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In this article you will get the 5th Sem English study material with in-text solved questions. Given below is the list of chapters/units whose study material with solved textbook questions have been uploaded. Remaining part will be uploaded soon. Stay connected with us & share with your friends also.
Content:-
Part I: In Arabic by Agha Shahid Ali
Part II: Forest of Europe
Part III: Marget Atwood A Sad Child I
Part IV: Marget Atwood A Sad Child II
Part V: On the Abolition of the English Depatment
Part VI: A Far Cry from Africa
Part VII: A CITY’S DEATH BY FIRE
Let's Read:
Part I
In Arabic by Agha Shahid AliShort Answer
Q. Why is Arabic “a language of loss”
Ans:- Arabic is a language of loss because of its complexities and twisted calligraphy. This appears very difficult for the narrator to appreciate its glory. The poet indicates towards the language of Arabic with certain glories but we do not practise these glories into the literary forms. Arabic language is part and parcel of first Asian culture then the Islamic culture. Unfortunately, there is a distant gap between the language and its hereditary speakers. This compels the poet to switch towards the globally prevalent English language in the field of literary expressions. This binds the poet to exercise the Genre of Ghazal in English language.
Q.In the 5th couplet, why is memory “on longer confused?
Ans:- In the fifth couplet, while referring to Shamas, the poet asserts developed consciousness. He has recovered the full – fledged facet of his homeland projected through the language of Arabic. Arabic has made the history rich especially history of Middle East literature. The non – native speakers of Arabic language used it without any bias. The poet tries to assert that in the present scenario, with the contribution of their own post colonial literature they gave the real picture of the oriental civilization. So, presenting this argument, the poet claims that memory is no longer confused.
Q.Comment on the use of refrain ‘In Arabic”.
Ans:- Refrain is a characteristic feature of Ghazal writing that originated in Arabic language. In every couplet Ghazal the last word or syllable of the second line is rhymed. In the same manner the words, ‘In Arabic’ are repeated in order to enforce the determination and identity of Arabic language. The word ‘Arabic’ in the refrain of the poem “in Arabic” presents not only the linguistic glory but also the metaphorical representation of his identity in general and Islamic identity in particular.
Q. What does the poet mean by braiding of the Qasidas in Arabic in the 6th couplet?
Ans:- While referring to the Spanish playwright and poet Garcia lorca, the poet highlights the literary power of Qasidas written by him Arabic language. In the sixth couplet, referring to the braiding of the Qasidas, the poet zooms on the distinguished composition and grand ideas expressed in the Qasidas. The uniqueness of Qasidas makes them the whole and apparently indivisible. This shows the appeal of the Qasidas across the other literary genres of the world languages.
Long Answer
Q. Explain how Agha Shahid Ali invests a new vigour into the classical form?
Ans:- Shahid Ali wrote many Ghazala in English manifesting his rare linguistic dexterity by mingling an essentially eastern poetic style with the English language. His Ghazals are market with a stylistic finesse, epigrammatic compression, elliptical thinking, literary and cultural allusiveness, word-paly and wit.
Ali is better known in the United States than he is in India or Pakistan. His writing is thickly influenced by the Persian – Urdu tradition so his style could be called “Ghazalesque”. He enriched the domain of contemporary English poetry by drawing on his multi-cultural locations. He blended the rhythms and forms of the Indo-Islamic tradition with a distinctly American approach to storytelling. Most of his poems are not abstract considerations of love and longing, but rather concrete accounts of important personal and political events. He was also intensely interested in geography, and often blended the landscapes of America with those of Kashmir.
Q. How does “In Arabic’ manifest the poet’s multiple cultural locations? Illustrate from the text.
Ans:- ‘In Arabic’ is divided into twelve couplets each ending with the refrain ‘In Arabic’. The couplets are taken from separate contexts but are united by themes of loss, longing, cultural identity and the need for affirmation. In ‘In Arabic’, Ali skilfully manages to convey his cross cultural affiliations, his nostalgia and the desire to affirm Islamic, Arabic and Persian heritage. The poet of ‘In Arabic’ is at pains to affirm individual as well as cultural memory through a range of allusions. The sacrifice of prophet Ishmael by his father prophet Abraham affirms its Islamic lineage. The reference to the Holy Koran prophesying a fire of men and stones could be read as his reading of contemporary violence of history through an Islamic framework. There is a veiled reference to Kashmir. Kashmir is mentioned in the sixth couplet in which he admires the handiwork on the miniature – a coming together of kashmiri paisley and Arabic. There is further reference to destruction and erasure in the allusions to the Palestinian poet Shammas who wrote poetry in Arabic – an act of territorialization in the face of what Ali calls ‘each confusion’.
