Poetry

James Nimmo

There was a witch,hump-backed and hooded,

Lived by herself in a burnt-out tree,

When storm winds shrieked and the moon was buried

And the dark of the forest was black as black,

She rose in the air like a rocket at sea,

Riding the wind,

Riding the night,

Riding the tempest to the moon and back.

There may be a man with a hump of silver,

Telescope eyes and a telephone ear,

Dials to twist and knobs to twiddle,

Waiting for a night when skies are clear,

To shoot from the scaffold with a blazing track,

Riding the dark,

Riding the cold,

Riding the silence to the moon and back.

Intense blue morning[D2]

promising early[D3] heat

and later[D4] in the afternoon,

heavy rain.

The bright[D5] chips 5

fly from the sharp axe

for some distance through the air,

arc,[D6]

and eternities later,

settle down in showers 10

on the dewy grass.

It is a big log:

but when you are fourteen

big logs

are what you want[D7] . 15

The wood gives off

a sweet nose-cleansing odour[D8]

which (unlike sawdust)

doesn't make one sneeze.

It sends up a thin spiral 20

of smoke[D9] which later straightens

and flutes out

to the distant sky: a signal

of some sort,

or a sacrificial[D10] prayer. 25

The wood hisses[D11] ,

The[D12] sparks fly.

And when the sun

finally[D13] shows up

in the East like some 30

latecomer[D14] to a feast

I have got two cobs of maize

ready for it.

I tell the sun to come share

with me the roasted maize 35

and the sun just winks[D15]

like a grown-up.

So I go ahead, taking big

alternate bites:

one for the sun, 40

one for me.

This one for the sun,

this one for me:

till the cobs

are just two little skeletons[D16] 45

in the sun.

Charles Mungoshi: 'Before the Sun' Profesora Diane Charo

Background

Charles Mungoshi, born in the Chivhu area of Zimbabwe in 1947, is known for his novels and short stories,and poems including prize-winning children's stories. He was the son of a farmer and in his boyhood he spent much of his time helping his parents in the fields. Often he would walk alone, herding cattle in the nearby forest. 'Almost always, the Mungoshi persona provides a private contemplative voice…with the aid of free verse and short,almost hesitant, cascading lines.There is a sense of a persona who sees without being seen and talks without rushing to suggest.'

Notes

All titles are like a handshake with the poems.In this case, we can predict something about the poem from it. The pronoun "before" with which the poem´s title starts, has a double interpretation as it can mean either time or place,so the poet presents to us a "pun" that is, a play with words that leads the readers to be open to two ways of reading the title and to expect any of the two interpretations, or the two at the same time . If we take it to indicate place, the poem is set in a place that is in front of the sun, as if it had been in honour of the sun, as if on a table that we might want to see as an altar because of the religious hints that we can find in the poem of a religious celebration .If we take it to indicate time , we can say that the poem is set in a period of time before the sun rises

In the first stanza there is a kind of a weather forecast. It is tropical climate or is he speaking metaphorically? The weather forecast given in the first stanza can be read as a metaphor for stages of life.

Surely you can explain in your own words i) ideas about youth suggested by the words "intense blue morning promising early heat" and ii) ideas about adulthood suggested by the words "later in the afternoon heavy rain". Is there relief?

The moment the poem starts it is before Dawn. It concentrates on visual images like "intense blue morning" .There are no verbs, it is all phrases not sentences.This makes you carry on reading

. It is a very sensuous poem. Touch and smell images abound.

The speaker is a 14 year old boy. He shows a great knowledge of the area. Heat and rain are what the crops need to develop.A young person also needs heat and rain.

The tone of a poem is seen in the attitude of the person speaking.In this poem we find a tone of optimism and self confidence.

In the next stanza we get a description of what he is doing. This second stanza describes wood chips flying from the log in a slow motion, the image is very precise and detailed and even the shape of the stanza communicates the action described. The single-word line "arc" has great impact because the poet makes his readers slow down in their reading and actually stop to watch the chip of wood arching in the sky.

Eternities: speaker is a very young person, because for the young people seconds are an eternity. He is impatient.He is exaggerating.

The vocabulary of this poem is deceptively simple .We say deceptively because it looks simple but it is really much more complex.The resonances of the words,are profound, as the boy, on the threshold of maturity but still a boy, communes with nature and the universe and intuits an understanding of life.

Stanza 3 :The language of this stanza is very simple but why do you think the narrator asserts "when you are fourteen big logs are what you want"? What does he mean? How does the placing of line breaks help to convey the boy's activity?

Stanza 4:What impression do the words ,"a sweet nose-cleaning smell" give you? Why do you think the comparison to sawdust is made?

Stanza 5: The boy has now chopped the wood and made the fire; this stanza describes the fire and the rising of the morning sun. Why is the stanza so much longer than the preceding stanzas?

The word "flutes" describe the straightening of the smoke spiral. What other significant connotations does the word have? the smoke rising is reminiscent of either a smoke signal or the smoke from a burnt offering.An offering is what appears in a mass, a religious celebration. In a religious celebration, the priest offers bread and wine. The wine comes in a wine glass, a kind of goblet with the shape of a flute

The smoke drifting upwards is described as "a signal of some sort, or a sacrificial prayer" suggesting the fire either carries a message or is a form of religious worship. What message might the fire carry? What type of prayer or religious idea is suggested to you? Does any type of sacrifice take place in the poem?

