls ill and the father becomes silent when he
19 clench my palms round is faced with her suffering. He no longer tells her to be tough
20 its pumping chest,
21 to keep it still while
22 my father’s hairy fingers stitched
23 its garotted throat
24 angrily to rights again. Tone: The poem starts on a serious, warning tone
when the father warns his child to expect life to be
tough,
25 You see life is a fight for survival
26 he’d shout, forgetting -but it changes in stanza 7 to one of acceptance
when the father realizes fate has given an event
27 he was not lecturing his students
which could not have been prepared for.
28 or giving his inaugural address
Mood: The speaker’s mood is one of anticipation
29 You gotta roll with the punches.
as she is forever waiting for something cruel to
happen.
30 i waited and waited for the bitter
31 roughness to spy me and circle
32 in to land
33 years and years
34 of flinching anticipation until
35 the day i came home from hospital
Stanza 7
36 and my father dressed my wound. The poet describes the way her fa-
ther dresses her wounds. It is im-
37 Easing with practiced hands portant because he does it in silence
which contrasts with his conduct
38 the drip from my bulldozed chest
during her childhood when he was
39 he renewed the plaster in breathing described as loud and insensitive.
40 never speaking never
41 once saying
42 Life’s a bastard
43 Toughen up!
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 At the beginning of the poem the
speaker refers to a time when
she was young and at the end
of the poem the speaker refers
to a time when she was older
The word ‘really’ is bolded to
show that it is emphasized
when the father says it.
-This refers to the heartbeat of
the bird
-The bird is afraid so its heart
beats fast
The father seems to have medical
experience or is a doctor because
here he stitches the throat of a bird
and later in line s36-39 he dresses
the daughter’s wound
This is an introductory/opening
speech or lecture to first time
students at university
This is slang/ colloquial-
ism.
‘got to’
Metaphor.
indirect comparison of 2 things
The bad thing “...bitter roughness” which the
woman expects to happen to her is compared
to a bird of prey, which is hunting her and will
see her and fly down to her .
- We have the image of a bird of prey
What life is really like – Beverly Rycroft
Personification
1 You need to toughen up
Stanza 2 In lines 10-12 ‘when one of his
2 my father would complain pigeons/-crazed for home or/mad with
terror’ The pigeon is described like a crazy
3 when I was small
or mad person. It is effective because the
4 I ought to take you to see poet successfully emphasizes how un-
settled the pigeon was
5 chickens having their head
6 chopped off.
7 That’d teach you
8 what life is really like.
To be hurt and disfigured/
9 He’d seek me out damaged. The pigeon might fly
10 when one of his pigeons into a fence or power line. Or it
11 - crazed for home or
could be hurt by a trap/ noose
12 mad with terror from a
13 roaming hawk – made of wire
14 would tumble into
15 the loft
16 mutilated by
17 wire or beak. Synecdoche:
A part is named but the whole is meant.
18 I was the one made to
19 clench my palms round - in this case the beak represents the
20 its pumping chest, bird of prey like hawk or eagle that
21 to keep it still while might attack and terrify a pigeon
22 my father’s hairy fingers stitched
23 its garotted throat
The father was university profes-
24 angrily to rights again.
sor possibly lecturing students
25 You see life is a fight for survival who were studying medicine
26 he’d shout, forgetting
27 he was not lecturing his students
28 or giving his inaugural address
clean, treat and apply a
29 You gotta roll with the punches.
dressing ie bandage to a
30 i waited and waited for the bitter wound
31 roughness to spy me and circle
32 in to land
33 years and years Stanza 7
34 of flinching anticipation until Metaphor :is a direct comparison
35 the day i came home from hospital
”...bulldozed chest…”the opera-
tion to remove her cancerous
36 and my father dressed my wound.
breast is compared to how the
bulldozer removes soil
37 Easing with practiced hands
38 the drip from my bulldozed chest -This describes the effects of the
surgery (breast removal) is indi-
39 he renewed the plaster in breathing
rectly compared to the state of
40 never speaking never
the soil which is churned up by a
41 once saying bulldozer.
42 Life’s a bastard
43 Toughen up!
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 Stanza 2
In lines 7- 8 The anger he feels is
compared to a fever which makes
him hot. The thoughts of what he
has done haunt . His mother tries
unsuccessfully to make him change
his thoughts and forgive himself. He
is tormented (‘racked’) by the pain
of what he has done. He is regret-
ful/ sorry
Stanza 4 In lines 19-20 the
speaker describes the horrible acts
he committed. The ‘blood’ that is in
his hands refers to the blood of
innocent people he killed during his
slave trade days. He feels that he
cannot be forgiven for his actions
(‘which water cannot wash’). In line
20 there is egret in the speaker’s
tone. He believes that it would
have been better if the blood was
spilled on the battle field – which is
honourable.
In lines 22-24 .The blood dropped
from a whip with which the slaves,
were beaten. There is a difference
between someone who kills brave-
ly, in war and the speaker who is a
coward and beats up helpless peo-
ple .
Stanza 6 In line 31 the speaker
keeps on hearing the woman’s cry
(‘… ever in my ear’). It makes it
very difficult for him to pray. He still
sees her. He can still hear the
sound of her voice. The woman
reminded him that he will be
judged, with her, on judgement day.
Stanza 8 line 43.The slave wom-
an tried to run and save herself
from him.
In lines 45-46 the woman’s pleading
cries are ignored by the speaker,
but God listened as she cried out.
In lines 47-48 the speaker says he
must face God and he is scared
Tone and mood is regretful/ re-
morseful
The Slave Dealer by Thomas Pringle
1 From ocean’s wave a wanderer came,
2 With visage tanned and dun:
3 His mother, when he told his name,
4 Scarce knew her long-lost son;
5 So altered was his face and frame
6 By the ill course he had run.
7 There was hot fever in his blood,
8 And dark thoughts in his brain;
9 And oh! to turn his heart to good
10 That Mother strove in vain,
11 For fierce and fearful was his mood,
12 Racked by remorse and pain
13 And if, at times, a gleam more mild
14 Would o’er his features stray,
15 When knelt the Widow near her Child,
16 And he tried with her to pray,
17 It lasted not - for visions wild
18 Still scared good thoughts away.
19 ‘There’s blood upon my hands!’ he said,
20 ‘Which water cannot wash;
21 It was not shed where warriors bled -
22 It dropped from the gory lash,
23 As I whirled it o’er and o’er my head,
24 And with each stroke left a gash.
25 ‘With every stroke I left a gash,
26 While Negro blood sprang high;
27 And now all ocean cannot wash
28 My soul from murder’s dye;
29 Nor e’en thy prayer, dear Mother, quash
30 That woman’s wild death-cry!
31 ‘Her cry is ever in my ear,
32 And it will not let me pray;
33 Her look I see - her voice I hear-
34 As when in death she lay,
35 And said, “With me thou must appear
36 On God’s great judgment-day!”
37 ‘Now, Christ from frenzy keep my son!’
38 The woeful Widow cried;
39 ‘Such murder foul thou ne’er hast done -
40 Some fiend thy soul belied!’-
41 ‘- Nay, Mother! The Avenging One
42 Was witness when she died!
43 ‘The writhing wretch with furious heel
44 I crushed - no mortal nigh;
45 But that same hour her dread appeal
46 Was registered on high;
47 And now with God I have to deal,
48 And there not meet His eye!
9
Type and Form This poem is
a ballad which tells a story of a
son who returns home to his
mother after being away for a
long-time trading slave . The
poem has 8 stanzas of 6 lines
each. Each stanza has its own
Stanza 1 In lines 1-2 the slave
dealer is compared to a travel-
ler whose face has tanned to a
brownish colour because he
has been spending a lot of time
in the sun.
His mother does not recognise
him (lines 3-4) because of the
evil path he had chosen, and
the harshness of the sun has
altered his outward appear-
ance. ‘long –lost’ suggests that
she last saw him a long time
ago
Stanza 3 At times, just for a
brief moment, the slave driver
gets a gleam of hope, but it
does not last for too long (lines
13 - 14). This happens when
the mother is praying with him
(lines 15 – 16). The mental pic-
tures and thoughts of all his
crimes chase the good thoughts
away (lines 17 -18).
Stanza 5 In lines 25 -26 the
speaker continues giving vivid
images of his horrific actions.
He describes the pain he inflict-
ed on the slaves (line 26).
In lines 29-30,the speaker says
his mother’s prayers cannot re-
move the sounds of one wom-
an’s cry before she died. The
agony that he put her through
still bothers shim
Stanza 7 The mother prays
and says that her son is pos-
sessed by an evil spirit. The son
explains that it is not true, and
that the avenging angel wit-
nessed his evil deeds