Part II
Forest of Europe
Short Answer:
Q. How does the opening of the poem evoke the feelings of desolation and dislocation?
Ans:- The opening of the poem evokes the feelings of desolation and dislocation through the graphic description of the scene that is not captivated and interesting. The last leaves are falling itself evokes the feeling of dislocation. The music made by the felling of leaves is not catchy one but awkward. The winter forest presents a very hapless and unpleasant scene. It looks like empty Orchestra. The poet presents the scene where oval shaped leaves fall on the snow like scribing on the snow. Overall the description of the desolated scene through various images evokes the feelings of dislocation and desolation.
Q. Why does the poet feel that there is no safe haven for the poet when Osip Mandustam and Gulag Archipelago are mentioned.
Ans:- The poem “Forests of Europ’s explores the experience of exile and alienation with particular reference to poets across cultures. The poets are dislocated from their birth places because explore the cruel treatment of humanity by selfish social watch dogs. When they are exiled, they are not given human treat meant by the diasporas societies. So both the places, for the revolutionary poets, are desolated. The poets refers to the Russian poet and essayist Osip Mandelstam who was imprisoned by soviet authorities and in 1930 only because he gave voice to oppressed class. Likewise he refers to Gulag Archipelago, a book that witnesses the cruel treatment in the forced labour lamp of which its author Solzhenitsyn was himself a victim. Remembering these two authors and there wretched life, the poet feels that there is no safe heaven for the poet.
Q. Why is the poet’s sense of alienation heightened with the lines “Watching the river mist ….. not with poets ……”
Ans:- ‘Forest of Europe’ is a poem in which the exiled poet Derrick Walcott expresses his anguish and traumatic experience of exiled poets. The poet explores the pain of dislocation along with the sense of alienation in a diasporas land in these lines. The poem explores the experience of exile and sense of alienation across culture. In these quoted lines the alienation effect heightens because European societies also offer a cold heart to poets. Although poetry is a sacrificial work but still the power lies in the hands political sovereigns. He finds no relief to his pain in a European country. He asserts that both European and non European counties are ruled by despotic rulers where lovers of humanity are treated with utter cruelty.
Q. What kind of sustenance does the poet draw from last stanza of the poem?
And:- Derrick Walcott believes that artistic creation is a sacrificial work. He believes that artistic work demands hard labour so it is no less than a sacrifice. But despite his attitude towards poetic art, with somber reflection, he believes that poets bring no significant change. In the last stanza there is an optimistic note that his poems will serve as a beacon like those of Mandelstam did for him and his friends. The poet says that at least they will exchange guttural in the winter cave. In exile his poetry will depict the alienation effect and other problem that all diasporas writers so that it will serve as beacon for his friends who share the same history and same fate.
Long Answer:
Q. Comment on the poem as an exploration of the theme of exile and alienation.
Ans:- ‘Forest of Europe’ is written by Derrick Walcott for his friend Joseph Brodsky. Joseph Brodsky was a great exiled poet of Russia. The poem explores the experience of exile and alienation with particular experience to poets across cultures. For a poet alienated from his history and heritage language becomes an instrument of survival. The exiled poet remembers and reveres his stories and songs. Referring directly to American and Russian histories, the poet links the alienation of poets to the inhuman and debased treatment to humanity by the society. The alienation – effect heightens when the poet mentions that European societies also offer a cold heart to exiled poets. Although poetry is a sacrificial work but still the power lies in the hands of political sovereigns. He finds no relief to his pain in a European. Country. He asserts that both European and non – European countries are ruled by despotic rulers where loves of humanity are treated with utter cruelty. He uses all types of words in order to show his anger for European, American or Caribbean societies. The opening of the poem evokes the feeling of desolation and dislocation through the graphic description of the scene that is not captivated and interesting. The last leaves are falling itself evokes the feeling of dislocation. The music made by the felling of leaves is not catchy one but awkward. The winter forest presents a very hapless and unpleasant scene. It looks like empty Orchestra. Here, the exiled community is compared with winter forest. By the end of the poem the poet asserts that poetry cannot bring any revolution but his poetry like Mandelstam’s can at least become a relief for the exiled community.