The sun is personified as the boy's guest, "finally shows up", "like some latecomer to a feast". Comment on the language used to describe the sun here. How is the relationship between the boy and the sun presented here? How does the boy seem to consider the sun - as a friend, an equal, or an important visitor?

Why do you think a simple meal of roasted maize cobs is alluded to as "a feast"?The idea of a sacrifice ('sacrificial prayer') is further developed in the boy's offerings of the cobs of maize to the sun.

What does the placing of line breaks help to convey about the boy's actions in this stanza?

Comment on the impact of the final words of the poem, "just two little skeletons in the sun". Do you think the word "skeletons" just relates to how the cobs look or is another idea suggested?

• It is early morning before the sun has risen; the sky promises heat and then rain. What might the significance of this be for a boy on the threshold of adult life? Think both at a literal level and at a metaphorical level.

•Consider the persona's description of the chopping of the wood in the second stanza. Read it aloud, slowly. How does the shape of the verse communicate the impact of the activity on the young boy?

What is the effect of the very short line 8?

• Look at the way the poet describes the smell and sight of the smoke. How does it reflect his mood and how does the poet communicate this to the reader?

• The smoke drifting upwards is like 'signal of some sort, or a sacrificial prayer'. Discuss your views about what the significance of this is. Does it bring in a religious dimension? Is this developed elsewhere in the poem?

• Consider how the boy interacts with the sun when it rises, looking at the way he speaks to it. What do you make of his wish to share the cobs with the sun? How does this action relate to the idea of sacrifice?

• The eaten cobs are 'two little skeletons'. What is the effect of this image? Is it an effective metaphor for how the cobs look to the boy? Are there darker meanings at work? Compare their viewpoints with others in the group.

Thematic Links with set poems

Childhood: Rising Five; Little Boy Crying; Carpet-Weavers; Morocco; Plenty

Nature and mortality: Rising Five; She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Relationship with environment: Farmhand; She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Looking at language in more detail:

1) TIME

There are many references to time in the poem. Pick out all the language relating to time, consider the words and phrases you have identified and comment on how they help to present ideas about growing up and mortality.

The Distortion of Time. defamiliarizing literary devices

Active language enables the writer to slow down events effectively. The poet manipulates the reader's sensations by using highly descriptive language and emphasizing the actions as they occur. The distortion of time is achieved by means of slowing down actions and events, enabling the process and its implications to take precedence over the act itself. The defamiliarizing technique of time distortion transforms the simple task of cutting wood by incorporating details and active language. By slowing his prose down so precisely, the poet recreates the simple act of cutting wood, adding an element of importance to the movements and sensations involved. This slowing down of actions has an important overall effect on the reader because it emphasizes the centrality of the senses and begins to inform us of the poet's admiration for the African emphasis on sensation and emotion. Thus, the boy cutting wood is meticulously described, his actions slowed down, and time magnified so that he begins to take on a hyper-real existence.

2) THE SENSES

The poem contains may words and phrases relating to the senses. Identify language describing the senses and comment on the impression given. Why do you think the poet has chosen to describe what the boy sees, hears, smells and feels in so much detail?

3) VERBS

The poem is written in the present tense. Why is this choice of verb tense particularly effective for expressing the feelings and ideas of the poem?

Although we sense that the boy is very active in the first half of the poem, chopping wood and making the fire, he is not the subject of any verbs until near the end of the poem ("I have got two cobs of maize ready for it", "I tell the sun", "I go ahead"). In the first part of the poem the wood, the smoke and finally the sun are the subject of verbs, "bright chips fly...arc...settle", "the wood gives off ...sends up", "smoke straightens and flutes out", "wood hisses", "sparks fly", "the sun finally shows up". What impression does this use of subjects and verbs in the poem give?

The verb "fly" is used twice, what feelings are evoked by the word "fly"?

5) JUST & SOME

The determiner "some" is used several times in the poem, "some distance", "of some sort", like some latecomer". "Some" gives the nouns an unspecified quality and creates an informal tone. How does the effect of "some" contribute to the ideas or atmosphere in the poem as a whole?

"Just" is used twice in the poem, "the sun just winks" and "just two little skeletons". What is the function and effect of the word "just" in these two examples and in relation to the poem as a whole?

ESSAY QUESTIONS

Comment on the way ideas about the natural world are explored in this poem.

What is your impression of the narrator's character in relation to his environment? Discuss the aspects of language and style which convey the personality, feelings and thoughts of the boy.

Write about the importance of time in the poem.

[D1]This preposition might refer to place or to time. If we want to consider it as time, it would refer to dawn.It could also refer to period in life . If we want to consider it as place ,it means in front of, in the prescence of

[D2]childhood

[D3]adolescence

[D4]old age

[D5]visual imag

[D6]one word sentence highlighs importance of wod and slows down eading

[D7]they present a challenge

[D8]smell image

[D9]smoke signal

[D10]linked to title

[D11]onomatopoeic word

[D12]

[D13]shows impatience

[D14]friendly treatment

[D15]like an adult who joins in the fun

[D16]death

Publicado por Diana Charo en 14:56

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