Stanza 2
Metaphor: It is a direct compari-
son without ‘as’ or ‘like’
In lines 7 The anger he feels is
compared to a fever which makes
him hot. Repetition of beginning
consonant sounds, at short inter-
vals, of different words
Alliteration Repetition conso-
nant sounds at the beginning of
words different words in a line/
sentence line 11,The f sound slows
down the pace
Stanza 4
Metaphor: It is a direct compari-
son without ‘as’ or ‘like’
Killing people is compared to hav-
ing their blood on hid hands (in a
literal sense)
line 19 this is a figurative image.
The fact that he has killed people is
compared to someone who literally
has the blood of a murdered person
on his hands
Hyperbole: Exaggerated state-
ment. Not meant to be taken literal-
ly
Line 20 The speaker says that wa-
ter cannot clean his hands
Stanza 6 In line 31 the speaker
keeps on hearing the woman’s cry
(‘… ever in my ear’). It makes it
very difficult for him to pray. He still
sees her. He can still hear the
sound of her voice. The woman
reminded him that he will be
judged, with her, on judgement day.
Line 38 Alliteration
Line 38 .The soft ‘w’ sounds em-
phasise the torturous thoughts the
mother has.
Line 43 The ‘wr-sound’ This sound
hardens the words to show how
vigorously she moved to try and
save herself from him
Stanza 8 line 43.The slave wom-
an tried to run and save herself
from him.
In lines 45-46 the woman’s pleading
cries are ignored by the speaker,
but God listened as she cried out.
In lines 47-48 the speaker says he
must face God and he is scared
The Slave Dealer by Thomas Pringle
1 From ocean’s wave a wanderer came, a
2 With visage tanned and dun:: b long-time trading slave . The
3 His mother, when he told his name, a
4 Scarce knew her long-lost son; b
5 So altered was his face and frame a
6 By the ill course he had run. b
7 There was hot fever in his blood,
8 And dark thoughts in his brain;
9 And oh! to turn his heart to good
10 That Mother strove in vain,
11 For fierce and fearful was his mood,
12 Racked by remorse and pain
13 And if, at times, a gleam more mild e
14 Would o’er his features stray, f
15 When knelt the Widow near her Child,e
16 And he tried with her to pray, f
17 It lasted not - for visions wild e Line 21 There is a difference
18 Still scared good thoughts away. f between 1.someone who kills in
19 ‘There’s blood upon my hands!’ he said,
20 ‘Which water cannot wash;
21 It was not shed where warriors bled -
22 It dropped from the gory lash,
23 As I whirled it o’er and o’er my head,
24 And with each stroke left a gash.
25 ‘With every stroke I left a gash,
26 While Negro blood sprang high;
27 And now all ocean cannot wash
28 My soul from murder’s dye;
29 Nor e’en thy prayer, dear Mother, quash
30 That woman’s wild death-cry!
31 ‘Her cry is ever in my ear,
32 And it will not let me pray;
33 Her look I see - her voice I hear-
34 As when in death she lay,
35 And said, “With me thou must appear
36 On God’s great judgment-day!”
37 ‘Now, Christ from frenzy keep my son!’
38 The woeful Widow cried;
39 ‘Such murder foul thou ne’er hast done -
40 Some fiend thy soul belied!’-
41 ‘- Nay, Mother! The Avenging One
42 Was witness when she died!
43 ‘The writhing wretch with furious heel
44 I crushed - no mortal nigh;
45 But that same hour her dread appeal
46 Was registered on high;
47 And now with God I have to deal,
48 And there not meet His eye!
10
Type and Form This poem is
a ballad which tells a story of a
son who returns home to his
mother after being away for a
poem has 8 stanzas of 6 lines
each. Each stanza has its own
rhyme scheme.
Stanza 1
c Metaphor: It is a direct compari-
d son without ‘as’ or ‘like’
c lines 1-2 the slave dealer is com-
d pared to a traveller whose face has
c tanned to a brownish colour be-
c cause he has been spending a lot
of time in the sun.
Stanza 4
Contrast
war( where warriors bled),
g which shows bravery and honour
h and 2. the speaker who is a
coward and beat up helpless
g
people who are tied up and fight
h back
g
h Repetition
Line 24 and 25
i
j “...left a gash…”
i
This stresses the impact of the
j whip on the flesh, causing a lot f
i
pain and scarring that will show
j for ever.
line 28, the speaker uses a
metaphor of ‘dye’ to refer to the
blood. Blood is taken to be a
‘dye’ which comes from murder
Personification. giving human
qualities to an object in this
case the heel is said to be / furi-
us. Maybe the woman
thrashed about with her feet
Stanza 1
The speaker introduces the night-jar.
-lines 1-3 it is a speckled brown bird. It
is a nocturnal bird because it comes
out of the bush at night, moves around
and sits on window sills but during the
day, it nests in the bush, hiding from
the brightness of the sun.
Lines 4-6 At midnight is visits the
speaker’s window and pecks on the
glass pane. The beak reflects the
Stanza 3
The speaker has insomnia, he cannot
fall asleep, and he blames his lack of
sleep on the night-jar. In line 13 the
speaker says the bird ‘shook the sand-
man from my sight’, this means that the
sandman who is supposed to make the
speaker drowsy and fall asleep is being
removed by the nightjar. In line 15 and
the speaker is receiving directions to a
place where he will get help. Lines 16-
18 give a clear picture of the place the
speaker is directed to:
-a thatched roofed hut built on a hill
- in a coastal area where ‘sugar
spumes’. This refers to the area in Kwa
-Zulu natal with sugar cane plantations.
- The area where the hut is built is beau-
tiful, there are lilies on the hill.
Themes
Hope –The night-jar as a mes-
senger and a guide brings hope
to humans by pointing them to a
being who can renew their hope
and make them dream again.
Human’s physical and spiritual
needs
-People need to get inner peace,
understanding and acknowledge-
ment through spreading love to
others.
-People only reach this point
when they start to ignore and
stop entertaining people with
toxic behaviour.
Stanza 5
The night-jar instructs the speaker to go to the
Princess of Heavens to seek for help. The
walk is not going to be easy (line 26 – ‘wading
through the icy stream’), but there is great
promise and hope (line 27 – ‘golden pebbles
shine’). The princess of Heavens is ageless,
line 29 ‘for she is old as she is young’. This
means that she is accessible to everyone,
and she identifies with people of all age
groups. Her remedy is love (line 28).
The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini
The princess of the Heavens – Zulu by Chris Mann
1 The speckled bird as brown as dust
2 which roosts inside a bush by day,
3 hiding its head against the glare,
4 at midnight pecked against the pane,
5 and gently pecked, until I saw
6 the starlight glitter through its beak.
7 On calm and tender summer nights,
8 when fishes bite the wobbling moon,
9 and moths rise to silvery fruit,
10 sprinkling the space among the boughs,
11 it wakes and glides from sill to sill
12 across the worn-out, curtained town.
13 It shook the sandman from my sight,
14 and when the tar-bound slope had turned
15 to bush and rocky hill it said,
16 ‘There is a grass-house in the hills,
17 above the coast where sugar spumes,
18 and lilies sprout, and no storms fly.
19 ‘There, the Princess of Heavens,
20 beside her dark as honey feet,
21 gathers up the dreams which reach her
22 and stooping to her woven pots
23 rinses them in rainbow water,
24 and stores them with the morning mist.
25 ‘Go, waking sleeper, call to her,
26 and wading through the icy stream
27 in which the golden pebbles shine,
28 ask her if her power is love,
29 for she is old as she is young,
30 and without her, no one dreams.’
31 She leaned against a leafless tree
32 on which a crown of crimson burned,
33 and then the hill began to dim,
34 and standing in the greying rocks,
35 I heard the nightjar fade, from sill
36 to sill, across the widowed town.
11
Type and Form
This poem does not have a
specific type as it combines
characteristics of a narrative
poem, prose and a sestina
(six stanzas of six line).
Stanza 2
In this stanza the speaker gives a clear descrip-
tion of a calm summer night and what the night
jar does. In line 8 the presence of the moon is
evident; ‘fishes bite the wobbling moon’. The
moon is said to be wobbling. The movement of
the reflection of the moon in the water is caused
by movement of the fishes in the pond. In line 9
the fruit looks silvery because of the moonlight.
In line 10 the moon shines through the space
between the tree branches.
The night-jar wakes and flows from one window
sill to the next, across town. The speaker refers
to the town as curtained to indicate that it is at
night and curtains in are drawn
Stanza 4 The night-jar, in this stanza, informs
the speaker of who can help him get relief
from his trouble. The Princess of Heavens, a
being who collects dreams, helps people by
bringing them hope. In lines 21-3 the Prin-
cess of Heavens receives the dreams, puts
them in a woven pot and cleanses them in
rainbow water.
A rainbow is a symbol of hope, promise,
peace and new beginnings. Washing dreams
in ‘rainbow water’ means giving back hope
and it is a promise of new beginnings. This
idea is solidified in line 24 when she stores
the dreams with the morning mist, a sign of
rebirth
Stanza 6
In line 31 the speaker sees the Princess
of Heavens leaning against a leafless
tree. Leafless trees symbolise the end
of an era and lack of vitality. In line 32
the tree has bright red flowers, ‘a crown
of crimson’. Although the crimson col-
our can be associated with danger, it
also symbolises excitement, love and
power.
In line 33, the hill begins to fade – it is
dawn, the morning mist is appearing,
and is resulting to the hill beginning to
dim. In line 34 the speaker is standing
in the greying rocks. The speaker has
reached a turning point. He has decided
to take action through using the grey
rocking technique. Grey rocking is a
technique used to divert a toxic person’s
behaviour by acting unresponsive when
interacting with them. The speaker in
this line is taking a decision to stop be-
ing responsive to things that disturbs his
peace. As he makes this decision, the
night jar fades away, it has accom-
plished its mission.