Q. What does poetry mean and what is required for great poetry according to the poet?
Ans:- According to Walcott poetry is the artistic use of language where feelings and grievance are evoked in an effective manner. Like his fellow poets like Mandelstam and Brodsky, Walcott is a preacher of Methodism. Methodists believe in the philosophy which would help to uplift the downtrodden. So through poetry poets must be able to imbibe in people the ways of living not escapism. Although the poet believes that poetry cannot bring any significant change but at least it should help by encouraging them to combat with worst situations. Moreover Walcott believed that great poetry needs hard labour. It is no less than a sacrifice. He urges in the poet that great poetry is the fruit of the painful labour. According to poet poetry should be good and useful. It must be composed in such a manner it must become oral and pass from one person to other. According to him great poetry requires universality. It must become voice of the people. Walcott believe that when artistic creation is made by hard labour it will become immortal. In this poem he writes.
Form hand to mouth across centuries the bread that last when systems are decayed.
Part III
Margret Atwood
A Sad Child
Short answer:
Q. Comment on the stanza of the poem?
Ans:- The opening stanza of the poem touches the universal trait of the human beings i.e, sadness. In the poem the speaker says to the child that sadness is inevitable to the child. Without giving any proper reason of her sadness, the speaker begins to advise some remedies to cope up with her sadness. The speaker in the poem suggests that she should go to a psychiatrist or take a tablet go to sleep. The final remedy is that she should embrace and assimilate her sadness just like doll’s eyes are assimilated in the doll itself. The final remedy suggested by the speaker captures her main intention. It can do some good to her. According to speaker when something is unavoidable it is better to embrace it.
Q. What is the symbolic interpretation of the images, new dress smeared with Ice-cream, flushed with the and ‘mouth sulky with Suger’.
Ans:- There images represent the gender stereotypes of the society. The image ‘new dress smeared with ice-cream’ symbolically presents the patriarchal society where females are marked by the black sports in their character. In the patriarchal society, a grown up child begins to realize how her innocent character is marked by blackness like new dresses smeared with ice-cream in the society. Symbolically these images expose the disparity that starts when a girl child begins to realize that her feelings hurt in the society. She begins to question the existence of God. It is like a neighborhood party, where feelings get hurt and she comes inside, flushed with the sun and sulky with sugar. Flushed with the sun means she begins to realize the patriarchal nature of society. ‘mouth sulky with sugar’ symbolically represents her anger which she is unable to share with anybody.
Q. What are the different means suggested by the speaker that will help the child cop[e with her sadness?
Ans:- The speaker in the poem suggests the following means that will help the child to cope with her sadness:
She should go to a psychiatrist.
She Should take a tablet.
She should go to sleep
She should embrace and assimilate her sadness just like doll’s eyes are assimilated in the doll itself.
Q. How is the little girl’s emotional loss shown to be a collective experience?
Ans:- Little girl’s emotional loss as a collective experience has been shown by the speaker by hinting at the gender stereotypes associated with girls. Further in the last stanza, this collective experience is related with the death images that emphasizes on the universal nature of emotional loss of women. The speaker does not suggest any particular remedy that would eradicate her existentialistic fears. The poem is concerned with coming to terms, with, what are in themselves depressing feelings, by trying to find the means of making them bearable.
Long Answer:
Q. Elucidate the theme of the poem.
Ans:- The theme of this poem is to have faith during times of desperation.
In Margaret Atwood’s poem “A Sad Child”, the poet uses simplistic diction, imagery, and figurative language in order to express one’s ideas or feelings about experiencing depression. The speaker, possibly Atwood, uses these literary techniques as a basis of coping with the inevitable occurrences in life, which is influenced by sadness, as the title would suggest. The opening line also suggests this idea as it says “You’re sad because you’re sad.” The speaker is suggesting that sadness is inescapable as it is “psychic. It is age. It is chemical”.
The speaker suggests all children are sad, though some get over it, as it is a natural part of life. Throughout the poem the speaker develops ways of coping with this sadness as she suggests seeing a shrink or “hug your sadness like an eyeless doll”. This simile suggests that a child unwillinging hugs the eyeless doll. Child looks to an innocent doll as a means of escaping the misery. The speaker also looks more so to the materialistic things in life, like buying a hat, coat, or pet and hopes to forget the sadness. The speaker also suggests taking on a physical task, like dancing, as another way to deal with the pain. Although, the speaker tries to keep an optimistic point of view as she suggests, “count your blessings”.
To conclude, the speaker states, “none of us is; or else we all are”, which suggests that unfortunately either we are all effected by depression or not, which adds to the idea that depression is universal. Through the use of diction, imagery, and figurative language, the speaker stresses the idea that although depression is inescapable when consumed by it, there are ways to cope with the sadness.
Q. ‘An eyeless doll’ is an unwanted toy and yet the speaker suggests to the child to deal with her sadness by hugging such a doll. Comment.