It is spotted/marked with other
colours
The moon is said to be wob-
bling/ shaking. Here the moon is
reflected by the water and the
this reflection on the surface of
the water is moving.
‘it’ in this poem refers to the
bird, night jar
Alliteration
Line 11 sill to sill
Metaphor.
Line 18 storms/rainstorms are
taken to be or compare to birds
which can fly
Antithesis:
Line 29 Opposites are contrasted or
balanced in two clauses or phrases.
(N.B. Antithesis contains no contra-
diction or seeming contradiction, it is
merely contrasts)
Tone
-gentle: The night-jar is peace-
ful as it guides the speaker to
getting a solution to his prob-
lems.
Sympathetic: The bird seems to
be understanding as it helps the
speaker
The night-jar and Inkosazana Yasezulwini
The princess of the Heavens – Zulu by Chris Mann
Sleeps/sleeps
1 The speckled bird as brown as dust
2 which roosts inside a bush by day,
brightness
3 hiding its head against the glare,
4 at midnight pecked against the pane,
5 and gently pecked, until I saw Hit/ struck using its beak
6 the starlight glitter through its beak.
sparkle This means that the curtains in the
7 On calm and tender summer nights, town are closed/drawn because its
night time
8 when fishes bite the wobbling moon,
9 and moths rise to silvery fruit,
10 sprinkling the space among the boughs,
11 it wakes and glides from sill to sill a fictional man who is be-
lieved to make children sleep
12 across the worn-out, curtained town. by sprinkling sand in their
13 It shook the sandman from my sight, Metaphor.
14 and when the tar-bound slope had turned Line 17 The growing fields of sugar
cane are seen as bubbling/forming
15 to bush and rocky hill it said,
as if they are a body of water
16 ‘There is a grass-house in the hills,
17 above the coast where sugar spumes,
18 and lilies sprout, and no storms fly.
Simile Comparing two things
19 ‘There, the Princess of Heavens, using ‘as/like’.
20 beside her dark as honey feet, Line 20 The princess’s dark
21 gathers up the dreams which reach her feet are compared to honey
22 and stooping to her woven pots
23 rinses them in rainbow water,
Bending over
24 and stores them with the morning mist.
25 ‘Go, waking sleeper, call to her,
26 and wading through the icy stream Metaphor
27 in which the golden pebbles shine, The red flowers on a tree are com-
pared or taken to be a crimson/
28 ask her if her power is love, reddish crown since they are found
29 for she is old as she is young, at the top of the tree
30 and without her, no one dreams.’
31 She leaned against a leafless tree
32 on which a crown of crimson burned,
33 and then the hill began to dim,
34 and standing in the greying rocks,
35 I heard the nightjar fade, from sill
36 to sill, across the widowed town.
12