Ans:- Suggesting various remedies to cope with sadness, Margret Atwood emphasizes that the child should embrace an eyeless doll. An eyeless doll is an unwanted toy but the suggestion of the speaker comments that sadness is inevitable and inescapable. One must learn to make good situation out of the bad experiences. To embrace an eyeless doll is to accept the social reality where one cannot escape from a gender stereotypes. According to speaker when something is unavoidable it is better to embrace it. One can at least overtake them by various remedial measures. One cannot have a liking of sadness but at the same time one cannot escape them. If we try to question the reason behind our sadness and will waste more energy on the exploration of this reality, one cannot have any enjoyment in the life. It is better to accept the reality that sadness is part of our existence. So the repulsion can cause more harm than it brings the comfort. The poem itself concerns with coming terms with, what are in themselves depressing feelings, by trying to find the means of making them bearable. More over the speaker reminds the child that she has to encounter so many situations in future that will bring the emotional loss in her. So from the beginning, she must have the habit of hugging these unfavorable situations. In the last the speaker states that none of us can escape. We all are in one- way or other way sad. This suggests that unfortunately either we are all affected by depression or not, which adds to the idea the depression is universal. Through the use of diction, imagery, and figurative language, the speaker stresses the idea that depression is inescapable, so we have to embrace it.
Q. The speaker for from consoling the child assures her that she will encounter many future situations that will remind her she is ‘not favorite’ way does the speaker do so?
Ans:- “A women is not born but she is made so”, is the reason for the speaker to assure the girl child that she will encounter many future situations that will make her understand that she is not the favorite child. The speaker asserts that depressions, disappointments and frustrations are fundamental for women in the society. In the future events, she would begin to realize the gender stereotypes associated with women. In the third stanza the speaker uses a metaphor and states, “the light fails and the fog rolls in and you’re trapped in your overturned body”. This statement suggests that her female existence will entrap her and make her more miserable. The speaker tries to enlighten her mind by bringing these stereotypes before her. The girl child must be prepared since her childhood to encounter such realities. This very realization could possibly make her bold to face such situations in future.
Q. Comment on Atwood’s use of death images is the last two stanzas.
Ans:- The poetry of Atwood is permeated by the overriding theme of loss, which is either caused by or else leads to aging, grief, death and depression. A sad child revolves round the perennial dilemma faced by every child on coming of age. When they realize that bad and unfair things can happen to good and innocent people, they start to question the indoctrinated belief in a beneficent god. The poem is concerned with coming to terms with what are in themselves depressing feelings by trying to find the means of making them bearable. The girl child is reminded of the future situations where her emotional loss will be imminent inescapable.
In the last stanza the death images introduced in order to give the answer to those questions which people would ask to the God. The speaker states that although females have to go through different situations where they are subjugated and marginalized due to gender stereotypes. But in the end all have to meet the same destiny that is death. This image suggests that these gender stereotypes are manmade not God Made. Again Margaret Atwood suggests that it is not God that makes the women to suffer in the society but the culture, social and artificial doctrines made by the man. God has put equal efforts to make both genders. He has made the biological differences in order to make the society balanced one. If these would have been differences from God then death would not have treated both genders equally.
Part IV
MARGARET
Your lungs fill & spread themselves,
wings of pink blood, and your bones
empty themselves and become hollow.
When you breathe in you’ll lift like a balloon
and your heart is light too & huge,
beating with pure joy, pure helium.
The sun’s white winds blow through you,
there’s nothing above you,
you see the earth now as an oval jewel,
radiant & seablue with love.
It’s only in dreams you can do this.
Waking, your heart is a shaken fist,
a fine dust clogs the air you breathe in;
the sun’s a hot copper weight pressing straight
down on the think pink rind of your skull.
It’s always the moment just before gunshot.
You try & try to rise but you cannot.
Margaret is communicating the struggles you may have throughout your life through the concept of flying. When birds fly, it is a symbol of freedom. We all have the desire to “fly inside” our own bodies. The joy we experience when we dream is comparable to becoming a bird. This poem is about how our dreams liberate us, but reality can eliminate this freedom. She reminds us that flying is only possible in our dreams. So, when we are awake and experiencing things in our lives that may be difficult, our dreams are put on hold. It starts off by talking about being free and flying, but this can only happen in your dreams. In an instant, we are brought back to the reality of the world and how it may seem like we cannot do everything that we wish we could. When you wake up, your dreams are destroyed, and seem impossible. She presents the frustration of dealing with obstacles by talking about the obstacles that birds go through: dust clogging the air that you breathe, hot sun beating down on you, and the final gunshot that brings you down. When you are dreaming, you feel like the world is below you, and you can accomplish anything. It is beautiful to you, when things are going as planned, and when you free your mind. This poem shows how important it is to dream, and how we are much happier when we have an open mind. However, it is up to you how you want to deal with the obstacles that come along with it. Margaret offers both sides an equal part: reality vs. imagination.