Stanza 1
- He plans to build a small cabin from wattle
wood and clay, plant 9 rows of beans and have
keep bees in a bee hive
-The speaker emphasizes his desire to go to Innis-
free.
-His determination to leave and go to the island is
emphasized by the repeated use of ‘go’ in line 1.
-Line 2 introduces his plans. When he is on the
island, he wants to build a tiny ‘cabin’ as his
house.
-The use of ‘I’ strengthens the idea of staying
alone.
-The choice of building material ‘clay and wattles’,
planting ‘nine bean rows’, having a bee ‘hive’
shows the simplicity of the speaker’s aspired life
Stanza 3
-The speaker stops his daydreaming
described stanza 2 and begins to
speak of the real world.
-He says he wants to leave immedi-
ately and go the island because he
can hear the water on the sea shore
while he stands on the road or pave-
ment.
-He can hear the sounds of the is-
land in his heart. The sounds of the
water of isle of Innisfree are heard
not in his head but in his heart.
- The speaker raises the question in
the reader’s mind whether he will
ever make it from his current home to
the peace he needs to achieve hap-
piness
1. Summary of the poem
The poem shows the speaker’s desire for country life on an
uninhabited (isle/small island) and taking a break from city
The lake isle of Innisfree life. The speaker aims to live a simple life have peace alone
by William Butler Yeats
1. I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
Stanza 2
2. And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
-The speaker shows the
3. Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
benefits of staying on Innis-
4. And live alone in the bee-loud glade. free, the main one being
peace.
5. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, -The speaker describes
peace.
6. Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
7. There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, -in lines 3-4, the speaker de-
scribes the different qualities
8. And evening full of the linnet’s wings. possessed by different times
of the day on the island
9. I will arise and go now, for always night and day
10. I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
11. While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
12. I hear it in the deep heart’s core
Themes
Peace/Tranquillity of Nature
The speaker wants the readers to see
the natural environment without people
in it. It is a place to find peace and con-
nect with the world on a deeper, spiritual
level. The isolated nature of the island
that he’s longing for is also an important
part of his happiness. It is an escape
from noisy city life.
13
Metaphor line 6 “ veils of the
morning..”
 Dew which covers every-
thing in the morning is taken
to be ,or compared to a veil
 The abundance of dripping
dew gives the image of
plenty of peace
Repetition
-I will arise and go now
is repeated to empha-
sise how much the
speaker’s mind is set
on going (Line 1 and 9
Alliteration
This is when the same con-
sonant is repeated at the
beginning of words.
, ‘I hear lake water lapping
with low sounds by the
shore.’
-When this poem is read
aloud, the repeated use of
the letter ‘l’ recreates the
sound made by the waves.
Type and Form
The poem consists of 12 lines, divided into 3 stanzas of three
rhyming quatrains. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef
The lake isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats
1. I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
2. And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Repetition
3. Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
-The words to “ and go….and
4. And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
go” are repeated for emphasis.
This shows the urgency or need
5. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, for the speaker who wants to go
6. Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
7. There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, Repetition
8. And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
-‘Dropping’ and
‘peace’ are repeated
9. I will arise and go now, for always night and day to emphasise the
10. I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; longing for silence and
11. While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, calmness (Lines 5-6).
12. I hear it in the deep heart’s core
Tone and Mood
Diction . This choice of the words
The tone is calm/ peaceful : the repetition of used
the word peace creates a sense of calmness.
-The speaker uses auditory words to
capture the reader’s attention for exam-
The mood is joyful because the speaker is
ple ‘bee-loud’, ‘cricket sings’, , ‘water
looking forward to leaving the city.
lapping’ ‘I hear’ , ‘bee oud’, ‘linnet’s
wings’
-By using these words, he arouses sev-
eral different senses, encouraging the
reader to feel, hear, and see a scene
14
 Summary The poem
The rhyme scheme is the repeated sound
This is a Shakespearean sonnet, also known as an Elizabethan sonnet. Themes are underlying ideas found in a poem
at the end of each line.
Like all sonnets, it has fourteen lines. It is divided into 3 quatrains
1.Aging: In the poem, the speaker describes how
(units of four lines) and has a rhyming couplet (a unit of two lines). The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
it feels like to get old and know that one will die.

-Time affects one’s physical health and there is

Quatrain 1 (4 lines)
(line 1-4) Quatrain 1 In the first quatrain, the
speaker compares his present age to Autumn,
a season when the leaves fall from the branch-
es.
-The branches shake because of the cold wind.
This means that he is getting older and losing
his youth just like the trees that lose their
green leaves.
-line 4 describes the church building where the
birds once sat and sang is now in ruins. The
quietness that is caused by the absence of
birds is compared to how his life is.
Quatrain 2 (4 lines)
lines 5-8
Sonnet 73
William Shakespeare
1 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
2 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
3 Upon those boughs which shake against cold,
4 Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
5 In me thou seest the twilight of such day
6 As after sunset fadeth in the west,
fear of getting old and dying.
- Aging is also associated a sense of peace and
calm as life begins to slow down
2.Death
The speaker seems to be worried by subject to
death. The poem has metaphors for death.. In
the couplet, the speaker tells the reader that
death helps people love and cherish each other
3.Love
In line 13 the speaker introduces the theme of
love. Although love can overcome many obsta-
cles, it still is limited by death and nature.
-In the poem, love is discussed as part of the life
cycle. The speaker wants the reader to under-
stand that life is not very long, people should
enjoy love before it is too late in life.

In this quatrain the speaker compares his pro- 7 Which by and by black night doth take away,
gress towards death as moving from dusk, (after The Couplet
8 Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
the sun had set) to the night time. Line 13-14
-the change in comparison from a season to a 9 In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
-The speaker introduces the reader to the im-
day shows the speed with which aging affects portance of love. He wants the reader to see what
10 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
the body. life is like so that they value their time together.
11 As deathbed whereon it must expire,
-He reminds us that we need to love well because
12 Consumed with that which it was nourished by. it wont be long before we die.
Quatrain 3 (4 lines)
13 This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
lines 9-12

-The third quatrain makes the end/death that the 14 To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
speaker talks about very clear Tone (feeling)

-it represents the death that 1-8 have been lead- -In the quatrains the tone is:
ing to.
thoughtful and sad as the speaker sees how he
-In this quatrain the speaker’s life is compared to is nearing death.
a fire that will soon be extinguished. -sad as the speaker explains that he is aging.