Margaret uses literary devices such as imagery, symbolism, and analogies in her poem to induce emotion in her readers. The main image she creates in her poem is flying. She uses descriptive language to show what atmosphere she is imagining, such as when she says “The sun’s white winds blow through you,” and “the sun’s a hot copper weight”. This gives reader a feel of what the environment feels like. In the beginning of the poem, Margaret creates a picture in our mind about what it would be like for someone to become a bird. She covers aspects of hollowing bones to your heart beating with helium. Another example of imagery is when she creates the image of the earth. The white winds and the earth being an oval jewel, radiant with love shows that the environment is serene and tranquil. The symbolism in this poem is comparing birds to humans. When people dream, she believes it feels like you are flying. The concept of reality is disguised as dust clogging the bird’s airways and the sun beating down on their fragile skull. Margaret’s poem is an analogy. She wants to describe what it is like to dream, and deal with reality and she uses the analogy of flying. Being a bird, flying over the world is much like the sensation you get when you follow your dreams. However, there is another side to her poem. Reality can also be an obstacle. We can imagine what it is like for a bird to breathe in clogged air and having a heart like a shaken fist. Her analogy allows us to explore something unfamiliar through a simple process of how a bird flies. This poem is not directly stating her ideas. She leaves it up to the reader to interpret what her poem is about, and starts us off by describing the freeing experience of dreaming vs. the interruption of “waking up”.
The analogy of hollow bones could be seen as open paths for someone to travel, which also relates to the aspect of freedom, not just necessarily the structure for wings. The colour pink, used many times throughout the poem, was related to innocence, and childhood, the tender skin of a new-born child. The helium reference means that the person is literally buoyant, feeling completely happy. Also, when the heart is mentioned as a shaking fist, this shows that in reality we are less kind to our loved ones, and shorter tempered. Finally, some say that the ending concludes all the tough times we endure through life, and once the bullet enters the brain, death, we are ceased to be. We are left alone, and that is it. There are many things to think about when reading this poem. The beauty of poetry is that most of it is left up to the imagination of anyone who reads it. The authors plant ideas in our head, and provide a mysterious explanation to how they may feel sometimes. We can always relate to a poem because there are so many ways to interpret them.
Part V
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
On the Abolition of the English Depatment
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, born 5 January 1938, is a Kenyan writer, formerly working in English and now working in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. In the United States, he taught at Yale University for some years, and has since also taught at New York University, with a dual professorship in Comparative Literature and Performance Studies, and at the University of California, Irvine. Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1972, nine years after Kenya declared its independence from England, Ngugi published a paper forwarding the restructuring of the departments of the University of Nairobi. In "On the Abolition of the English Department," Ngugi argues simultaneously for replacing a traditional English department with a Department of African Literature and Languages. To place Africa in the center requires a curriculum that teaches from an African perspective, in which African literature is an essential component.
Ngugi's emphasis that Africans should use their own literature both to understand their culture and to create continuity with their past also appears in the writings of post-colonial authors. Literature is essential in creating a truly historical consciousness. The articulation of history can empower the present, strength can be found in the myths of the past. The telling of these inspired stories has the power to establish a bond between the reader and the past, through the recognition of common goals, common obstacles, and common solutions.
As the concerns were focused on the developments in the Arts Faculty which practically involved the English Department, Ngugi has given a plausible proposal that not only supports the traditional forms of art in Africa but also diverts the focus, instead of English and other western writings, toward the study of African culture, history, language and literature. They proposed that the English Department be abolished and that the Department of African Literature and Languages be erected as replacement. Ngugi, in his paper, has clearly stated that they do not reject other cultures as these have been the primary source of modern African literature. With this concerned improvement, they have recommended to study on languages and linguistics as these make up literature. In this sense, the old and the new are merged in the course to produce a new form of study in the department that enriches the roots and acknowledges the contemporary. From a Eurocentric program, they propose to put Africa as the center. Education has been used as an avenue to retrieve lost national identity.
Primarily, the concern of the paper criticized by Ngugi and his colleagues are on the possible developments in the English Department which are the following as stated in the commentary paper:
i) the place of modern languages, especially French;
ii) the place and role of the Department of English;
iii) the emergence of a Department of Linguistics and Languages; and lastly,
iv) the place of African languages, especially Swahili.