-He refers to both literal death and the figurative Mood (atmosphere) is:
death which stands for the end of his youth.
-sentimental / emotional

15
Enjambment

This when an idea is continued from one line to the next. With this in mind some Symbolism -
lines in a poem might not make complete sense if they are read as individual lines
Line 6 The speaker uses sunset and night to symbolise
the end or death.

Line 8 Personification-when
Metaphor-It is a direct comparison of something is given human quali-
Sonnet 73 William Shakespeare
two things. In (line 2-3) ties.
-the speaker compares his age to Au- 1 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
- death personified as human to
tumn, a season when the leaves fall
2 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang have a second self.
from the branches

-This means that he is getting older and

3 Upon those boughs which shake against cold,
losing his youth just like the trees that 4 Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
lose their green leaves Alliteration—repetition of the same sound
5 In me thou seest the twilight of such day at the beginning of words.
6 As after sunset fadeth in the west, -This is a sound device
Metaphor-It is a direct comparison of two things. 7 Which by and by black night doth take away, Line 8: Death’s second self that seals up all
Line 4 8 Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. in rest

-The bare branches where the birds no longer sing are
compared to ruined churches where the choir no long-
er sing, reveals how the speaker mourns the loss of his
youthful appearance.
Metaphor-It is a direct comparison of two things
Line 5-7
-speaker compares his progress towards death
9 In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
10 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
11 As deathbed whereon it must expire,
12 Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
13 This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
14 To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Metaphor-It is a direct comparison of two things
Line 9-10 ‘ In me...doth lie’
-the speaker’s life is compared to a fire that will
soon be extinguished.
-He refers to both literal death eg dying and the
figurative death which stands for the end of his
youth.

-The change in comparison from a season to a day

shows the speed with which aging affects the body.
Apostrophe- when the speaker speaks directly to the reader
using the words ’you’ / ‘thou ’

Line 13:

‘This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong’. Line 5-8

16
 This poem is a dedication
to the poet’s mother
Simile ‘To hold out (like a priest
at Mass),’ (Line 2) The poet is
ordered to lift his hands up just
like a priest would lift his hands
up during a mass
He would be given instructions to follow
just like a priest would follow instruc-
tions from the rubrics (line 3). He would
be told not to move or twitch (‘not to
fidget’ in line 3)
He would drop his hands. She would
check his concentration by pulling
the strands harder (‘… checking/ My
lapses with a gentle tug’ in lines 5
and 6)
“But’ (line 15) is used to show transition or
to link his childhood to adulthood
Lines 16-19 Looking back, he
now realizes that his imper-
fect poems that he creates
are not as perfect as his
mother’s knitting. His writing
is a like a thread that con-
nects him to his mother.
Writing poetry always
prompts his thoughts about
his mother’s knitting.
In stanza 1, line 1-10 the speaker
looks at the process of winding/
Reciprocities
spinning the wool into a ball. His
for my mother mother would give him skeins to
1 She gave me skeins of wool hold with two hands held up and
wide apart.
2 To hold out (like a priest at Mass),
3 With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she To follow just like a priest would
follow instructions from the
4 Wound it into a ball, unwinding me, rubrics (line 3). He would be told
5 Unravelling my hands and arms, checking not to move or twitch (‘not to
fidget’ in line 3
6 My lapses with a gentle tug
7 When I wandered off through images
8 Her chat had made, for though
Stanza 2 lines 11-14 The
9 She kept the line between us taut
ball of wool grew firm and
10 She kept my heart at ease with all her talk. bigger as his mother
wound it from his arms
and his wool became less
11 And when her ball compacted grew, (line 12) it wasn't a loss
12 And my few strands fell limp away, because his mother would
then knit him something.
13 I knew there was no loss, for she
(line 14)
14 Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.
15 But richer still,
16 I see today these lines are drawn out from me Personification is when something is
given a human quality Time is personi-
17 To knit through this faltering verse fied as a person who has pulled a
thread of memory away from con-
18 A thread of memory
sciousness ( away from remembrance).
19 Time has pulled away from consciousness. “A thread of memory ...time has pulled
away from consciousness. (Lines 18-19)
Tone and Mood
1.Appreciative/ thankful .The speaker appreciates the lessons he
learns from his mother.
2.Nostalgic and sentimental: The speaker feels nostalgic and senti-
mental when he writes poetry
Theme.is an underlying idea found in the poem. This poem has a
theme of nostalgia as the poet remembers events from the past.
17
Summary The poem
This is a Petrarchan Sonnet that celebrates the beau-
ty of nature. The poet pays particular attention to the
grasshopper and the cricket by praising them for
producing the music of nature. The octave (line 1-8)
focuses on the grasshopper as an agent of summer
while the sestet (lines 9-14) looks at the role played
by the cricket. Both these insects survive the harshest
weather to fly around producing their chirping
sounds. Both the octave and the sestet begin by
declaration that poetry of the earth is not dead
Since it has an octave and a sestet, it is an Italian/
Petrarchan sonnet
the octave (8 lines)
(line 1-8) focuses on the
grasshopper as an agent
of summer
Sestet (6 lines). lines 9-14)
looks at the role played by the
cricket.
Themes are underlying ideas found in a poem
1.Beauty of nature and presence of God.
This sonnet describes the physical world and its natural beauty. It
is about the communication animals have with nature. The
natural sounds are the voices of nature, and nature speaks to us
through them.
2.Hope. This sonnet is about hope. The poetry of earth symbol-
izes beauty and endurance. Like the poetry of the earth, hope
does not die. Conditions may be harsh, but they can be over-
On the grasshopper and the cricket come.
1 The Poetry of earth is never dead: a 3.Immortality One of the themes of this sonnet is the eternal
delight of the beauty of nature. The sonnet’s message is that
2 When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, b beauty of nature, endurance of life and love of poetry will never
end.
3 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run b
4 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; a
5 That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead a
The rhyme scheme is the repeat-
6 In summer luxury,—he has never done b ed sound at the end of each line.
7 With his delights; for when tired out with fun b The rhyme scheme of the octave
is abba abba
8 He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. a
9 The poetry of earth is ceasing never: c
10 On a lone winter evening, when the frost d
11 Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills e
12 The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, c
13 And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, d
14 The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills. e
The rhyme scheme of the sestet
is cde cde
Tone and Mood (atmosphere)
Joyful/merry: the sounds made from the calls of the birds
and the buzz of insects create a celebratory mood
18
 Enjambment
Line 1-2
This when an idea is continued from one line to the next. With this in
Line 1 ‘When all the birds are faint with the hot
mind some lines in a poem might not make complete sense if they are
sun,
read as individual lines This is a decla-
ration. And hide in cooling trees…’

Metaphor-It is a direct comparison of two During the day in summer the sun is so hot
things. In (line 1) sounds in nature are taken to that the birds feel weak, so they hide in the
be poetry tree shade.

‘The Poetry of earth’

On the grasshopper and the cricket
Nature makes sounds. These sounds come from 1 The Poetry of earth is never dead:
calling , buzzing and chirping of animals and
insects 2 When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, Line 6 & 7 & 8 Personification

-These sounds are poetry of the earth. 3 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run He grasshopper is referred to as
‘he’ and ‘his’
4 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
Line 3-4 ‘...A voice will run...mow-mead’
5 That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown
( where the grass was recently cut) mead 6 In summer luxury,—he has never done
Line 9 shows the shift from summer to winter,
(meadow/pasture/paddock to another
7 With his delights; for when tired out with fun It is a declaration.

8 He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. When winter comes with frost and snow, and
Line 5-8 when animals hide in their homes, the cricket
9 The poetry of earth is ceasing never: sounds will not stop.
It is the grasshopper who takes over in summer,

in the summer’s happiness he never stops his joy, when he 10 On a lone winter evening, when the frost Poetic license– this is permission that poets have
is tired from having fun to break the grammatical rules when writing in
11 Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills order to arrange words differently from the normal
He takes a break underneath some plants way and achieve a poetic effect like rhyme.
12 The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
Line 9 ‘The poetry of earth is ceasing never’
13 And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, should be The poetry if the earth never ceases.
The clines ends with ‘never’ in order to follow the
14 The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
rhyme scheme

Line 9-14

On a lonely evening in winter when the cold

Personification
Has brought silence, a cricket’s chirping can be heard from
somewhere near the stove in he raising warmth (Line 10 and 11) ‘...when frost has wrought a silence’

Frost is personified as a person who brings silence

It seems to someone who is half asleep

That it is a grasshopper that is chirping among the hills

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Line 1 -a describes fast-flowing dark
stream (burn).
-‘darksome’ is a word the poet in-
vented to describe the colour of the
stream (burn).
the use of the word ‘horseback’ cre-
ates an image of the stream flowing
fast like a horse running down
Line 2
-‘rollrock’ is a combination of the words
‘rock’ and ‘roll’ to emphasise the speed of
the stream; it is flowing so fast that some
rocks are dislodged and rolling down.
-The poet uses the words ‘roaring down’ to
imitate the speed and sound of the stream.
Line 6 and 7 ‘twindles’ describes as calm pace
‘broth’ creates an image of a soup which is
dark in colour ‘broth of a pool’ should be read
together as the poet makes use of enjambment
(run-on line) to link the description the colour
‘the broth/Of a pool’ is ‘pithcblack’, which is vry
dark ‘Despair’ is written with a capital letter.
The poet personifies it implying that as the pool
‘rounds and round’ (going in circles), ‘féll-
frówning’ is a compound word invented by The
speaker. It refers to the hills looking down on the
pool appearing to be frowning
Line 11 and 12 in these two lines the vegetation
growing on the banks of the stream, is described
by using words like ‘wiry’ and ‘flitches’, the
vegetation is described as plants that can with-
stand extreme weather situation. on the banks
of the stream ash trees are covered with berries
grow
The poem praises a stream . The poem
was written at the during the Industrial
Line 3 and 4
Revolution in England and Scotland and
-when the stream reaches a pool it is contained (‘coop’)
the poet requests that such places
should not be destroyed by the process
-the force of the water tumbling down leaves a residue of foam
of industrialisation. The poet praises the
that resembles wool (‘fleece’) covering (‘comb’) the pool
special and unique beauty of the of the
world.
-he energy of the river is now ‘cooped up’ in a rockpool and
the water gently ‘combs’ over the rocks and falls to the lake
-‘flute’ creates an image of a narrowing in the stream before it
continues to the lake which is its ultimate destination (‘home’)
Inversnaid by GM Hopkins
1 This darksome burn, horseback brown, Line 5
2 His rollrock highroad roaring down,
-the foam covering the pool
3 In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam like a bonnet made of foam
4 Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
- the foam is fawn coloured
which is a coined ‘fawn-froth’
5 A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
6 Turns and twindles over the broth
7 Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
Line 9 and 10 the sides (‘groins’) of the hills
(‘braes’) through which the small stream (‘brook’)
8 It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning
flows, are wet (‘degged’ and ‘dappled’ from the
dew. the use of enjambment, effectively creates
9 Degged with dew, dappled with dew a mental picture of the stream flowing at a calm
pace the stream is personified as a person
10 Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads throug,
walking along leisurely.
11 Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
12 And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn
Line 13 and 14 the stanza
13 What would the world be, once bereft opens with a rhetorical question
this poetic device introduces a
14 Of wet and of wildness? Let them be yet,
change in mood The speaker
15 O let them be left, wildness and wet;
emphasises the importance of
16 Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. Nature The speaker makes a
plea to his fellow men to leave
Nature to run its course
the repetition of ‘let them be left’ emphasis his earnestness for
the preservation of Nature. the use of ‘O’ invokes a pleading
tone the inversion of ‘wildness and wet’, emphasises the im-
portance of the natural state of Nature he ends the poem with a
rallying cry where the alliteration serves to emphasis the call to
arms: ‘Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet’
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 Metaphor