These are all centered in the influential western practice in literature and language that has been implemented for a long time in Africa. It is quite saddening to only have African languages as a supplementary study in the course. Yet, the neocolonialist embraces the language used in the modern writings in Africa. It is essential to open a department which focuses on language and linguistics as these are inseparable and that, when put together, greatly affect literature. However, English would have subtly become the primary essential language needed by Africans and would eventually overtake all the African languages as they are deemed unimportant. Hence, the mother tongue would be a foreign language in form of English. In an institution, it is rightful that one chooses to establish and build up the language and literature that is used by the nation it serves for its learners to better understand as they are familiar to such.
English asserts its power over the academe as it degrades the chance of having a separate study on the nation’s very literature. The Abolition of the English Department will pave the way to unmask the colonized Africa. It will not fully regain its former identity but it will reveal a new one as it has a mixture of languages and literatures.
In the abolition of the English Department, there has to be a more promising replacement for the university. It is their very own Department of African Literature and Languages that clearly represent what is valued in the educational community, in the society. The literature department primary represents what writings should be esteemed by the learners as anchored on their very culture and history. In turn, through the materials produced by their very own challenge their current status which is that of the western influence. Interestingly, they do not only develop the existing works but they also involve to immerse with the new ones. Through this establishment, the lens used in studying in an African university is that of a legitimate African. To be able to understand other forms of literature, one must understand first one’s own. In the language department, none is fully eliminated but all are acknowledged and enriched. First, the modern African literatures are in English, French and Portuguese; geographically, in East Africa, Swahili, Arabic and Asian are used; and, most significantly, the oral African tradition is very much alive. Since these are already the languages the students and the university are accustomed, there is incorporation in the department. However, all other languages that are not African should only be considered as an elective subject as they should not be mandatory. The university has an obligation to address the needs of the society in East Africa, so, this should also be given more attention. Without neglect for the emerging forms of literature, the department adds on selected courses in European literature so as to see through another lens that is rampantly used in today’s time. Literature taught should be writings that mirror what is happening in the real context of Africa.
Conclusion
The commentary paper of Ngugi is a representation that one should first assert one’s identity to be recognized in the world. Through the educational system, one may embed the culture and values of a nation. A nation’s language, as a means to understanding literature, will represent one’s views and ideas about life based on how they use it as part of their lifestyle. Educational institutions should embody the ideals of the country they are serving. Through the assimilation of the old practices to the new innovations in education, it is possible to build a fresher form that may support seemingly lost traditions and mix up with contemporary ones.
Part VI
A Far Cry from Africa by Derek Walcott
deals with the theme of split identity and anxiety caused by it in the face of the struggle in which the poet could side with neither party. It is, in short, about the poet’s ambivalent feelings towards the Kenyan terrorists and the counter-terrorist white colonial government, both of which were 'inhuman', during the independence struggle of the country in the 1950s. The persona, probably the poet himself, can take favor of none of them since both bloods circulate along his veins. He has been given an English tongue which he loves on the one hand, and on the other, he cannot tolerate the brutal slaughter of Africans with whom he shares blood and some traditions. His conscience forbids him to favour injustice. He is in the state of indecisiveness, troubled, wishing to see peace and harmony in the region. Beginning with a dramatic setting, the poem "A Far Cry from Africa" opens a horrible scene of bloodshed in African territory. ‘Bloodstreams’, ‘scattered corpses,’ ‘worm’ show ghastly sight of battle. Native blacks are being exterminated like Jews in holocaust following the killing of a white child in its bed by blacks.
The title of the poem involves an idiom: “a far cry” means an impossible thing. But the poet seems to use the words in other senses also; the title suggests in one sense that the poet is writing about an African subject from a distance. Writing from the island of St. Lucia, he feels that he is at a vast distance- both literally and metaphorically from Africa. “A Far Cry” may also have another meaning that the real state of the African ‘paradise’ is a far cry from the Africa that we have read about in descriptions of gorgeous fauna and flora and interesting village customs. And a third level of meaning to the title is the idea of Walcott hearing the poem as a far cry coming all the way across thousands of miles of ocean. He hears the cry coming to him on the wind. The animal imagery is another important feature of the poem. Walcott regards as acceptable violence the nature or “natural law” of animals killing each other to eat and survive; but human beings have been turned even the unseemly animal behavior into worse and meaningless violence. Beasts come out better than “upright man” since animals do what they must do, any do not seek divinity through inflicting pain. Walcott believes that human, unlike animals, have no excuse, no real rationale, for murdering non-combatants in the Kenyan conflict. Violence among them has turned into a nightmare of unacceptable atrocity based on color. So, we have the “Kikuyu” and violence in Kenya, violence in a “paradise”, and we have “statistics” that don’t mean anything and “scholar”, who tends to throw their weight behind the colonial policy: Walcott’s outrage is very just by the standards of the late 1960s, even restrained. More striking than the animal imagery is the image of the poet himself at the end of the poem. He is divided, and doesn’t have any escape. “I who am poisoned with the blood of both, where shall I turn, divided to the vein?” This sad ending illustrates a consequence of displacement and isolation. Walcott feels foreign in both cultures due to his mixed blood. An individual sense of identity arises from cultural influences, which define one’s character according to a particular society’s standards; the poet’s hybrid heritage prevents him from identifying directly with one culture. Thus creates a feeling of isolation. Walcott depicts Africa and Britain in the standard roles of the vanquished and the conqueror, although he portrays the cruel imperialistic exploits of the British without creating sympathy for the African tribesmen. This objectively allows Walcott to contemplate the faults of each culture without reverting to the bias created by attention to moral considerations.
However, Walcott contradicts the savior image of the British through an unfavourable description in the ensuring lines. “Only the worm, colonel of carrion cries/ ‘waste no compassion on their separated dead'.” The word ‘colonel’ is a punning on ‘colonial’ also. The Africans associated with a primitive natural strength and the British portrayed as an artificially enhanced power remain equal in the contest for control over Africa and its people. Walcott’s divided loyalties engender a sense of guilt as he wants to adopt the “civilized” culture of the British but cannot excuse their immoral treatment of the Africans. The poem reveals the extent of Walcott’s consternation through the poet’s inability to resolve the paradox of his hybrid inheritance.
Part VII
A CITY’S DEATH BY FIRE Derek Walcott
About the author: Born on the island of Saint Lucia, a former British colony in the West Indies, poet and playwright Derek Walcott was trained as a painter but turned to writing as a young man. He published his first poem in the local newspaper at the age of 14. Five years later, he borrowed $200 to print his first collection, 25 Poems, which he distributed on street corners. Walcott’s major breakthrough came with the collection In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960 (1962), a book which celebrates the Caribbean and its history as well as investigates the scars of colonialism and post-colonialism. Throughout a long and distinguished career, Walcott returned to those same themes of language, power, and place. His later collections include Tiepolo’s Hound (2000), The Prodigal (2004), Selected Poems (2007), White Egrets (2010), and Morning, Paramin (2016). In 1992, Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel committee described his work as “a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”
Since the 1950s Walcott divided his time between Boston, New York, and Saint Lucia. His work resonates with Western canon and Island influences, sometimes even shifting between Caribbean patois and English, and often addressing his English and West Indian ancestry. According to Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Arthur Vogel sang, “These continuing polarities shoot an electricity to each other which is questioning and beautiful and which helps form a vision altogether Caribbean and international, personal (him to you, you to him), independent, and essential for readers of contemporary literature on all the continents.” Known for his technical control, erudition, and large canvases, Walcott was, according to poet and critic Sean O’Brien, “one of the handful of poets currently at work in English who are capable of making a convincing attempt to write an epic … His work is conceived on an oceanic scale and one of its fundamental concerns is to give an account of the simultaneous unity and division created by the ocean and by human dealings with it.”
Many readers and critics point to Omeros (1990), an epic poem reimagining the Trojan War as a Caribbean fishermen’s fight, as Walcott’s major achievement. The book is “an effort to touch every aspect of Caribbean experience,” according to O’Brien who also described it as an ars poetica, concerned “with art itself—its meaning and importance and the nature of an artistic vocation.” In reviewing Walcott’s Selected Poems (2007), poet Glyn Maxwell ascribes Walcott’s power as a poet not so much to his themes as to his ear: “The verse is constantly trembling with a sense of the body in time, the self-slung across metre, whether metre is steps, or nights, or breath, whether lines are days, or years, or tides.”
Walcott was also a renowned playwright. In 1971 he won an Obie Award for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, which the New Yorker described as “a poem in dramatic form.” Walcott’s plays generally treat aspects of the West Indian experience, often dealing with the socio-political and epistemological implications of post-colonialism and drawing upon various forms such as the fable, allegory, folk, and morality play. With his twin brother, he cofounded the Trinidad Theater Workshop in 1950; in 1981, while teaching at Boston University, he founded the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. He also taught at Columbia University, Yale University, Rutgers University, and Essex University in England.
In addition to his Nobel Prize, Walcott’s honors included a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, and, in 1988, the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. He was an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in 2017.