The colour of the river is compared to

Alliteration
the brown colour of a horse. (line 1)
-The alliteration of the ‘b’, emphasises
the dark colour of the river.

Personification—giving human quality to an object

-The stream is personified by being called with pro-
noun ‘his’
Metaphor
Inversnaid by GM Hopkins
The foam on the pond is compared to
1 This darksome burn, horseback brown, the fleece of a sheep. (line 3)
2 His rollrock highroad roar ing down,
Metaphor 3 In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam

The foam floating on the pond is compared to the 4 Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

bonnet of a lady (line 5) Metaphor

5 A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth ‘Despair’ is compared to a person drowning. (line 8)

6 Turns and twindles over the broth

7 Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,

Metaphor 8 It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning

The dark pond is compared to a ‘broth’ or soup. (line 6-

7) 9 Degged with dew, dappled with dew Rhetorical question

…”broth …”
10 Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads throug, In line 13-16, The speaker asks a rhetorical ques-
11 Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, tion, wanting to know what the world would be
of a pool…” (not living) be if it was robbed of Nature. World
12 And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn
here refers to mankind, life

13 What would the world be, once bereft

Alliteration 14 Of wet and of wildness? Let them be yet,

15 O let them be left, wildness and wet;

The repetition of ‘w’ forces the reader to
think about the question. 16 Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Themes
Tone and Mood The tone in the first Natural wonder The speaker is in awe of the beauty of Nature. He ex-
three stanzas is appreciative but in the presses it through newly-coined words like ‘darksome’, rollrock,’ fáwn-
last stanza it becomes questioning when fróth. By using alliteration, he makes the reader hear the sounds in Nature.
he questions the wisdom of the progress
of the Industrial Revolution. The preservation of Nature The speaker is concerned that the Indus-
trial revolution might destroy Nature because mankind was more concerned
with prosperity. He therefore starts stanza 4 with a rhetorical question

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 In this poem, the speaker looks at how Line 1
words come freely at times, and how they
hide when the poet really needs them. Hard to find Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement which not meant to be taken
literally “Words are everywhere”

by Sinesipo Jojo - The availability of words is exaggerated using ‘everywhere’ which

indicates an abundance that is a result of reading. The speaker highlights
Type and Form The poem ‘Hard to find’ is a
1. Words are everywhere that there are plenty of words.
free verse which represents the emotions
that the poet experiences. The mixture of 2. daily Line 2 is a one word line. It stresses
long and short lines creates stanzas that
how words are available every day.
portray the speaker’s mixed feelings. 3. we read them, and they fly out
4. like nobody’s business when we are provoked…
Lines 5-7 The use of ellipsis (…) emphasiz-
es the lack of words since the ellipsis
shows that words are missing .
5. but there’s always something hard to understand… lines 3-4 “...and they fly out

like nobody’s business when we are pro-

- The heart is personified a person some-
voked… “
one who is in need. 6. they are hard to find
-when generated by emotion (passion/ anger).
7. when they are needed by the heart; -The ellipsis after ‘provoked…’ stresses unend-
ing flow of words when one has been angered
line 7 The heart as a symbol of
8. when the heart feels,
emotion - “like nobody’s business” is a statement that
9. words hide like they are not part of life. shows intensity

Lines 8-9 10. While words are busy playing some twisted game
Personification line 8 of the heart . The heart is
made to experience feelings just like people.
11. my heart looks sadly through the glass windows Line 10

Personification
Personification line 9 words are said to be able hide 12. as the raindrops slowly slide down, gently
Words are described as ‘busy
Lines 8-10 extend personification; ‘heart feels’, ‘words 13. on a cloudy lifetime,
hide’ the heart is made to experience feelings as if playing some twisted game’
human and words are unable to come out. 14. hoping that one day,

Line 11
Personification 15. words will realize what my heart wants to say
Line 11
Metaphor –The heart is taken to be a sad person
who is looking out through a window on a rainy day
‘My heart looks sadly’ is another example of
personification in which the heart is said to be sad
-The heart metaphorically looks sadly 17 ‘through
the glass windows as the raindrops slowly slide
down, gently’.

-The raindrops symbolize the speaker’s tears This

Line 13 suggests that the speaker is deeply hurt by the
inability to find words.
-This word “cloudy” shows the gloomy
and somber atmosphere ( mood) in the
poem
Tone and Mood

Sadness: the speaker is disappointed

because she cannot her/his thoughts and
feelings because words are unavailable .

Hopeful (in the last 2 lines): the speaker

expresses a wish that words will one day
become aware of what his/her her heart
wants to say.

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