Summary of the Poem: The poem A City’s Death by Fire by Derek Walcott is literally about a city being destroyed by a fire. This is a very lyrical poem that shows expression of sadness and loss that is brought on by the destruction of the city. The speaker is identified several times in the poem by the first person pronoun ‘I’, but it is a bit ambiguous as to who the speaker really is. It seems to be written in the point of view of a bystander, either that saw the events of the poem take place, or arrived shortly after it all to witness the aftermath of the fire. Either way, he observes all the details of the burned city with a certain incredulity and bewilderment. The narrator says “faiths that were snapped like wire” and “under a candles eye that smoked In tears”. This all is said to be due to the city’s death by fire which portrays a dark image of sadness and sorrow.
The personification in the title makes the poem all the sadder because it makes one feel for the city in a way one wouldn’t if this information was released as a news bulletin. Each line about the severity of destructions makes one feel as if it were a living thing that had died. It can be guessed in a way, when all the buildings in a city burn down all the history and memories in those buildings go down with them.
The imagery in this poem is also very strong. The metaphors provide for connections to be made. The religious imagery is obvious in this poem and shouldn’t be over looked. Right in the beginning of the play the fire is referred to as the “hot gospeller” this suggests the origin of the fire has to do with the church and religion and maybe the fire is a metaphor itself for some destructive power that “killed” the city. The metaphor “hills that were flocks of faith provides a juxtaposition between the nature world and this “wooden world” the narrator speaks of. The nature world is immune to this fire and the city, this “wooden world” is flammable. So if we are to assume the origin of the fire is religion then it makes sense that the “hills that were flocks of faith were unharmed. The narrator even talks about walking through the rubble and seeing walls still standing. He personifies them by calling them “liars” which would also be sinners because lying is a sin. While at the beginning of the poem there is a sadness about what happened, yet now you get the feeling that maybe it wasn’t all bad.
In short, the poem can be called a pro-religion poem that displays much symbolism of cleansing a world of sinners. Where the “wooden world” was our world and the “hills” is an enlightened world like heaven. The symbolism of cleansing and rebirth to start a new is all over the bible (i.e. Noah’s arch). It can be said that Walcott’s intention was to point out the unfaithfulness of some people in this world and to create another example of what could happen if all of us are unfaithful.
Textual Questions:
The title of the poem reads ‘A City’s Death…’rather than ‘A City’s destruction …What does the poet want to suggest by using such a metaphor?
Ans: The title of the poem is apt and suggestive. Being a post-colonial writer the poet was sure of rebuilding the city though the destruction has been profound and seemingly beyond renovation. The title also evokes the sense of loss and sadness. Even if all the terrible destruction and devastation of the fire has crippled the people of the city, eventually normal life will begin again and people will live on with love, acting as a living testimony to what happened. The consummation of the city invokes our imagery. The personification in the title makes the poem all the sadder because it makes one feel for the city in a way one wouldn’t if this information was released as a news bulletin. Each line about the severity of destructions makes one feel as if it were a living thing that had died. It can be guessed in a way, when all the buildings in a city burn down all the history and memories in those buildings go down with them.
Explain the expression ‘ under a candle’s eye’…within the context of the poem?
Ans: There are a few symbols in the poem. The candle mentioned in line 3 is continually referenced to throughout the poem, through word choice and metaphors. The candle can be seen as a symbol for life; as it continues to burn and whittle away, it still gives off light and goes on. It can be connected back to the last couple lines of the poem, with the leaves and hills. Though the city has been destroyed but still some hope has been left for the readers and generations to come. In the midst of darkness a candle’s ‘eye’ suggests hope and renewal.
Long answer type:
1: Comment on walcott’s distinctive use of imagery in the poem?
Ans: The imagery is dominant throughout the entire poem. The word choices and placement of the lines of poetry help to create image after image, as the speaker of the poem walks through the burned city. Images of burned buildings, ruined walls, and piles of rubble immediately spring to mind when Walcott describes the aftermath. The lines at the beginning and the end even give the readers specific pictures, even if they don’t focus on the fire. Walcott is a master and creating beautiful imagery and pictures through his word choice, structure, and tone. The clouds and the fire-like imagery associated with other images are also found in the poem. It’s like the pillar of fire in the Bible that guides the Israelites through the desert, symbolizing the hope and possibility of the future that the people of the city must have. He integrates simple words and common language into more formal and extravagant words, to create a unique blend that in many ways is similar to the goals of T.S Elliot. Walcott comes off to be a modernist/post-colonial poet, trying to create a unique art in the form of his poetry, while varying his work. In ‘A City’s Death By Fire’, Walcott uses the more serious tone, more formal language, and a different structure than some of his other works. He seeks to vary each of his works to produce a uniqueness and a specific image associated with it.
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